Thursday, March 29, 2012

Wind in the willows; tales of the riverbank





Usually, the creek that winds around the garden is a trickle at the bottom of a steep, sandy mini-ravine, about six feet below the surrounding land. But when it's in flood, like this week, after a sudden downpour, it fills the ravine with raging brown water. And as torrents do, it washes away some of the bank each time.

Obviously this has been going on for a long time--as the sandy soil in the lower part of the garden and in the "green belt" bear witness. But to help the lower part of (what will eventually all be) the vegetable garden, and to provide twigs for fencing and other crafty stuff, I've started some cuttings.

These are cuttings taken from two bunches of willow branches, green and yellow, that I found at Carmichael's farmers' market a couple of weeks ago. After standing in a bucket of water, they produced their first rootlets. Now they have been cut down and potted-up, with the pots standing in saucers of water. The remainder of the branches are still immersed in the big orange bucket; maybe they'll root again.

I also have to pot up the pussy willow too. We'll have a nice variety of willows one day!

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