Looming over my veg patch is a weeping willow tree, growing happily in our sodden clay soil. It’s a majestic spectacle of gnarled bark and cascading branches sporting slender yellow-green leaves. Historically, weeping willows have been associated with sorrow, but that’s not what they symbolise to me, as their vigorous growth habit can be harnessed for the benefit of other plants I grow.
I take a fistful of fresh willow growth, strip it of its leaves and chop it into pieces before soaking it in water for a few days. The resulting solution can be used to soak softwood cuttings to help them take, and to water the young plants to encourage a strong root system.
These benefits come thanks to two substances produced by most willow trees. Indolebutyric acid is a hormone that promotes the growth of roots; and salicylic acid is a chemical that stimulates a plant’s natural defence system in the event of a pest or pathogen attack. When distilled into this easy-to-make solution, the two substances work together to support plants’ growth.
I can’t be sure how much difference my homemade tonic makes to my efforts to propagate plants, but this simple process has become an annual ritual since I arrived in a garden that’s supervised by a willow. Plus my good friend – who also happens to be the best food grower I know and works at specialist nursery The Willow Bank – swears by using willow water on her seedlings every spring.
The second half of April is when I dare to hope that the last frost has passed, so I’m making this season’s batch of willow water now, ready for when the roots of my March-sown crops meet the earth. Having said that, a late frost is still a possibility, so I’m keeping one eye on the weather and some bolts of horticultural fleece to hand. If the forecast suggests a sudden overnight chill, I’ll be ready to throw a protective cover over my young plants.
While we’re on the subject of planting out, one customary practice that I’ve ditched in recent years is hardening off spring crops (gradually exposing plants to the outdoors to ease their transition). But when it comes to tender summer crops – particularly the tomatoes, chillies and aubergines that have been growing inside the house – I will take the time to acclimatise them to the outside world. And I’ll do the same with the warm-weather loving cucurbits – courgettes, squash and cucumbers – and the runner and climbing beans whose seeds I’ll soon be sowing.
While these fussy summer plants can’t stand the cold, with the lengthening days and gathering warmth, they will soon be growing as if they’re trying to take over.
