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MATROCK RECORDS
Story of the day
Story of the day
3/20/16
So Jesse and I took a walk down to the beach by my house, and we found that the parks service had cut down all of these willow trees.
Title. Double click me.
So I grabbed some and took them home
I sharpened the ends of the branches, pounded some holes in the ground with a stake, and drove the ends of the willows about 6 inches into the ground, and started making a basket house
Life happened, I got busy, and went a few weeks without working on it. The un-finished structure just sat in my yard. I went out to work on it today to find that the branches underground had sprouted roots!
And the upper branches started budding!
Oh crud. This is house a rental and I'm not allowed to plant trees here, not even accidentally.
I guess I could have seen this comming, but I didn't really think about how fresh those cuts were. The ground in my yard is constantly damp, even after a full day of sun; the perfect place to plant a willow tree. I had used willow branches before. I exstracted the salic acid in a sun-tea, and then added that water to cuts of other plants that I put in rock-wool to make new starts, or "clones", because I know it can be used as a rooting hormone, but I had no idea how powerful the willo's ability to root things was, especially itself. So remember, kids: If you want to build a basket house, make sure that you dry your willows out completly until they're all the way gone, otherwise your house is going to come to life! I had to learn it the fun way.
-Mike Kopf
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