Okay, winter is upon us...even though it's still over 20degrees down here.
Time for the firewood to be brought in from the log shed.
But, the fun start with the next question, do you grow your own fire wood? It's the ultimate renewable source. In fact, it's actually carbon neutral.
We have a 100 foot garden and have been in out house for 8 months now. We're sorting the garden, slowly (really damn slowly actually) and although I'm planning the loft and sorting that out, I do like to do a bit in the garden when I have time (yes I really should just stick to one at a time, but I don't have the attention span to do that). One of the things I've been looking at is which trees grow easily, can be cut right down, grow back super fast, but still produce awesome amounts of wood.
Research has led me to 1 winner, but 2 options.
Firstly, the second option, just because it's a brilliant plant and nearly impossible to kill. Enter the Buddleia (Butterfly bush). This plant manages to smash through concrete with it's roots and will thrive on your chimney stack, if given half a chance. You see these growing out of the sides of bridge brickwork, they are that awesome. One thing to consider, if you can get one (easily available) they can be cut right down to pretty much just a stump, and you'll have a beast of a plant by mid spring. Come summer, you'll have even more! Not the perfect fire wood, but a great way to see butterflies and still have plenty to burn, year after year. The real reason for including this little beauty is for those of us in urban areas. A few seeds here and there in derelict areas, or even post SHTF, and you'll be laughing at how much wood you'll have to burn. Also a great way to do a bit of organic vandalism (is that not the best expression you've heard in a while? S13 original haha).
Okay, time for our winner...I hope you're ready...
Imagine a tree where you can cut off about 2 feet of the end of a branch (literally as thick as a finger) drop it on the flood, and within a month it will have sent out roots and started growing. This thing is about as hardy as a hardy thing that went to hardy university and passed with hardy honours. You can cut it down to a stump and you'll come back a year later and have buckets of new branches, as if you'd never even cut it back in the first place. Actually, cut it well and you'll not even realise you've cut it a few months later. You'll just have the same tree you had last quarter.
Welcome in, the Willow!!!
We plan on planting a small row of these over the next 12 months (hopefully we'll have time in the next year) and they will produce an absolute bucket of wood every year. Work on a 3 year rotation to get really thick growth and chunky logs that will burn all day long, and you're set.
Here is a link if you want to read more.
http://www.thewillowbank.com/willow.firewood.facts.htm
Enjoy your step towards carbon neutral prepping haha.
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