Hugo Morvan

Ideally you safe them for spring, but depending on size they might dry out over winter. But then there is also the freezing aspect. It has happened to me that i've planted them all out, they happily grew and then froze to death and disappeared. So now i thought to be clever and put the small ones that wouldn't survive dry winter all in balcony trays. They did great and i can move them to a not freezing place later. But i'm not looking forward to planting all those entangled roots out in spring.
The bigger ones i planted out all over the place and some popped but many didn't.
So not great advice , but i started with 5 and now have them all over.

Yes pollarding that's the word for what i mean to describe.
Wow that pollarded willow must be quite old Nancy.
Yes Anne, they're cuttings of differing kinds of willow. Just sticks of 10/20 inch cut at an angle and pushed into the mushy soil. Leftfoot plus a right foot and push in another one. Quite some had disappeared after the first season, but most just grew ok for how shitty the sandy soil is there. They're picking up speed last two years and closing canopy.
I make the place bigger if i feel like it using prunings. Maybe two/three visits annually. Mostly just checking/enjoying.
My basketweaving skills are laughable, although i enjoy myself doing whatever with all these wonky differing twigs.
I cut some for my old mother to play with, but she was making excuses, so i make things like this. It's only for snowpeas to climb onto.

The deer rip all of them, my plan failed, but the willows seem to be  used to abuse, so they prevail, despite me having thoughts about how things should be. I did  notice that  the thicker the stems get the more they leave them be.

Some years ago i started a willow patch in a wet zone in a farmers field.
It didn't cost money just time.
The trees i planted them in rows.
The most robust kind on the northern outside as a distraction against deer eating the willow as medicine/food. And it fumctions a swell as something like a windbreak/suntrap for the less strong ones on the south.
I had trouble with brambles a swell until i noticed less deer traces where it grew.
I want it low maintenance so am not fighting the brambles i decided to try a different approach. I wantto see if i can get them to grow a high wide stem and then on top diverge in many directions. Of the one that is more robust i'm pretty sure that will work out. Then the deer can't reach and i can just come in autumn and cut the one year old branches.
Whatever happens on lower levels is less concerning.

I asked a lady who makes baskets. She said that i'm doing 'the English method'.
I don't know if that's really a thing, i just don't want plastic mulching or even carpets some 'bio' willow farmers throw down.
Here are some pictures.

I know it's invasive, but i saw this yellow mimosa on my travels through Spain. In the mountain was a beautiful one with a parking next to it. It was gigantic and had lots of runners going up and it was really invading that little bit. But oh boy, what a great soil it had build, it was so loose and brown and rich and damp and forest smelling like, the whole of Spain everywhere i looked was rocky dirt, but the stuff it had build was next level goodness.
I brought it back up north and it survived heavy frosts this winter , it's not picking up as i had hoped, but it's still around. I sure hope it can build soil like the one i saw up there in those mountains one of these days, that would be a life saver. I hope it goes everywhere making that beautiful soil, but i'm still on the fence if it will vbe that succesful as people describe above.

Do vermicomposting on the north side of a building so the sun has less effect drying out the pile. Shade at all time. Use lots of volume so worms can dive under where it's wetter. Do not harvest too much. Maybe don't use wood and open space between wood, but get it in something a bit less likely to evaporate too much. Don't start from scratch but maybe import a cubic meter of compost from a garden center and start adding to that. In summer i like to throw freshly cut down softer stuff on top as a 'lid'. It usually tightly fits around the pile when dry.
If all this is too much or it still doesn't work, it might be a good thing to look at Geoff Lawton's greening the desert series for inspiration. I think that's in Lebanon or Syria, anyway the other side of where you are, but he does more with abovementioned pits, localized composting and feeding piles of scraps to chickens who scratch through them.
Keep us posted please, it helps get others started over there or in similar climates and we all learn the most from our 'mistakes'.

Maybe a seed saver on here could send you some seeds of herbs in the post? If you don't have money to spend, then i would start with a mint plant, because they're everywhere in gardens. The way they grow is very interesting, they grow roots that kind of creep through a garden soil on the surface and then send out new shoots. I'd go out and look at people's gardens. Figure out which one is mint. It usually is a big patch in no time. It's easy to smell if you rub a leaf. Most gardeners are nice people and wouldn't mind you take a bit of their plant. If you're lucky they'll give you a pot and some soil.
I'm always giving plants away. The more people are busy with herbs/plants the better for me, because when it dies in my place they can give a bit back. Nature is abundance like nothing else. Sharing it creates human bonds and security.
Oregano can also be split because it just keeps widening over the years.
Basil in Europe is of a very poor quality nowadays. Starts dying before you're back from the shop. That's best started from seeds from people's gardens as well. And it has flowered in my greenhouse and i've collected the seeds. It should be still standing in most gardeners places because most people just buy a new one every year. It's very picky. I finally managed to get one that is a shrub, it's an African variety. I got it under lamps and it's regrowing. Got seeds to share if people in EU interested.

Parsley is quite robust and will go a long time. More so if you get it in spring though. Mine get enormous in a season and keep churning out foliage to use in stews and on sandwiches with cheese.
I bet if you like it you'll plonk all your friends window sills full of herbs in no time. Be very careful it's a gateway drug.

Hi kostas. I can't really know if the bird thing works or weather it's just wishful thinking of the people doing it. If it's true that they forget half of them in the winter, that means a lot of work gets done by the birds.
If your pine tree forest doesn't seem to produce any seedlings of oak trees it could just be too dark on the ground, or too acid because of the pine needle layer. Or it could also be that deer who cross this almost liveless forest eat every young tree that despite the darkness and acidity pops up. I can imagine dynamics like this at play in the monoculture.
If you try and plant some in there, you will know. Have  you done this already?

The thing with the feeder is also ... that it's a way of trying something new . Who knows if it works. Maybe there are many more squirrels  in Greece for instance , who will steal the nuts and keep them in one guarded spot, close to their nest. Or rats who just feed on the spot. We cannot possibly know for sure if we don't try. Sometimes trying a new thing and being surprised by the ingenuity of nature to f.. it up and allowing yourself to be surprised  by how she really works is humbling. Those 'failures' can however form great stories and storytelling is important to keep people going. Because halfway your story human arrogance kicks in, people think "of course that works", or "i would do it better". But if they feel you're honest about the rest that surprises them you fascinate them. And it's that fascination that is the life energy for doing things that go against the odds. Like growing trees in arid, barren lands.

Islanders face specific problems, salt, drought, wind,  poor thin soils. Very specific problems, i learned.
As well, they're not many, which makes breeding efforts difficult. i know this from contacts i made at that at Going To Seed forum. It's a spin off from Joseph Lofthouse his book. And has turned into a small people's breeders collective where people share diversified adaptive seeds and you can meet people who have similar climates, contexts and specifics.