Below find sections detailing Willow sizes and quantities for: Screening & Hedging, Woven Fences, Living Structures & for growing Firewood.


We supply ready-made kits for a range of Living Willow Structures. These come with all the Willow and accessories you need plus full step-by-step instructions. All priced reasonably to reflect what it would cost if you bought all the components separately. Click here to see our full Living Willow range.

Planting a double row of Willow provides a thick screen of dense growth. Where windbreaks for particularly exposed sites are needed, a triple row of planting can be done.

Important Note: When choosing Whip height, remember that 30cm is planted into the ground. Example: For a final height of 1.8m/6ft you need to plant 2.1m/7ft Whips.

Plant Spacing: We recommend 30cm/1ft. For a Double Row of Willow you will need approx. figure 6 Whips per metre. (See diagram below)

Example: 10 metre screen = 60 Whips.

We supply bundles of Living Willow Whips for planting rural hedges and screens.

For long stretches of planting you may also want to consider purchasing a Willow Planting Spike.

For a more decorative Woven Fence you will need approx. 13 Whips per metre. This amount will change according to which design you do.

The diagram below shows a design which would use 13 Whips per metre and includes upright vertical whips, diagonal lattice whips plus a top bar. Example: 10 metre Woven Fence 10 x 13 = 130 Whips.

We supply bundles of for planting hedges and screens.

Accessories such as Weed Control Fabric and Flexi-Tie Rubber String can also help with your Willow project.

Living Willow Structures are a more personal project which will need to suit your individual planting site and requirments. We supply a range of ready-made Kits you can View Here including Domes, Tunnels & Wigwams.

Some general tips would be to work out the height and width you want for the structure so you can make sure you're ordering long enough whips. Remember that 30cm of the whip will be lost into the ground when planted so order whips longer than the height of structure you want.

Most of our structures use the 2.7m/9ft Willow Whips for the main frame and 2.4m/8ft Whips for criss-cross patterns. If building for children we would recommend whips no shorter than 1.8m/6ft otherwise the kids will soon out grow the willow structure!

Spacing should be 25-50cm for the main frame with extra whips planted in between to give strength to the structure.

For Willow to flourish and grow the sap running through the plant needs to be able to run up from the roots right to the top tip of the plant. Weaving styles where the willow bends downwards can sometimes hamper this growth.

When weaving always try to keep the willow pointing slightly up and avoid downward curves. This can be done but runs the risk of dieback. We have in the past created designs where both the top and bottom of the same whip is planted as a loop but the success rate was low.

To create a strong arch you can plant two whips tied together at the top.

Willow is used as a fast growing crop for both wood logs and as chipped biomass. Plant now and you could be burning your own logs in 2-3 years and have an annual supply from then on.

Quantites and plant spacing differ greatly depending on what type of fuel you're looking to produce. Growing willow for logs requires a larger spacing to allow the plants to grow bigger. Growing for chipped fuel requires less space.

We have more information on growing willow as a fuel crop in our Growing Your Own Firewood section here.