We are at 1000' on a decidedly windy hill. We initially planted the willow as a quick growing windbreak while our hedges grew, more slowly. My father had a collection of about 60 willow varieties, so I took about 5 cuttings of each variety to see how they liked it here (he was in E Anglia, we are in Scotland). Initially we rooted them in a trench, but you can stick them in direct. If we were doing it again we would use larger bits to root, so we could get a good length in the ground, plus enough above ground to give a short trunk. Most rooted extremely easily, some didn't take at all, and one type took several years to decide it was going to live. So we have some varieties such as goat willow which at the moment is about 25 feet tall, there's intermediates such as fasciolated willow which grows to about 10', and in the garden we have an Arctic willow which is less than 2" high - that one doesn't give much protection from the wind
.
We planted them in three rows about 25' apart, across the prevailing wind direction, a similar distance back from our polytunnel and veg garden. They were about 3' apart in the row, but this has since changed. Some sheep got to them and killed off some, plus we coppiced alternate trees, and pollarded others, so we have various heights. This fills in the whole height of the hedge, rather than having all the effect high up or low down.
You can lay a willow hedge, just as you would an ordinary field hedge, and this will also thicken the structure at the bottom. Fedges and other ornamental plantings I think are fine for gardens and short term use, but you want a real windbreak/screen to hide a building.
For weaving the usual type of work, you use osier. These can be coppiced or pollarded. However, you can also use all types of willow, and some other flexible trees, to make 'hedgerow' baskets, mats etc, which are lovely and different to the usual run of baskets. For those you use first year growth.
The various varieties of willow we have are great for bees. They tend to flower over a long period, wheres a single variety will flower for a short period then there's nothing else for the wildlife. We have big yellow 'pussies', small black ones, shiny silver ones, and many different forms and leaf types. It all depends on if you like straight lines or a hotch-potch - I go for the hotch-potch