Every year in March I coppice one willow tree. This one willow tree produces the most vividly coloured stems.
I sort the stems into different lengths in the potting shed……
……. and then it’s a race against time to use it all up before it is too brittle to bend.
So, over the course of the next month or so you will find me weaving frantically to produce structures that will have various uses in the garden.
This year so far I have made two hazel and willow wigwams for runner beans and other climbing legumes……
…..and about 500 million (that’s what it feels like!) circular plant supports. These supports are designed to sit above a growing herbaceous plant in Spring ~ think open top stool. The willow circle sits on 3 or 4 bamboo cane legs, which are plunged into the ground around the plant. As the herbaceous plant grows upwards in Spring it passes through the circular top piece. Come late Spring or Summer, when the plant is really going for it and producing loads of flowers (hopefully), the circle of willow will provide support to stop it flopping over should the flowers or the rain showers prove too heavy.
Here are the 500 million plant supports in storage. I will be putting them in place in over the coming weeks. – I am aiming for 750 million. (In reality ~ as aposed to my little fantasy gardening world ~ there are probably 25 or so).
Willow is wonderful to work with. It is gloriously bendy when first harvested. With practice I hope to be able to weave much more impressive structures.
Last year I managed a couple of spheres. This one has been outside for nearly a year and is still looking fairly smart. It looked great with wild flowers growing up though it during summer 2014.
More than anything willow is just so wonderfully pretty when it is newly harvested, brutally manipulated and set against the bluest of blue skies.
Or freshly mulched soil
It is well worth having a go. I highly recommend an RHS short course. Go on, look it up at www.rhs.org.uk. You will never look at a willow tree in the same light again………you will be staring at it, probably with head askance, pondering all the gloriously practical things you will be bending the stems into.