Back in March, inspired by a living willow tunnel at Burwash Manor, an episode of Gardener’s World and this book I decided to make Miss P a wigwam out of living willow. When planted whilst dormant between November and March, freshly cut naked willow will set roots and grow, and because of its pliability, can be woven into some great garden structures. Some neighbours were pruning one of their willows and kindly gave me the results. I topped this up with some more from Windrush Willow near Exeter. The results aren’t too bad, although the top is a bit freeform. It’s now regularly used for tea parties held by Miss P for monkey (a very important member of the household) and his friends. She also makes ’soup’ (leaves, flowers and water - tasty).

The willow’s leaves have now filled in the holes a fair bit and although it’s not exactly shady in there, given a couple of years it will be better for hiding in. Living willow sculpture is full of great projects including a fantastic living chair that sprouts its own arms and looks as though it might walk off by itself. Next year I might try a living willow archway.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.