building with willow

Eesh, I've been really bad at updating here recently!  I promise to be better, which should be easier as I really want to use this space to share some of my gardening adventures.  Now that we own a house we finally have a bit of land to get all green thumbed!  I'm so excited to plant vegetables and figure out what plants to cultivate.  We're in Northwest Philly now, and our tiny bit of yard didn't come with much landscaping, which is pretty neat since we have a blank slate.  I want to learn more about native plants to our area and more natural and organic ways to garden.  Luckily, both my mother and grandmother are incredibly green thumbed and volunteer loads of advice.

Over this winter I've become interested in willow structures, both alive and dried.  I really like the idea of natural borders and I think willow could be a good use for tiny spaces.  So when I saw that Terrain was offering a class on willow garden structures I thought that it would be a good introduction for me.  Some key things I learned were:

• You can cultivate willow clippings.  Anything you cut, from the long branches to the tiny off-shoots along the branch, will root.  If you're not planting them immediately after cutting, just place them cut-end-down in a bucket of water and leave them there to keep them alive and supple, and to allow them to develop roots.
• There are tons of varieties you can use, like pussy willows, red and yellow twig dogwood, willow bush, etc.  Just keep in mind its future size and voraciousness, they're not all suited for smaller spaces.
• Willow is naturally very supple, but can remember sharp bends, so if you are creating a shape, gently manipulate the willow branch before bending.

You can see my willow structure in the last two photos.  I didn't have a plan of attack when making it, but I think it's funny how it ended up having a stained glass resemblance.  All of the willow sticking into the soil will continue to grow.  The mini "wreaths" and woven sections will just dry in place.  For now I'm going to put it outside (once it stops snowing...) and let it develop more roots before choosing somewhere to plant it for real.

One day I'd love to build a willow hut like the ones Kelly makes as Cheeriup!