Elizabethm was interested in my Willow Dome yesterday and asked how I had gone about making it, so I thought I would do a brief blog about it! The photos are a bit blurred as they were taken last year with our old camera which we've now discarded. But I hope you can still see the dome.
Don't shoot me down but I have a feeling that I first saw a willow dome in one of the mags from the "dark side"!! Anyway I was quite taken by the idea, I have a very large garden and do not have enough time to make it look beautiful I'm afraid the plants have to fight for their space between the weeds, sometimes the plants win and we get a lovely display of things like Bluebells and daffodils, Rhodadendrons and The Wisteria is wonderful, but some fo the smaller plants get lost and the weeds win! So I'm always looking for large plants or points of focus that distract people's view so they ignore the weeds!
So I thought Wow! I'll build a Willow feature. But How? I didn't have a clue, but in September the Adult Education Booklet came through and I was browsing, looking for Spanish classes for Evie who was off to Honduras later that year and wanted to have some conversational Spanish, when suddenly I came across a One Off Saturday Class for Live Willow Structures!
Perfect ! I thought and signed up for it!
The day of the Willow structure class came along in mid November, and I duly went along to the farm where it was held and to my surprise Lucy's Class teacher was there too! We spend the day playing with willow , building structures, practising weaving with willow and we had a fantastic day. There are different types of willow , in differing strengths and colours, as I wanted to build a dome I needed the tallest rods, these can be bought mail order from Edgar Watts in Suffolk, purchases should be made between Nov and March, that is the best time for planting. There are other companies too,, but this is one I used and they have been excellent. Rods need to be pushed into the ground about 9-12 " and they should start to root and grow by the spring, any that do not take can be removed and replaced the following autumn. It is difficult to explain exactly how you weave , but you start with places rods in a circle opposite each other and you tie in at the top where they joing and once you have basic structure then you in fill and weave more rods through the structure , you can make door and windows too.
But if anyone is really keen I suggest you do a course like I did. The teacher wanted to do willow structures at school so later the next year I helped her build a seat and a dome, It is great fun and exciting to see the structure come to life!
8 comments:
Commune build beautiful woven willow live trellis here.. I am thinking of building a tunnel with it..Have you read Bunny Guiness family Gardens she has fantastic willow things in there!
looks great and sounds fun to do. we have a field which has some cultivated bits in it, fruit trees and the like and like you i am looking for interesting things that are structures but plants too! i will look at the bunny guinness book too but sounds like a course would be a good idea.
Oh wow it looks beautiful. Funnily enough I was just reading about willow domes - I think it was in a parenting mag - and really loved the idea. How long does it take to grow? Looks stunning, anyway, you must be proud!
We have several willow domes in the village - we had a new agey person amongst us a while back and he happily whittled away and made them - sadly he never got as far as me but the children love them - real live wigwams. Have you gone all new age on us now muddie.
Not new age, just old age!
That looks like a great thing to do. I'll get the Great Dane onto it right away! I've heard about such courses out here, but until I saw your photo couldn't quite imagine what it would look like.
Wonderful - I want to build one - we have so much willow growing here. Can't find any courses though. Sigh. Can't even find a creative writing course - nearest one three hour round trip.
Good evening from New York, and thanks for your comment. I am a September 12 Virgo. You can well believe that every time I have to "officially" give that date, my mind just rewinds to 2001. I once worked in a law firm within a micro department with two other Virgos. Our birthdays were within two days of each other, and you can well believe that we never missed a deadline, or a clause, etc. Your willow is so beautiful -- in our shops we have used willow branches in huge vases, and I always just loved it as the tiny green leaves began to peek out, then really establish themselves.
All best wishes to you, Elaine. xo
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