Julie is a free-lance gardener living near York, England. After training in Horticulture, she has spent the last 25 years combining life as mum of 4 and farmer’s wife with practical gardening, designing and construction. Her work ranges from creating new gardens (or parts of gardens) to routine maintenance and advice.
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Wonderful Willow…Part 2!
September 6, 2009
My last blog featured willow in it’s living state, (as a gardener, I find that’s usually a pretty basic requirement in a plant!) However, to ignore the possibilities which arise from the use of dried willow in a garden setting, would be only telling half the story!
A couple of years ago, my mum treated me to a weekend course on making willow garden structures. We arrived at Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite Lake near Cockermouth in the Lake District with no previous knowledge of the place and no idea what to expect. Higham Hall turned out to be a 19C Gothic mansion within pleasant grounds and with views of Skiddaw and the Northern Fells. The staff are friendly and helpful and the accommodation and food are good. The college runs a variety of courses which leads to an interesting and varied dynamic mix of people to chat with over an evening meal or in the bar.
The tutor for the willow garden structures course was Phil Bradley, a local basket maker and willow grower, who also travels further afield for teaching and commission work. My expectation during my original willow weaving experience, was to produce something attractive and useful for in my own garden, with the added satisfaction of having made it myself.
That first insight into willow weaving was fascinating! Phil now grows over 40 varieties of willow, giving him a choice of colours, lengths and subtle differences of texture and pliability, which I had previously never even considered. He explained that he originally purchased his bolts of willow from commercial growers in Somerset and had the choice of one variety which was variable in quality. This reliance on a supplier at the other end of the country, together with concerns over the chemicals used during production, eventually led him to grow his own.
There seems to be something comfortingly straightforward about producing a beautiful, serviceable item such as a basket from a natural, renewable plant material you have grown, harvested and carried home on your back - all with only a few basic tools! Ofcourse, almost 20 years experience and a natural flair for your craft must help!! Anyway, we all learnt some basic weaves and produced a couple of amazingly strong and attractive plant supports and a small sample hurdle each. I have since made a support at home, but would have struggled to remember how to do it without my notes to refer to! I think willow weaving is one of those skills that is best learnt by, ‘doing’ alongside a good teacher!
During my recent visit to Higham Hall, I was accompanied by my youngest daughter Annie, also keen to learn the secrets of willow animal making!
To check out the photos, please see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieparishruralgardener
There were 12 of us in the group and our first task was to decide what animal to make. Patricia finally had second thoughts about her grizzly bear and opted for a heron to stand in her garden near the river. Perhaps more in keeping with a Keswick garden than a grizzly?! Chris, (a willow animal regular!) made a giraffe and Kathryn, despite the sheer volume of her chosen subject, stuck to her guns and produced a most wonderful elephant! Along with the above, we produced deers, dogs, butterflies, a hen and a goose! Initially we managed to kink our rods, (that’s not a good thing!) and maybe our heads weren’t quite as we had intended, but with the guidance of a good teacher and fuelled by Higham Hall food….we all managed to produce animals that were recognisable!!
For more information about Higham Hall and details of courses , please see the following link. As I can’t get this link to open in a new window, you will have to click your back arrow to return to the blog! http://www.highamhall.com
Phil Bradley, basket maker and willow grower can be contacted by email: philbradley248@btinternet.com
Anybody who feels the need to delve deeper into the wonderful world of willow, may be interested to know that there is a National Collection of Willow at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire. The National collection was originally set up at Long Ashton Research Station in 1920, to act as a repository for disappearing basket willows and was transferred to Rothamsted in 2002. Apparently it is now the most comprehensive willow collection in the UK. It looks as though much of the current research being done there is willow breeding for biomass fuel.
So along with providing material for the traditional art of basket making, maybe willow also holds the key to providing an energy solution for the future?!
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Yes, its mother again! This year, I do know what I want for Xmas….an animal for the garden.