Maintaining a Willow Structure

Planting Living Willow Structures is great fun and the way they burst into life is very rewarding but there is no doubt that to keep them looking good some maintenance is required. A little and often is the best approach. Kids love doing it!

Here are our recommendations

Try and avoid watering unless the spring and summer are very dry in which case flood the structure with as much water as you can for 24 hours then leave it for a week. Then do it again. If you water a little and often it will only encourage roots close to the surface and the structures will always be susceptible to droughts.

Try and keep the half-meter strip around the willow stems weed and grass free, use mulch if you have some.

In late summer if you have had a good infestation of aphids you may well find they attract wasps which milk them for their honey dew. You can put down jam traps for them or just temporarily make the structure out of bounds for play and just go and watch them from time to time as its very interesting. You may well see a black fungus on the bark of the willow this is just a mould growing on the aphid honey dew secretion and is not harmful to the willow.

Once the leaves have dropped and before the buds break its time to go out and give the structure a good weave in. Then trim any big growth that you can’t weave in back to the original stem.

Use the bigger trimmed off rods to replace any rods that have died. Leave the original dead rod in place and insert the new rod butt first down through the binders and along side the old rod. Make a new hole 12” deep, push in the replacement rod and firm the soil around it.

Any remaining rods can be planted into new structures or dried out for 6 weeks and then used for weaving baskets etc.

Willow Maintenance Workshops

Living Willow structures MUST be properly maintained to preserve the natural beauty of the original structure. Maintenance permits the structure to grow healthily.

If you already have a willow structure that’s in need of maintaining you can choose from the following:

• Standard half day maintenance session working with a small group of children £150. Pupils will handle secateurs and learn maintenance and weaving techniques.
• Run a course at your venue to build another structure (for parents or community members) and include a maintenance session during the day.
• One-to-one maintenance sessions with member of teaching staff £25 per hour.

Out to Learn Willow, Ogmore by Sea, Vale of Glamorgan

Tel : 01656 881007 - 01656 880514 Email: info@outtolearnwillow.co.uk