(This post has been a long time coming because I thought I had more pictures. I don't. So here it is!)
A couple months ago my in-laws' willow tree at the parsonage where they live suffered some serious ice damage. It was really a shame because it is the focal point of many pictures for all of us, and it is just so amazing. During our church's yard cleanup day, the mess got cleaned up and the branches cut down to a manageable size. The tree is still there, but no longer in its former glory.
It wasn't all bad, however. I had had various trellis and arbor projects in mind for my garden but the materials I had hoped to use had turned out to be impossibly expensive and that was by using the cheapest materials. So I had an idea to use the downed willow branches. Best part, this plan was almost free! (screws, nails, and twine aren't free, but we already have them around so it feels like it) Collecting the branches proved exhausting because they had been bulldozed into a pile precariously at the edge of a gully dumping area. It was not easy to get them untangled without falling to my death. But here I am.
First I wove an arbor over my lettuce bed. I used larger pieces for the basic shape and support by screwing them into the sides of the beds and then used the long rope-like pieces to connect it together and create more lattice for the plants to climb on. I used a variety of methods to use the thin pieces - braiding, twisting, and wrapping. I held it fast with twine. I'm hoping it will eventually harden enough to go without the twine.
My plan for this bed is that as the summer gets hotter, my pole beans will fill in over the lettuce bed, filtering the sunlight and extending my lettuce growing season. As it cools down, the beans will peter out and I can cut them down and let the lettuce have full sun again. That's the theory anyway. I was going to do it last year, but with the drought and the hungry bunnies it brought I didn't get any lettuce or beans.
Next, Zac screwed some more branches to the sides of the other beds. I'll be running twine between these for the other beans to climb. I've also got peas now going up some of these willow lattices.
I was a bit nervous at first that it was looking tacky. And I think that the next time I build an arbor I'll have a better idea of how to approach it. But now that it's done I actually think it looks quite nice.
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