Go on a course: making plant supports

Every year I grow sweet-peas on willow wigwams and have often thought how easy they must be to make. I had the chance to find out when I attended ‘Weaving Willow Plant Supports' run by Richard Kerwood from Windrush Willow. The venue was Derry Watkins Special Plants in Wiltshire. This allowed my fellow pupils (ten of us in total, all women) to see how Richard's plant supports are used in Derry's beautiful garden.

Richard began by explaining how willow is grown and harvested and why it is suitable for weaving into almost anything from baskets to coffins. And then we set to work.

The first item - happily - was a wigwam. Richard selected the best eight rods and a piece of ordinary string to hold them in the tepee shape until he could begin making the bands that would hold them together. This involved feeding two rods through at right angles to the uprights and repeatedly weaving them in and out, one on top of the other, until they began to make a plait of sorts around the base of the structure.

The process was repeated twice more higher up the wigwam. It looked so simple. I began with great gusto... and soon realised I had forgotten almost everything that had been said. Fortunately Richard moved around the class offering help where it was most needed and let's just say that he and I spent a lot of time together.

So, not so easy after all, but I did come home with three items: a crisscross grow-through and a curved hold-back, both for supporting floppy perennials, and a perfectly respectable willow wigwam.

To find out more about Weaving Willow Plant Supports courses, contact Derry Watkins Special Plants (01225 891686; www.specialplants.net).