While Mike and I have our building projects planned out for the year, I’m constantly brainstorming ideas for fixable spots around the property. One of the problem areas is at the top of the driveway where the cabin (future community center??) and home share some bramble space. This forsythia plant in particular is in the way but thriving despite the gravel it sits in. In order to use some of it up and try my hand at some wild weaving, I trimmed back the longest pieces that were bendable enough to use.
After gathering both forsythia and oak pieces, I set up shop beside my medicine garden and starting driving stakes into the garbage gravel soil. After placing several stakes it occurred to me that I cut them too short and while I wasn’t intending to weave a full height fence, it would have been nice to keep the dogs out. Regardless, I got to work hammering and after a lot of pike stretches, the backbone was done.
As I began to bend my weaving materials, I found that they weren’t as green as I would have liked and they either bent loosely or snapped entirely. I was discouraged and was pretty close to moving onto another project but I worked around the issue and got to weaving.
After using the broken ends to secure around a stake or two, I started to weave the forsythia branch back and forth as far as it would go. I tried to create one layer along the entire stake layer before doubling back and starting the second layer. This process was both satisfying and frustrating as I could easily weave the greener branches and create a proper wall, the brittle and snappable pieces we often loose and didn’t stay where I put them.
After an hour of weaving, breaking stakes and branches alike and corralling the dogs out of my work space, I had erected a small wall.
I’m really happy with how this weird project turned out. I don’t expect it to last very long but if it provides a little more protection for my raspberry plants, it will have been a fun and helpful project.