Andrew Roberts » llanwenog school

Willow season hotting up

AndrewRoberts — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:47:37 +0000

So it’s that time of year again – it’s autumn and it’s TREE TIME! The popularity of the living willow structures are continuing and we’re starting to get the first calls of the season from the schools. We’re also getting interest from fetes, fairs and schools about doing displays. This doesn’t really work with the living willow but as Lisa works on her weaving skills we’ll put together a dead-willow weaving workshop. I’m looking forward to seeing how all of the different structures that we planted last year are doing. We’re seeing a lot less growth on dryer slopes later in the season: 12 to 18 inches with 10% die off compared to no die-off and 5 foot of growth from some structures.

Before Xmas our non-willow seedlings will need transplanting ready for the BIG TREE PLANT in Autumn of 2010 (start planting 6000 trees over 8 acres).

We laid the hedge along the windy edge of the willow beds over the winter and it definitely seems to have had an impact on the amount of growth. But we’ll have to wait until harvest in January to see the actual effect.

So here’s to a good season for 2009/10!

More info at Living Willow Wales

Ysgol Llanwenog Willow Play Area and “Living Classroom”

AndrewRoberts — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:08:05 +0000

We had a fantastic turn out of parents and children on the Saturday we spent creating this structure; the head teacher had done a great job of rallying support for the day. It felt like a real summer party atmosphere with people picnicing around the site in the sunshine and the children playing around the partially completed structure. All we needed was the smoke of a BBQ to finish off the scene. It was very strange planting willow on such a sunny day, you could tell the planting season was coming to the end (it sounds like we’re always out working in the sun but you can bet the rain will be lashing down when we harvest in January). Having so many people made very light work of getting the 500 rods in the ground and tying the 1000 or so knots that were needed to hold it all together. Along with the school we designed the structure to fit in a narrow strip alongside the sports field. We’d put a low children’s entrance leading into a small tunneled maze and a larger adults entrance at the other end. Both led into a 10′ dome that could be used as a living classroom.

There is more information at the Living Willow Wales website.