Wicker brings a welcome touch of whimsy to the garden

Whimsy ... not only do I love it as a word but I also like it in a garden, where it brings an air of playful, joyful irreverence. For the same reason, I’m a fan of outdoor willow structures and sculptures, with their Mad Hatter-like oddness and their ability to quickly and magically transform a space through the use of a traditional material that is renewable, recyclable, wildlife-friendly, supremely versatile and easy to grow.

Just take a look at the work of Irish-based willow weavers such as Norbert Platz, Beth Murphy, Paul Finch, and Ronan and Elaine Russell, all of whom use the slender, pliable, colourful 'wands' or rods of the deciduous, shrubby, fast-growing willow to make all sorts of theatrical, fantastical garden structures and mythical creatures. Not just sculptural garden pods, arches, fences, 'fedges', domes, tunnels, play-huts, labyrinths, wigwams, pergolas, arbours, chairs and plant supports, but giant willow castles, 12ft centaurs, life-sized stags, enormous snakes, caterpillars and towering wickermen.

Every one of these craftspeople grows their own supply of willow, carefully cultivating a select mix of different species and varieties that are chosen for their unusual stem colour, pliability, and/or ability to lend strength or bulk. An example is Kildare-based Beth Murphy, probably best known for her work on the kilometre-long, living willow Peace Labyrinth in Castleblayney in Co Monaghan, who grows several thousand plants in her one-acre country garden, all propagated from hardwood cuttings.

Murphy, a gifted basketmaker, often works in partnership with artist and fellow willow weaver Paul Finch (formerly of Greenmantle) to make site-specific pieces to commission. Her advice to gardeners experimenting with willow structures is to begin by taking one of the many short courses available around the country. “I’d also advise planning any structure out on paper, before preparing the site carefully. Planting into a plastic mulch or weed-suppressant membrane will also help hugely with maintenance. Another common mistake is using the very fast-growing, vigorous biomass willow varieties. All living willow structures require regular ongoing maintenance in terms of pruning and weaving in new growth, but with biomass willows, that job quickly becomes a nightmare.”

Of the countless varieties and hybrids of willow available, her personal favourites include Salix daphnoides ‘Oxford Violet’, golden Salix alba ‘Vitellina’, scarlet Salix alba ‘Britzensis’, apple-green ‘Harrison’s Willow’, and various crosses of Salix viminalis.

Cork-based Norbert Platz, whose eccentric willow scarecrows and willow dragon are much-admired features of Ballymaloe Cookery School’s kitchen gardens, is also fond of what he describes as a Continental cross of Salix viminalis, which he values for its length as well as its strength and flexibility. “Long, straight, strong rods are really important when you’re making large structures, while I’d use something like the branching Salix alba to add bulk.”

Meath-based Ronan Russell, who works in partnership with his wife and fellow weaver Elaine, points out that you can also successfully use dried and live willow together in a garden structure or sculpture. As Newgrange Willow Design, the couple have worked on a wide range of commissions, producing once-off pieces for private clients as well as public gardens and events, including Airfield and Electric Picnic.

If you’d like to start growing your own willows to use in the garden, then now is the perfect time to do so. Both hardwood cuttings (roughly a pencil thick and 30cm long) and bare-root plants can be planted until the end of March. Although willow is tolerant of a wide range of soils and growing conditions, plants do best in a fertile, weed-free, moisture-retentive soil in full sun/light shade. Where space permits, grow a range of different varieties (most professional weavers would grow at least a dozen different kinds, usually planting them in a grid-pattern, with an average spacing of 60-90cm between each plant).

This is also an excellent time to create living willow structures and sculptures in the garden. Typically the rods or wands are ‘planted’ 15-20cm deep, into holes made with a heavy iron bar (use a hammer to force it down), after which they will root surprisingly quickly.

You can also easily root them in pots; one of Beth Murphy’s most popular designs is a portable wedding arch whose feet are planted into two containers, allowing it to be moved into position with relative ease. After the big day, couples often choose to plant their arch in their garden as a fond reminder.

As with any such living willow sculpture, regular maintenance is key. To keep it in tip-top shape, carefully prune it two to three times a year, tying remaining young growth back into the structure.

Dried, non-living willow structures, sculptures and plant supports are also hugely decorative in the garden. While not very long-lived, their advantage over living structures is that they require little in the way of maintenance. In this case, the young, one-year-old-rods are also typically harvested around this time of year, and then cured for a couple of months in a dry, cool place. For details of Beth Murphy’s work, see willowwonder.net; for Newgrange Willow Design, see newbrangewillowdesign.com. Norbert Platz can be contacted on 085-7269633. All sell unrooted willow cuttings and dry rods, and run occasional courses. Unrooted hardwood cutting are also available from hedges.ie, and bare-root plants from futureforests.net .

THIS WEEK IN THE GARDEN

Remember that saying “a stitch in time”? Over the next few weeks, when weather conditions are favourable and the soil isn’t wet or waterlogged, grab the opportunity to weed beds before plants burst into spring growth. Not only will you save yourself a lot of hard work later in the season, but you’ll also be giving plants a great start to the new growing season.

Now is the best time to buy hellebore plants, while these perennials are in full flower and you can be sure of what you're getting. With established plants, remember to cut back and burn dead foliage, which helps prevent disease and allows the flowers to shine. As fresh foliage and flowers emerge, keep a beady eye out for any signs of the increasingly common, destructive viral disease known as 'Hellebore black death'. Infected plants should be dug up and destroyed. Symptoms, which include stunted, distorted growth, black blotches between leaf veins, and black streaks on stems/flowers, can be confused with those of the less damaging fungal disease 'Hellebore leaf spot'. See rhs.org.uk for a visual guide Broad beans (above) can be sown now, either into small, individual pots under cover of a greenhouse/polytunnel for later transplanting outdoors, or directly outdoors into a shallow trench (5cm deep), spacing seed 15cm apart before backfilling with a hoe. Space rows 45cm apart. Covering the soil with horticultural fleece will help speed up germination.

Look out for the strongly-scented, very decorative, flavoursome 'Crimson Flowered', a heritage variety that doesn't require staking (available from brownenvelopeseeds.com).