How to Make a Live Willow Playden In Your Garden

Many gardeners can tell the tale of an old willow branch pushed into the ground and forgotten which was sprouting fresh green leaves by spring. This magic power to take root makes willow the ideal material for creating a whole range of living garden features whose sturdy wooden structure is clothed in soft green leaves. Once rooted, willow branches can quickly be trained into children’s playhouses or playdens. They also make delightful garden arches, shaded garden arbours, or “fedges” – living fences. Particular advantages are that they’ll never rot, and need no painting or maintenance except the occasional trim.

How to Make a Living Willow Playhouse for Children

Your wendyhouse can be almost any shape or size, but here are some tips for a simple playden which will delight the kids.

Finding The Willow Wands For The Wendyhouse

• For immediate results you’ll need seven willow wands 9 feet long, and twenty-one 7 feet long, to build a round den six feet across. Alternately, you can use shorter lengths of willow if you can contain your children’s impatience as they grow.
• If you or a friend have an established willow tree or hedge, simply cut and trim your own willow wands from suitable branches, using a clean, sloping cut.
• Otherwise you can buy willow wands from many garden centres, nurseries or by mail order.

Preparing the Base for the Living Willow Playden

• While you’re waiting for the wands to arrive, lay out an eight-foot circle of landscape fabric on the ground as a base. This will provide a clean dry floor and kill any weeds underneath – so you won’t even have to cultivate the soil before planting.
• Mark out a 6 foot diameter circle in the centre of the fabric (a piece of chalk tied to a string anchored to a central peg will help you trace a perfect circle).

Planting the Willow Wands

• Trim off any side growth and if the branches aren’t freshly cut, slice an inch or two from the thick end of each wand diagonally to leave a sharp end that will push easily into the ground
• Push the six longest and stoutest wands vertically through the landscape fabric about 12 inches into the ground and about 3 feet apart around the circle, leaving a slightly narrower gap between the last two for an entrance.

Training the Willow Branches

• To train the willow wands, bend the tops of the first six wands over and tie them together to form a domed roof.
• Plant the remaining wands at 45¬∞ angles to fill in the spaces between the verticals, crisscrossing them and weaving them together in a diamond pattern.( The vertical posts will grow from the tip, while the diagonals will produce more side growth).
• For extra strength tie them with raffia or other ties where they cross and in time they will graft together to create a rigid structure.

Aftercare for the Live Willow Playhouse

The landscape fabric will keep the surrounding soil moist and weed free for the first couple of seasons, so the only maintenance needed will be to train and trim the side growth to fill out the walls, possibly leaving spaces for windows.

Other Willow Garden Features

Other types of live willow house,garden arbours, archways, pergolas and living hedges are equally easy to make using exactly the same principles.