Making a willow teepee

[Methenyouplus4]

I've kindly been given dome willow from a local school when they trimmed their willow tunnel back and I'd love to make a teepee; some of the stems are really quite thick at the bottom (about 3cm) as they are about 6ft high (there are thinner ones too that I was planning to use for diagonals).

Will these root/grow okay? On all the photos /on-line tutorials, they seem to be really thin and wispy (under 1cm) all the way up.

Also, did people put a weeds heel down then just stick them straight in ground?

[shovetheholly]

I've never done this, but they should root up just fine when stuck in the ground. I guess if you're building a teepee, you need a lot of them to be straight, so thick and sturdy is probably good. However, you'll need some whippier ones to wrap around the straight stems. I think that people who make willow structures might soak them to increase pliability - maybe you could do that with some of the smaller ones?

I wouldn't bother with a weed sheet - it will go a bit manky underneath. Ideally, if this is a teepee for wee ones to play in, you want grass underneath and lots of Persil to get rid of the green stains.

[gardeningmum]

We planted one a couple of years ago You can see here kidsinthegarden.co.uk/our-willow-wigwam/

We were given a mulch mat which i didn't put in, but there were so many weeds I put it in the next year and it has worked well. Stems are thicker than the ones we used but will seems to root really easily. Make sure you water well.

We love our willow den

[shovetheholly]

Aw, what a lovely blog!

[lovelycuppateas]

I've just done this with left over willow from a screen I made elsewhere in the garden. It's growing already - I just dug over the soil, made holes of 30cm deep with a metal stick and a claw hammer and put the willow in the holes, heeling it in. I wove it a bit and tied it at the top. It should root fine - it's easy and hugely satisfying to do. I'm putting a thick layer of bark chips as mulch under and around it initially until it establishes and then will probably grow climbing plants up it.