The Coracle

by Goddess

I've been avid about twigs for ages - and here's what I've finally built for my squash and beans - a willow twig coracle bed.

In potager gardens in Europe, these kinds of beds were routinely used for compost to grow all kinds of vegetables in, and what could be better for the lush healthy plants than to start these in the summer previously and start filling with scraps from the garden to rot down and make soil for planting.

I've lined mine with old plastic recycled from the soilless mix I use for containers, which is black on the inside so you can't see it.

I like the look of the twigs woven around the uprights, and now they've started to age to a dark brown from the original bright green, they'll blend in nicely. I plan on building another one for the other end of the rebar archway, which for now I have black bags filled with compost to grow the beans and squash in.

To start, I pounded in to rain softened ground an uneven number of stakes - uneven numbers are essential to be able to weave the smaller twigs around.

I collected willow from my property, if you can't find any close by, a good alternative is the long water sprouts from an orchard, which will be easy to find in the spring when they prune the trees. Keep your eyes open for other long whippy type twigs to use.