Suburban Gardener: What To Do With The Products of Pruning

Date: Fri 29-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-11

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Gardener-Suburban-Pruning

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(pruning techniques column for Suburban Gardener, 3/29/96)

Suburban Gardener: What To Do With The Products of Pruning

By Anthony C. Bleach

I have always admired wattle fences, made of withes or willow branches knitted

together. I have seen them made in Suffolk, on the east coast of England. It

is a country craft that has been practiced at least since the Middle Ages.

Renee Beaulieu wrote in the Sunday Republican last week about using prunings

from saplings, fruit trees, bitter sweet grape vines to make plant supports. I

am hopeless at anything crafty, but the techniques she described are not too

challenging.

Vines and climbing plants are in every garden magazine supported luxuriously

on rustic tripods and trellises of twigs. These ideas are not new. Dierdre

Larkin, associate horticulturist at The Cloisters, discovered in her research

that most of our techniques are portrayed in the wall frescoes uncovered at

Pompeii.

You can pay a lot for them in the malls or make them for nothing. They are

pretty, but ephemeral. Two or three years is all you can expect when they are

out in all weathers. They are perhaps ideal in the vegetable garden, to

support annual vines or perennials that will be cut back.

One use for prunings needs no work at all. You just poke the twiggy stems into

the ground around the emerging crowns of floppy perennials. The vines or stems

grow up through the twigs instead of falling.

This has to be done early in the season, before the plants are tall enough to

need support. In England they are called "pea stakes," because that's what

they are used for.

Most prunings are flexible for only one or two days. Then they become brittle

and will snap if you try to bend them into a curve. Dierdre Larkin creates the

curves she needs now, so they are ready to be used in the garden in May. She

bends them into a pleasing arch, then holds the ends in a bucket. Thus

trained, they will hold their croquet wicker shape.

You can use three or four of these arches to create a globe shape in a

container, tying them together at the top. They will be good for training

plants like clematis. You can make your own rustic hedge by inserting in a row

in the ground the arches overlapping. This makes a very charming accent.

If the arches are tall, you can make the globe shape, then weave vines around

the uprights to hold it together and give the climbers a frame.

Think of yourself as a bird marking a nest: "It's very organic, not precise,"

said Dierdre, winding grapevine among the supports. "It's not like working

with machine-made materials. Everything is crooked, has bumps."

You can use string to hold things together while you are weaving the nest. You

can always cover the string or remove it after the structure has some

strength.

Grapevines and bittersweet are very flexible when fresh, and can fold nearly

in half without breaking. Try coiling them in a bucket or barrel, so they keep

a rounded shape when you need them. Or you can make thin wreaths in a variety

of diameters.

They can be used also to make interesting plant supports: Set unbranched twigs

or bamboo stakes in the ground, then jam the wreath down on them for an

instant plant ring. You can use two or three to make a cage for a large peony,

perhaps.

(Anthony C. Bleach coordinates the horticulture degree and certificate

programs at Naugatuck Valley Community-Technical College. This summer, courses

in perennials and garden maintenance will be offered.)