Garden Projects 2009 Part 4 - How to Build A Willow Te-Pi

This is going to be a living te-pi isn't it? It'll look fantastic once all the willow starts to shoot! Wonderful little hideaway for Brooke, who's just adorable!

well done all of you. job well done.

honeysuckle grows well with my willow structures. and i also have a thornless blackberry rambling through one.

Well done, all three of you...a great result and it didn't really take that long, did it? A DVD is such a good idea, much better than an instruction booklet! :-)

BTW, where's the arch gone???

Nice work, that looked like good fun, it's a lovley idea to have a living wig-wam for Brooke to play in. She is gorgeous Btw;

Yes well done all three of you.

Fantastic Den for Brooke and a great job done, A Real Life Living Den, Ive seen them being made on TV and I think there Great...

great idea..........youve certainly had some fun putting it together..........

hello what a great idea!my little boy would love one!could you tell me where i may but a kit on line?i dont think mine will turn out as good as yours though!

Looking good.
A dynamic trio :o)

Well done you three.
It wont take long for it to green up. Mine is coming into its 3rd year now and fresh new green shoots are starting to appear once again.
After the first year instead of cutting the excess off I re wove it back into the structure making it really solid to touch. Last year however I cut off the excess and made an oblisk, some plant supports and a willow fedge to hide my compost bins.

You will now have your own endless supply of willow for weaving and building. Oh and sitting in on summer days to watch the world go by.

If you search willow dome you should find a pick of mine in full growth, they get tall.

I Love It Ang & Im Sure little Brooke Does 2 :) Great Work all 3 of u :) xxx

Thats great Angie you have done a good job there and Brooke is going to love playing in and around it,also as it greens out and grows over time it will disguise the area behind it, which will please you. Well doneTeam Te-Pi

Hi all, sorry for the delay in responsing, i have been out doing the finishing touches, it has been tremedous fun to make, and Brooke loves her new den, the problem is going to be getting her in. and yes it is a living structure so won't need any tipe of covering, there are a few buds already on the tips of the willow, so looking forward to seeing it in leaf. and yes Trees i had thought i would weave in the new stems, is there any reason that you did not do this the first year? or am i safe to do it this year? and Spritz the arch is currently laying on the grass i had to take it out as it would have been in the way, but it will be going back in place, but i need to remove the cement at the base of where it will be going before i can get it back into the ground, as the te-pi has pushed it accross by an inch or two which has ment the right hand legs are on the cement - not very stable. i am going to be putting the trellis the other side too, so i may wait and do it all at once and cement one side in with the fence posts.

and there are a couple of quick update photos coming in a mo. i have opted for a lovely evergreen clematis in the back corner behind the te-pi, and some ferns, i will proberly be adding another two, winter flowering/evergreen clematis, one each side, and even some morning glory for this year until it gets going so we shall see.

Its Looking Fab Ang No wonder ur having Probs getting Brooke Indoors :)X

Good for you, Brooke! New toys are meant to be played with, tell Mum. XX

Very good will look forward to seeing your progress report...when is your first pow wow ?and can we all come please.... I will bring my pipe of peace.

sorry Lindaloganb, i missed that comment, i think there are several on line companies but the one i used - and yes would definately recommend is the willow bank company. just tap that into google and it should come up.

and yes she has definately played with it all right. a few weeks ago i saw this really nice little hard wood garden bench - Brooke size - in the sale in my favorite garden shop in town, only £19 really well made, did'nt buy it at the time as skint (for a change lol) well we had to go to the post office this afternoon, and had some cash so thought i would pop in there on the off chance it was still there, and what do you know..there it was, last one, perfect size perfect colour and Brooke says very compfy, so she now has her own little seat in there too, will take some pic's tomorrow, and i will let you know when we have our first pow wow DD2 - although we could have rather a lot of 3 and 4 year olds present, so it would be a case of come at your own risk really lol

Hi Angie and Brooke, must say I'm very impressed with the finished result and it was great fun to help you construct this, can't wait till the leaves come and it's all green. is Brooke still quoting her "team work" song, she is so gorgeous and loves her garden nearly as much as her mum! See you both very soon, love and big hugs Polly! as in Polly and Percy! xxxx

Yes she is still singing it, and referring to us all as team te-pi - she has a lovely little bench to sit on in there now, you'll have to come and see very soon - so when is round 2 over in your garden then? lol thanks so much hon xxxxx

Sorry I meant throughout the first year I wove the new shoots in.

I have a clematis growing up mine, it's only little as I planted it last year. Also there is a wisteria growing up the other side.

I like the idea of ferns around the base I might have to move one of mine.

Keep the pics comming.

It looks really fantastic ! the brick edge is a nice neat touch

thank you, and yes Trees i think the ferns around the base are really finishing it off nicely, once they get going might give a bit of a jugle effct. and thanks Linda, the bricks used to be around her little flower garden that we moved to make the fairy garden (still a work in progress) they fit in quite nicely don't they.

I love this idea..what a great Fariy Garden piece..I have learned so much from this blog Angie..thank you so much for showing us this...! I will be keeping this in mind for sure!..I love Fairy gardens! What fun....!

A lovely little area, particularly for Brooke to play in. Nice istructional blog but I think I'll stick to plants and seeds etc, it looks a bit complicated to me. I never was much of a DIYer as my wife will confirm. I hope you and Brooke enjoyit!

I like it. A lot. Trouble is grandson no3 arrived just after Christmas so I would have to make a gert bigun or buy three.

Catfinch - glad you enjoyed the read, it was so much fun to make, and Paul, it really is not as hard as you think - honest, the instructions are spot on and we had a DVD with a demonstration, it only took a couple of hours from scratch, and Brooke was able to get involved too. and Hameryllis, you can make them as big as you like, this one would easy hold 3 kids quite happy, but this is the smallest size kit, - but as big as it will go if that makes sense, the next one up would make one from 1.5m accross upto 2.5m accross even more if you make the door bigger. you can manipulate it to sute the space you have and the size you want, there is no hard and fast.

thanks for this! I'd found some pics from another GoYer on building a living willow arch, but I found them out of sequence, and no how-to. Took me about an hour's searching GoY to find this blog - now I'm going to hang on to it and lrean it off by heart!