Utilizing Damaged Branches as Plant Helps

By Marjorie Vendrig, Grasp Gardener in Coaching

Gardeners and municipal providers in Peterborough and areas hit by the ice-storm are busy choosing up the damaged branches and limbs and utilizing them for metropolis compost and recycling applications.

One other use for a few of this wooden is perhaps present in our personal gardens, repurposing them to be used as stakes and helps. The timing for the ice storm was good; the damaged branches are younger and supple and with out leaves to allow them to be bent simply and formed to go well with wants. Small branches could be bent or twisted to create low helps for perennials or annuals that grow to be leggy because the season progresses or to prop up flowers because the crops bloom. Heavier and longer branches can be utilized as poles for teepees in vegetable gardens for beans and peas or for climbers comparable to candy peas and clematis.

British and European gardeners have traditionally averted plastic and steel as backyard helps, as a substitute ‘pea sticks’ are the norm. Pea sticks are normally coppiced hazel branches, however any younger pliable wooden will work. Birch, lilac, purple dogwood, together with oak and maple twigs and branches are on the prime of the listing, willow is in style as nicely but it surely tends to root and sprout – a bonus or drawback relying on the place and the way it’s used. In some circumstances, a department with a number of twigs and small progress is your best option because the plant will develop below and over the branches. In in different situations the small twigs would possibly seem messy and a visible distraction. When deciding on your sticks, it’s essential to keep in mind your backyard aesthetic – are you going for the scrambling abundance of a rustic backyard, or the formal construction of a basic retreat? Sarah Raven, a widely known British gardener has taken issues a step additional and made an effort to make use of solely native wooden when creating plant helps for her vegetable gardens.

Within the ice-storm clear up, I collected a number of branches to be used as helps. My candy pea seedlings are able to plant outdoors, they’ll be good rising up and across the damaged department of a really particular cornus Kousa, a tragic loss from the storm. The lengthy stem on the underside is reduce off at a pointy angle to be pushed into the mushy spring soil as deep as attainable. The unfold of the small twigs and branches shall be near the bottom inside simple attain of the seedlings planted across the base the place they may rapidly develop up and thru the twigs and branches. Clematis would additionally do nicely on this construction and it’s doubtless robust sufficient to resist a number of seasons. The favored annual mandevilla vine is one other sensible choice as a climber. All add vertical curiosity to backyard design.

My scrambling cotoneaster grew to become too leggy and suffered so much this winter. It’s now had a tough prune and I’m utilizing the reduce offs to create small department cages round some perennials. Yarrow, nepeta, tradescantia, and phlox are good candidates for this straightforward method. 4 or extra lengthy branches, every about 3’ lengthy and with the same diameter have been chosen. The brand new spring progress from the cutoffs will quickly flip brown so I snipped off the brand new

progress and twigs, then pushed the thick finish of every department into the soil about 6” from its base, repeating this on the different three corners, to create 4 factors of a field across the plant. The upright ends of the branches are then bent into hoops in the direction of the other nook and wound round each other to create a hoop. Extra assist is supplied on the entrance the place the plant flops in the direction of the solar. I’ve made the ring about 2/3 the ultimate peak of the plant and may be capable to enhance the peak a bit by untwisting the ends a bit, if essential. On the finish of the season, I’ll depart the hoops in place if they’re sturdy sufficient for an additional season or add them to the compost pile.

My approach could be very a lot that of a newbie; I anticipate I’ll refine issues with extra observe. Even nonetheless, the pure wooden hoops are extra interesting than a plastic pole with string round it. In formal gardens within the UK, I’ve seen cages of plant helps which might be artistic endeavors in themselves. All of it takes time and endurance.