Finding My Cadence and What’s In A Fedge?
So I think that, at least for awhile here, I plan to add content to the site almost daily in the form of either a review or a blog post. That will be in addition to the other portions of the site that I will fill out as time permits. Today I spent hours adding to the Garden-2022 page, and I think that’s mostly sufficient; the page is almost done and then it will be on the adding my first project post. Spoiler: It’s a fedge.
What’s a fedge you may be asking. A fedge is a fence made of living material (i.e. a hedge of some sort), frequently willow canes planted at 45 degree angles and woven together to form a decorative living barrier.
In my case I’m going to attempt this with Flame Willow due to the brightly colored canes and foliage. Unfortunately willow canes of the appropriate length (seven feet or so) are somewhat expensive to get here in the US because willow farming is nowhere near as prolific as it is in Europe, unless you go through the state, but going that route limits the cane size and available cane type somewhat dramatically. That means that my fedge is going to take a few years, because first I need to get some Flame Willow started on my property and then I’ll need to coppice it back. I’d rather pollard it instead of coppicing it just to save a bit of back strain but the rods I received are only about 10” long so I don’t really have a choice in the matter.
At least for the first year anyways. Then I can take one of the new canes, plant that, and pollard accordingly come winter. After a couple of years I hope to have enough Flame Willow growing on the property to allow me to start planting the fedge.