As the weather warms up big time here in Chicago, I am super thrilled to get back out in my garden, which, to a Brit like me, means yard to all those born and bred in America. When I say garden most Americans assume I mean a vegetable patch! I can’t bring myself to use the word yard. It conjures up a concrete courtyard with a dead fridge in the corner!
So I came across the video where this guy makes a super cool structure which can be used for garden climbing plants.
I just had to have a go!
The structure uses willow, which a soft bendy wood which grows incredibly quickly. Luckily for me I was able to source and harvest exactly the right stuff at the local forest preserve where I volunteer. We generally remove it so I was doing nothing untoward! However in my quest to get it, I did pick up a substantial number of ticks. There is noting like driving home an feeling them crawling on your face while doing 60 miles an hour down a highway! Fortunately none of them embedded.
What you will need
- An odd number of straight sticks. Willow works best but really any straight sticks will work and even those bamboo canes you can purchase. My sticks were about 6ft
- A zip tie
- Soft bendy boughs. For me, I used to top sections of the willow sticks I collected and I didn’t bother removing any leaves!
I built my willow obelisk straight into a large garden planter which worked just fine and used a zip tie to gather the sticks together. The bendy boughs were woven through the upright sticks and spiraled up the structure. The video explains how to do this perfectly!
![wicker garden climber tutorial](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/wicker-obelisk-tutorial-562x1024.jpg)
![](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/wicker-obelisk.jpg)
My structure was not quite as neat as the one in the video but the end result is such a beautiful rustic sculpture. Here it is completed. The leafy parts of the boughs I used for the weaving part, died off nicely.
![](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/wicker-oberisk-1.jpg)
![](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ziptie-sticks.jpg)
![](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/diy-climber-plants2.jpg)
I planted my container up with a clematis and sowed some sweet peas and here it is today – the middle of June.
Now as you can see the willow itself it sprouting quite dramatically from the top sticks and I could pinch that all out, but I like it. I have been removing the sprouts that appear along the lengths of the sticks though.
![](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DIY-garden-climber-support.jpg)
![](https://www.creativeinchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ziptie-sticks-growing.jpg)