Make Simple, Beautiful Garden Fences and Trellises

Image Gallery Wattle fences are made by weaving flexible green sapling wood between upright posts. LYNN KARLIN

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Whether you call them suckers, water sprouts or stump twigs, chances are you have a pretty low opinion of the long, skinny branches that grow from tree stumps or inhabit ditches and fencerows.

But wait — instead of resenting woody whips that insist on regrowing year after year, why not turn them into an asset? Armed with an active imagination and a lopping pruner, you can transform green sticks into pretty trellises, fence panels and plant supports. These simple structures are easy to make, cost practically nothing, and give your garden a handcrafted look. Indeed, once you get the hang of making things with bent and woven wood, you might find yourself wanting to grow these useful branches on purpose.

This is not a new idea. Beginning in the Bronze Age, when knives, saws and hatchets came into use, many Europeans and early residents of the British Isles developed wattle work, the art of weaving branches into walls, fences and roofs. Wattle fences are made by weaving flexible green sapling wood between upright posts, like a wooden tapestry, so they’re both beautiful and strong. They were originally used to contain domestic animals, such as sheep. These days, wattle weaving is a great way to build all kinds of useful rustic garden accents from sustainably harvested wood.

Historical Wattle Work

English wattle fences were historically made from willow or hazel wood, both of which are flexible by nature. Wattle work still is a viable small industry in rural Great Britain, where underwood trees are cut back near the base (coppiced) every few years to allow a new crop of fresh shoots to emerge.

Lee Zieke Lee of Willowglen Nursery in Decorah, Iowa, grows willows for the sole purpose of coppicing them every fall, then uses the branches she harvests to make baskets and willow towers. “Close spacing helps the branches grow tall and slender, but they get thick and branchy if you let them go too long — which is two years in our area,” she says. Lee grows more than 30 varieties of willow, all of which are well-behaved selections that don’t spread by producing vigorous root buds the way many native species do. “You can work with native willows, but not in your yard. With most native species, it’s better to coppice them in the wild,” she says.

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