Make Simple, Beautiful Garden Fences and Trellises

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While the art of wattle weaving is generally more detailed than described here, I created a simple, useful hurdle — here’s how it’s done. First prepare five posts that are about 1½ inches in diameter, and 12 inches longer than the anticipated hurdle height. (Crowded saplings taken from the woods work great.) Use a hatchet to sharpen the bases of the posts, then drive them into the ground, 14 inches apart and 12 inches deep. I used a piece of rebar to make guide holes for my posts since I was pounding them into hard clay. You can also make a baseboard for the fence by splitting a long log in half and drilling holes along it for the posts.

Collect a number of long, supple branches and weave them in and out of the posts, allowing the ends to protrude. Alternate the weave of each new row by starting it on the opposite side of the post from the last row. Also alternate the base ends of the branches with tip ends, since the thick bases give a tighter weave. After each branch is in place, push it down to the base of the fence. When you are satisfied with the panel, use loppers to trim off the ends.

For extra stability, I wove hemp string through the ends to further tighten the hurdle. When working with sticks, I’ve come to regard hemp string as the duct tape of the craft. If something’s not quite right, you can usually fix it with hemp string, though traditional wattle hurdles are crafted by wrapping the weaving branches around the end posts to secure them. For more on traditional wattle craft, see “To Learn More” below.

Craft Towers and Trellises

Woven wattle hurdles require lots of branches, but you can make a beautiful twig tower for growing any type of vining plant using only a half dozen 6-foot-long sections. For my beginner’s project (see Image Gallery), I made a tower in a large soil-filled pot.

Stick the uprights as far down into the pot as they’ll go, at equal intervals, to hold the tower steady. Next, wire the top ends of the uprights together. I made two “stretcher” hoops to add structure to the inside of the tower. Using pliable branches and wire, I slipped a small hoop inside the top section of the tower, and a larger one near the bottom. The hoops and wires I used to fasten them together (and to the uprights) disappeared as I wove pieces of grapevine into the tower.

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