[Cob] Cob, pleaching and a living home

[Kathryn Marsh]

Seems like a lovely idea doesn't it. I've been making the occasional 
willow structure for many years now and they are really, really 
difficult to maintain - even a fence will turn into a jungle 
overnight given half a chance and last week it took two of us several 
days to hack our way through a play tunnel built for children only 
three years ago - or at least to hack through it in a way that would 
leave it in a navigable condition for the aforementioned tunnel. Four 
members of my gardening class spent the whole morning pruning a seat 
that had also been neglected for a whole year. A lot of the problem 
comes from the fact that any tree that grows fast enough to weave 
into a large structure also grows fast enough to simply swallow 
anything within reach. The stems in the tunnel were an inch across 
when they were planted three years ago and are three inches across 
now. Windows do more than flex - they close up in only a few years, 
and I've seen doors that were six feet across having to have a saw 
taken to them after less than a dozen years. In fact I know a teepee 
that was thirty feet high in eight years - the following year the 
whole structure blew over in a gale - willow cracks easily. The idea 
of a metal or plastic framework covered with vines seems more 
practical in a suitable climate. But otherwise you would need to use 
a slower growing species - which misses a lot of the point I think.

Frankly, if I'm going to combine cob and a woven structure I'll keep 
the rooting end of the woven structure out of the ground and use it 
support the cob I think

kathryn - just off to plant another length of willow fence - some 
people never learn