BASKET CASE

HOUSTON — Bonnie Kinne of Meadow Lakes added some green to her thumb Saturday while learning about the birds and the bees.

Kinne was among the hundreds who packed into classrooms and the lunchroom at Houston Middle School for the Spring Gardening Symposium, the fourth annual event presented by North Root Big Lake Gardeners. Along with general information for the home gardener, the symposium featured a slate of 45-minute workshops on more specific gardening-related topics.

In “The Birds and Bees of Your Garden,” Kinne joked she learned “all the basics” about the birds and the bees.

“It’s all really fabulous,” she said. “There are all kinds of ideas and such a big turnout. Also, there are a lot of bright gardening minds here.”

One of those minds belongs to Cheri Ables, owner of Basket Case Beads in Big Lake, who presented “Weaving Living Willows” to a standing-room-only class of about 60. While demonstrating some techniques for willow weaving, she shared some of her secrets and tips for maximizing living and harvested willow.

With more than 600 species of willow in Alaska, hobbyists have a large variety of colors and types of trees to choose from, she said. Most important is to cultivate and manipulate living trees into some attractive and interesting shapes that can become the backdrop for “limitless” weaving.

The trick, she said, is to prune the trees so there are only about five main branches coming out, called “weavers.” Then, as the years pass, the branches will grow back longer and more pliable each year.

“As long as you have your sturdy branches, it will work,” she said. “As you cut throughout the year, you’re going to have some really, really skinny branches.”

Which is desirable, she said.

“All those trees you see (woven) on the way to Talkeetna? We’ve been braiding those for about five years and now they just grow that way naturally,” she said.

But it’s after making the basic structure that the fun and creativity begins, she said. That’s when gardeners can use other natural materials like grasses or fireweed, or other more colorful species of willow, to create designs and hanging baskets from their bent willows. Because the main trees are alive, they continue to grow after being bent and woven, she said.

“That’s where your imagination comes in,” Ables said. “Create whatever you want in your garden.”

Some people weave willow trees together at the top to create arches, and Ables and her family have even made a fort for their children from bent and woven willow.

“It’s really easy, a lot of fun and the kids really have fun with it too,” she said. “And, it’s really addicting.”

Kit Young of Meadow Lakes said she caught the living willow bug after attending Ables’ workshop. Although she doesn’t have willow on her property, she’s going to go find some. She’s also impressed with the creative use of a resource many deem a pest plant.

“I’m glad she’s finding a use for something that many people find a nuisance,” Young said. “You just turn your imagination loose.”

Weaving willow isn’t the only good gardening idea Young picked up at the symposium. She also learned about grafting onto apple trees, which she’ll try “to make sure the moose have more apples.”

A member of the Meadow Lakes Gardening Club, Young “was raised in the garden,” and said she enjoys opportunities to learn more, but wishes there were more youth at Saturday’s event.

“Kids just don’t get around to (gardening) much anymore,” she said.

Although not kids anymore, Yvonne and Dawson Lindblom of Big Lake were nearly as excited by all the information at the symposium.

“We’re separating to get maximum coverage” of the workshops, Dawson said.

He attended a morning session on creating greenhouses, while she studied how to make soil as healthy as possible. They plan to plan potatoes, carrots, lettuce, beans, peas, radishes and tomatoes, and Dawson may look into making a greenhouse.

“I learned they can be very inexpensive or they can be extremely expensive,” he said about building your own greenhouse. “The technique depends on how much you spend on it. You don’t want it to be so expensive you end up paying $1.50 for every tomato you raise.”

And like her friend Kinne, Big Lake resident Arlene Butler also learned about the birds and bees. She’s especially interested in attracting more birds to her feeders.

The workshop helped her with “where to put birdhouses and feeders, and what they like to eat,” she said. “I’m going to get the suet that I haven’t been using. It’s supposed to attract woodpeckers.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.