Escape the stress – festive and otherwise – with a midwinter project that weaves calm, control and creativity back into the season.
Tight. Knotted. Coiled like a wound-up, corroding spring. Stuck. All too much. That’s where my mind is right now. It wasn’t a quick journey getting there, via the stress-fuelled frustration superhighway – but I know a route back involving mere hours, only a few welcome and relaxing footsteps weaving out into my garden, an artful eye, and my hands. This path has saved my sanity many times before, and it never lets me down. I call it the great unwinder.
It might be just what you need right now, too, so grab your secateurs.
To begin, we need a good bundle of fresh and pliable shoots up to 1.5m (5ft) long, with an exemplary degree of sinuousness – dead or rigid and brittle shoots won’t help us weave our way to calm. My go-to stems come from the colourful-barked willows I planted many moons ago. These provide a winter harvest of whippy shoots that can easily be bent into a circle of a diameter of your choosing – the product of this therapy session is destined to look magnificent on a gate, wall or door, so bear that in mind when deciding on the size. I might also include some long and flexible hazel, silver birch, wild willow, dogwood or vigorous young larch shoots – whatever my unwinding wanderings proffer.
I’ll also amass a trove of seasonal decorations that you’ll not find in the shops: berries such as holly (if I can beat the blackbirds and fieldfares to it) or hawthorn, dog rose hips, storm-downed lichens from the wood, pine and spruce cones, ivy (glossy shoots and any dangling, liana-like stems), bilberry shoots (they have sinuosity to die for) and other evergreen foliage, faded hydrangea mops, teasels, any seed heads and pods, and if you can bear to snip them, fresh winter flowers such as mahonia for their exquisite scent. In fact, you can use anything from your garden (or anyone else’s, with their blessing), that catches your eye as a recruit to your mind-mending plan.
Get yourself masses of stuff, so you can pick out the best bits as your creativity and mind run free. Lay your riches out before you: a clear potting bench – this is a must-do-in-the-greenhouse project, rain, hail or gale be damned – or a wallpapering table are ideal. Just gazing on your haul will loosen that knot. Relax!
The only knots you need worry about are those you’ll tie in whatever you use to bind and decorate your mood-lifting, nature-inspired masterpiece. So it’s out with the baler twine and in with twine made from coir, cotton, hemp, jute or sisal. Raffia comes in a rainbow of colours and is the earth-friendly gardener’s stylish answer to gaudy, man-made ribbon. It’s not as tough as other bindings, but it’s ultra versatile and can be split lengthways into delicate, hair-like strands. I’ve turned heads after tying it into multicoloured bows to adorn a simple willow swirl.
I have a golden, unbendable rule and I want you to stick to it: everything we’re going to entwine together must eventually rot away to nothing, either in your compost bin or heap (you’re allowed to shred it first) or under a hedge. So that means no plastic, painted, sprayed, glittered, fake-snow-dusted, wired, fake or synthetic anything, whether it’s tat or not (and so much is). Trust me, you’ll feel so much better knowing that everything that goes into your therapeutic session will quietly decay (no microplastic or ‘forever chemical’ pollution for us), because everything’s derived from plants.
I know – you’re going to cheat and slip in a favourite bow, bauble or other seasonal decoration that you – or your loved ones – adore, and that’s OK (but I beg you, no tinsel). Just keep shtum about it, and don’t let it anywhere near your compost heap…
‘Wreath’ always sounds a tad funereal to me, and this season is lightless and sombre enough anyway. So I’m happier with ‘swirl’ – or ‘circle’, even. Let the weaving away of our worries commence and the healing begin.
Decide on your swirl’s rough diameter and grab a shoot to form the initial circle (the thicker end can be made more co-operative by flexing it first), then weave it, up and over, corkscrew-like, clockwise, around the circle, until the thinnest end of the shoot is wound onto it. To stop the circle unravelling – the rest of the swirl will be entwined around it, so it must hold its shape – tie it off tightly with twine at the thickest end of the shoot.
Using this binding as a reference point, feed the next shoot under the circle, then wind it up and over, following the same clockwise, corkscrew-like pattern. Up and over. The thin end can be tucked into a gap or snipped off. Lay the next shoot just ahead of the previous one, and repeat, so all the shoots run in the same direction, strengthening the swirl as it grows thicker.
It’s easy to become blissfully lost here; the repetitive, meditative concentration needed is brain balm, and I can’t get enough of it. It sets the mind’s spring at ease, starting a gentle uncoiling. Time will fly. The touch and flexing of the stems between your fingers; the swirl taking shape, gaining weight and girth; something unique born of your garden’s winter bounty; you being artful, in your own domain – smile all you want; this is nature at its restorative, personal best. Swirl away, stress be gone.
For a solid, circular swirl, the thinner ends of each shoot can be woven into the circle and then neatly snipped off. I like to add some fun to mine by letting the thinner ends of the shoots fly away free and spoke-like. It looks good, and helps the swirl find its balance and pose before you start to bedeck it.
Celebrate making your swirl, even if you have a few false starts. I guarantee you’ll be feeling looser, unknotted, uncoiled, unstuck and simply calmer, in mind, body and spirit, even before the decorating begins, which is where you can let rip with the shapes, textures, colours – and the pure joy of creating.
A swirl can be a work of horticultural artistry in itself, especially if you weave it from coloured stems, able to catch the eye without further ado. You can add as little or as much decoration as you choose; let your uplifted mood decide. Use the gaps in the swirl to anchor shoots carrying berries, greenery and flowers, working them tightly between the stems (you can cheat and tie them in with twine to get the positioning right). Decorations need to be anchored well if your swirl is going on parade outdoors. Cutting the ends of shoots at an angle makes inserting them a cinch. Lichens, flowers and other softer materials will need handling more gently and tying carefully to the swirling stems.
Don’t rush. Bedeck a bit, then stand back. Hold the swirl where you fancy it’s going to look good (you’ll want to show it off). Switch your winter treasures around, group colours together, or try contrasts. Be as arty-farty as you want. Simple might be best – too fussy can become blobby. Play around.
Enjoy yourself, have fun – this is the fabulous finale of the great unwinding. I’m feeling better – chilled. Are you?
Words and images © John Walker
Find John on X @earthFgardener