I have heard of training apple trees against walls to make beautiful patterns but I had never heard of this sort of tree manipulation until now. Check out this plan for a living playground made from living trees!
Apparently it’s fairly common to tie young trees into knots and such to make interesting shapes years later. One man dedicated much of his life to making all sorts of fantastic tree furniture and sculptures and there’s even an amusement park full of his trees that he started out in California.
Now researchers from Tel Aviv University and the company Plantware are partnering up to grow structures from trees on a commercial scale – including bus shelters, playgrounds, and even houses.
It sounds so whimsical and fun, but like it would requires SO much patience!
If you want to find out more and see lots of links with other examples, click here.
I’m thinking we’ll have to take a look at some of the little lilac and maple volunteers in the back yard and see if we can make them a little more interesting…