Arbosculpture for beginners

Arbosculpture for beginnersBuilding with live plants is an idea that has been known for a long time. This art used in landscape design is called arbosculpture, its founder is Axel Erlandson. Related types of such “green” craftsmanship include topiary and bonsai.

The ability of trees to grow together

The famous German arbosculptor Arthur Vihula calls the power of trees growing together the ability of plants to connect with each other, grow together and at the same time become a single whole.

This cohesion force allows the creation of structures of extraordinary stability, structures that will withstand any storm or earthquake. It is a construction method with a positive energy balance and an efficient way of using solar energy directly. Construction is carried out without environmental load due to lack of energy consumption. At the same time, trees do not consume oxygen, but produce it. They form humus and are the living space for a variety of living organisms.

Building with trees requires more than just a piece of land in the open air. We’ll have to stock up on patience, strong will, courage and, of course, imagination. You need a clear idea of ​​what you want to accomplish. Real residential buildings made of living trees, even with a reservation, are hardly possible in our latitudes. However, shady gazebos for relaxation and leisure activities in the garden, square and park are quite realizable in our country.

The advantage of our climate lies in the fact that many types of trees quickly form trunk wood, thanks to which, in a few years, strong living arbors will grow, which can be used throughout the summer cottage period. It is even possible to make simple platforms for horses and car parks, while the labor costs for such structures will be small. For the landscape, such a structure will definitely be more interesting than a boardwalk. At the same time, such buildings, as a rule, do not need to obtain a building permit. Even skeptics will have nothing to say against such plans, they will only have to smile contemptuously. But even their attitude will change when the work begins, and in a few years the original structure will grow.

Dry mind and calculation alone will not be enough to assess the significance of this idea. Only when looking at her soul and heart will all her splendor be revealed. The use of plants gives us a completely new understanding of nature. Using living trees and shrubs to create tables, chairs and benches from them, simple structures, open air gazebos, and finally – after several years – perhaps residential buildings, completely new perspectives open up.

As we ourselves can see, planting willow rods and bundles of rods to create living arbors, their corridors and similar structures is quite common in the modern world. First of all, such objects can be found in institutions such as kindergartens, orphanages and schools. Freshly cut willow twigs are planted as deeply as possible in the loosened soil, which must then be constantly moistened. The planted branch ends take root and continue to grow with a bunch of shoots. This is not a question of obtaining locked walls by accretion and formation of trunks, rather the goal is to obtain a spatial form as quickly as possible due to the dense arrangement of shrubs and the rapid growth of their shoots.

Unfortunately, it is still little known that thanks to the sowing or planting of seedlings that have taken root, forming the trunk and wood, it is possible to create living arbors, and from arbors (after a certain time) – closed buildings.

The basic principle

Arbosculpture uses the ability of trunk-forming trees and shrubs to grow together with the same species.

In a similar way to plant grafting, parts of trees grow together until the tissue of cell formation, located directly under the bark and bast, the so-called cambium, which is also responsible for the transfer of building materials formed in the sheet, does not come into contact with the cambium to another parts of a tree of the same plant species.

If trees of the same species are stably connected to each other for a sufficiently long time, then they grow together without incision, grafting or any other intervention of the gardener. Some tree species, like hornbeam or beech, grow together relatively quickly and easily. Others, in turn, such as sycamore maple, require more time for these purposes. The larger, thicker and rougher the bark, the more difficult it is for tissue areas that conduct nutrients and tissue areas that form cells to come into contact with each other, and the longer the parts of trees remain separated from each other.

Advance fusion, which is used for the construction of large parts of walls and roofs, when creating living arbors, we do not need. However, this fusion is necessary in the manufacture of benches, chairs and other fusion of small parts, which should have the most even surfaces. Fusion can be achieved if we purposefully connect the cambium at the intersection points of the boreholes by notching and joining, screwing or drilling.

The final density depends not only on the number of twigs and branches interwoven, but also, first of all, on the volume of individual trunks that increases during growth. Due to the growth in thickness, the holes in the weave become narrower until they finally become completely closed and a dense wall forms.

All side shoots are recommended to be woven. However, this not only loses vision, but also makes it difficult to determine if each individual frame is getting enough light and space. As a result, weaker shrubs may die in a maze of twigs, leaves and branches. In addition, the growth of the tree in length (height) in this case decreases.

As often happens with narrow and densely growing trees in forest reserves, in addition to lateral branches, other leading shoots are also formed. They compete with the main escape. In professional language, this phenomenon is called branching or bifurcation of the tree trunk.

In order for our shrubs, planted in a row, to concentrate all their strength in a single shoot, we will prevent the growth of competing shoots and side branches, and thus ensure that young geysters (usually large seedlings up to 2 meters high) after a short period of time, they will form the walls and ceiling.

Each such tree will grow in the future with only one main shoot. Other shoots are left only to close the gaps that have developed around window and door openings.

During several growing seasons, the weaving of the frame of our premises gradually appears.

Only when the main shoot has grown, then from individual seedlings, in order to obtain dense walls as quickly as possible in the lower part of our structure, side branches are added. In this case, the growing side shoots should be woven upward, and the branches forming the trains – to the side or diagonally downward.

The weaving process does not have any specific rules. Therefore, the plants do not need to be measured with a ruler and level. They should only be supported on each other and try to keep on the same line.

Only when the wall and roof are ready, and the tree with its crown is at a height accessible to light, growth in thickness begins. From this moment, the cells quickly overgrow, and a massive, dense wall appears. The unevenness of the trees themselves smooth out during the growth in thickness. If we want to grow not massive, but only light, bright live arbors, then we can achieve this by timely pruning. The easiest way to prevent the growth in thickness is by keeping the crown small.

Through the internal pathways, all nutrients are transported from the ground up to the leaf. External pathways carry the assimilates (building materials) formed in the leaf with the help of sunlight and necessary for the structure of the plant down to the external and internal parts of the plant.

Most of these materials are used to grow the trunk, resulting in thickening. Over time, young, nondescript shoots grow to mighty trunks and form a massive wall and roof between them. All dense parts of the building with its holes and structures (gallery, balcony, stairs made of wood, etc.) pass exactly in those places where we planted, bent and pulled out once young, flexible and easily woven small trunks of seedlings. In doing so, we must take into account the individual characteristics and nature of the growth of living plants, and the basic laws of nature.

Nature does hard work, all the power of which we use for our purposes with the help of fairly simple actions. The work of humans is only to use their imagination and intelligence and use their hands to plant shrubs, care for them and arrange young shoots in accordance with their goals.

These photos show the unique masterpieces of arbosculpture, created by the highest class masters:

Arbosculpture for beginners
Arbosculpture for beginners
Arbosculpture for beginners
Arbosculpture for beginners

Basic terms

Before starting to master the art of arbosculpture with their own hands, novice gardeners should familiarize themselves with the basic terms:

  • Geysters are repeatedly transplanted seedlings, young trees with a height of 80 cm to 2 m.
  • The root collar denotes a place on a young plant, which is located in the upper earth substrate, where the trunk ends and the root begins.
  • The butt is the base of a mature, old tree, which marks the area where the root leaves the soil and goes into the trunk.
  • The trunk (of a young plant) is the vertical main ground shoot of a young tree.
  • A bough is an old and large lateral outgrowth from a tree trunk.
  • A branch is a young and small shoot growing from a trunk or a bitch.
  • The shoot is a one-year-old, recently blossoming, well-growing, originally herbaceous tree.
  • The drain designates the area that is vertically below the outer branches. Rainwater mainly flows down in this place. In this area, trees predominantly form thin hair roots (adventive roots). With the help of these thin roots, the plant absorbs water and nutrients.
  • Loops are thick branches that grow in the lower and middle region of the trunk in a horizontal direction. These branches do not develop upward, but horizontally in the lateral direction or even obliquely downward. They protect the barrel from direct sunlight. For freestanding trees, these branches are especially necessary. They are removed to obtain “non-knotty” wood. On the trees that grow along the streets of cities, these branches are often scattered from the side facing the street, which is extremely inappropriate. These plumes cover, shade and protect from excessive heat and strong solar radiation and, therefore, from drying out, not only the trunk and butt, but also part of the soil that has sprouted by the roots.
  • The crown is the common upper part of the tree, which is located above the trunk and forms the habit (outer shape) of the tree.
  • The growing season refers to the time a plant grows from spring to autumn, during which it vegetatively develops its roots, shoots and leaves.
  • Assimilates are growth products formed in the leaf due to sunlight.
  • Adventive (adventitious) roots – one of the types of roots. In this case, we are talking about the finest root fibers, which are formed by root wood or lignified cuttings and penetrate into the smallest cracks in the earth to seek out and absorb water and nutrients.

Do trees in arbosculpture suffer?

Are we committing violence against nature, against the tree’s right to free development, when we change its shape, turning the tree into walls, roofs or chairs? Everyone who has ever seen, felt and learned from their own experience how trees over time more and more grips each other, connect with each other and, finally, become one whole, while carelessly and continuously continuing to grow and reach for the light, that will immediately understand that no plant suffers from this. Each organism is made up of a large number of small units. The combination of the smallest elements into one large whole is always associated with the limitation of individuals. However, this creates a precondition for the development of higher organisms. These organisms re-develop their own growth and unfold new powers. It should be noted that the trees in the weaving of a living gazebo have a longer lifespan than in any other situation. So, for example, a house made of linden, maple or beech can easily be filled with juice for 150 years.

In the forest, a single plant has more space, but it is cut down as soon as it reaches its optimal size (unless the tree, of course, was cut down and burned in its young years during thinning work in forest plantations). Wood from a living structure, even after the end of the natural, vegetatively active life time – after the appropriate preparation, that is, separation from soil moisture – will be able to serve subsequent generations for a long time.

Wicker hedges

We can use the principle of the wicker wall when planting a hedge. If we want to first get an impenetrable delimitation of a plot of land, then we cut off all the lateral shoots of all the largest growing trellis plants, and we intertwine the trees directly when planting. In this way, we get a natural hedge similar to the famous hunting hedge.

Arbosculpture for beginners

We can grow a natural hedge to any height. If the lower part is intertwined, then the upper shoots can be left short to form a kind of palisade. If the trees continue to grow, then an impassable hedge in the form of an alley will appear. Within a few years, a dense, impenetrable wall will form, which will become a protection from noise and wind, and which will also delimit large areas and land plots, that is, it will be a “living” fence. This will primarily be useful for orchards and vegetable gardens, which, as a rule, need both a hedge and planting plants with protection from the wind.

Trees in a wicker wall may not grow together. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to work exclusively with one species of trees. On the contrary, it may seem more attractive to use trees with different foliage or wood colors.

Arbosculpture for beginners

This method of a wicker hedge or wicker wall is also rational for creating a fenced pasture for horses and livestock. In addition to the fence, the hedge serves to protect animals from wind and bad weather. The walnut shelter prevents even annoying flies. In order not to damage the bark of a young hedge, it is recommended not to hinder the development of the lateral process. This process can then be eaten by grazing animals, while the surface of the shrub trellis will not be affected. Thanks to this, animals have the opportunity to find minerals useful for their development in the foliage of trees, which are usually absent on the territory of the meadow. Animals, on the contrary, cannot reach the upper process, so it can grow in height without damage to itself.

Since strong and successfully growing trees that can be easily shortened, such as hornbeam, field maple, forest apple and other similar varieties, are mainly used as planting material, wood appears when pruning, which must be carried out every 4-5 years , which can also be used on the farm. The new type of wood shredder produces valuable biomass from the cuttings within a short time.

To connect the various parts of the park and the garden and create rooms in which it is necessary to improve the microclimate, it turned out to be possible and not difficult to form a covered gallery from such a wall of plants with an entrance arch and an arch of the gate.

Arbosculpture for beginners

If we want to make gaps in the wicker fence, then in the right places we cut off the side shoots up to the intertwined main trunks. The protective effect of the fence will remain unchanged in the same way as it is in the case of a fence made of wood or metal wicker. Clearances can be especially attractive near terraces or in areas where we want to create the right lighting conditions for summer flowers, shrubs and other plants that love shade or partial shade. All small-crowned trunk trees such as hornbeam (Carpinus petulus) and field maple (Acer campestre) are well suited for these wicker hedges. Even birch (Betula pendula), especially paper birch (Betula rarurifera) with white bark, or wild apple tree (Malus sylvestrus) are taken into account for the creation of wicker hedges.

Anyone looking for something a little more unusual will find highly exclusive varieties in tree species such as the ash-leaved maple or American maple (Acer negundo) with its smooth and shiny bark, with shades of green; in various varieties of maple with variegated foliage, such as the yellow ash-leaved maple (Acer negundo “Odessanumr”); in the silver ash-leaved maple (Acer negundo “Variegatumy”), in the copper birch (Betula albonensis), as well as in the ginnala maple (Acer ginnala), which are quite large and fairly strong.

Privet, honeysuckle, spirea, and similar low-growing and pruning-compatible shrubs commonly used for hedges are generally less adapted. They are not strong enough and constantly shoot new shoots from the base.

For unusual wicker structures, trees with a large crown are also suitable, with a height of about 20 or 30 meters (sometimes even higher), and the diameter of the crown reaches 7 meters.

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Anna Evans

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