Baskets from Invasives
I happened to meet a woman who was drying some bull rushes outside her apartment and I asked her if she was going to weave them. She took me inside and showed me her whole place was full of baskets she had made, most of them from invasive plants. She told me there's a group of people who are using things like Scottish Broome (a real problem plant up here), knapweed, and others to weave with.
She really inspired me. I've been coiling pine needles since covid began and I knew of a patch of Scottish broome just down our road. Two baskets later..... I'm having a great time.
Do you weave with invasive plants? If you name one, please leave a little info on any particularities you've discovered about
Comments
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That is awesome! I think instead of spending all the time and money on getting rid of invasive plants or animals we should put it to finding uses for them. How many things that are invasive to an area have ever been "evicted" completely? Isn't that kind of like shutting the barn door when the cow is already gone? (Something I heard as a child lol)
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Speaking of cows....... The buttercup plant is invasive and poisonous to cattle. That was another of the plants the woman I met used to make baskets. :)
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This is very interesting. I saw the post about pine needle baskets and planned on gathering some. I currently live in the desert so not much for invasive plants around that I could use easily but definitely something to look forward to when moving. Also a great way to use those "unwanted" plants.
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Awesome idea. I have Japanese Knotweed on my property. Although it can be useful, it is invasive in my area. I might see what if any useful items I could make with them.
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I live in South Carolina. We are covered in Kudzu. I use the vines to make baskets and lampshades. I pick it in the late Fall, less leaves on the vines and less snakes on the ground. You can strip the thicker vines or use small ones as they are.
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I have a basket habit, as my husband likes to say. But, I have never made m y own. Does anyone have a link to a good how to video?
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Kudzu is edible in the roots, leaves, and flowers. Don't eat the vine or the seeds.
@seeker.nancy - Central Texas I love that idea. For instance raspberry is technically invasive, but since it produces edible berries nobody cares.
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@ltwickey kudzu is a great forage food for livestock (grazers). It's really good for goats in that if anything can tame kudzu, they can lol. When Dad bought our family farm he said that it was covered in briar - you couldn't even get through large areas of it. So in came the goats, who did a fantastic job. Other than their extremely irritating habit of going exploring they were awesome. Some years back I was in Atlanta and was shown all the kudzu choking out everything and on utility poles and tree tops. I could totally picture the goats climbing to the top of the tree to get the last bite of a kudzu vine. 🤣
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not video, but a good basic description of a simple basket: http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/basic_basket_old_version.htm
video on a simple form from a good teacher: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/weaveyourowngardentrug
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Japanese knotweed is a love/hate plant, I'd say. It is wicked invasive and tends to create upheavals in house foundations (making it impossible to get insurance in some jurisdictions) and tending to grow even more when disturbed - as in try to kill it, I dare you!! Then, on the bright side, it contains valuable medicine, especially for the treatment of lyme disease.
As far as weaving goes, could give it a try. Making sure not to stimulate it into growing again.
NOt sure how great for weaving, but if you try it, let us know how it went.
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Japanese Honeysuckle is invasive in our area, I have made baskets and woven "walls" for our gardens. I experimented with Johnson grass. It is a lovely color when dried but I could never get the stems soft enough to weave so my baskets were made with just the leafy parts.
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One more thing to add to my "oh, that looks so fun to do" list. Goodness, so many great ideas.
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Every year around equinox I head into my woods to forage materials for my "gratitude basket"--a platter-shaped basket I hang on the dining room wall and decorate over the fall and winter with pretty feathers, leaves and other small objects I find on my walks, each representing something I am grateful for. In the spring, when I want to freshen up the decor, I replace my fall basket with a spring one, take the decorations off the old basket, cover it with peanut butter and other treats and hang it out in the tree by the bird feeders for the birds and squirrels. For this year's fall basket I started with some hazel shoots that were growing too close to the front walk and had to be cut back anyway, then found some of the Japanese honeysuckle, which is just starting to become a problem around here. This is the first time I've used it for a basket, found the thinner vines a bit brittle for the starting work around the center of the basket, but OK for the broader curves once you work out 6" or so. Cut some to dry for the spring basket, to see if drying, curing and soaking will make them more pliable. Most of the basket is woven with my usual fall go-to, morning glory vines, which are long, and very tough and flexible this time of year, but don't seem to hold those qualities when I try to dry them for future use. Also found some thin, flexible stalks of Sweet Annie that I could weave in with the morning glory vines around the outer edge of the basket for a wreath effect and a lovely scent.
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Great idea @MaryRowe ! I always think that I need to just go out and find things, but the idea of a gratitude basket give the task purpose and meaning.
Thank you all for such wonderful creative ideas.
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i've often wondered what is on people's minds when they use the word invasive. I know some plants are said to 'take over '- usually they are ones that we humans have introduced to an environment that they are not used to and in which there are not predators for them. But each one has other purposes - like the Japanese knotweed-for-lyme-disease example. To me, this fertility characteristic is the mark of a successful plant, one that survives and one that might just save the planet.
One plant that I believe could be considered invasive is cultured grass. Look at how it has taken over North American cities (and possibly many other continents' cities) and even gotten North Americans so excited about it that they manicure it weekly, causing environmental burdens from gas or electric motors, water it - to the detriment of water supplies, and they remove from the grass colonies, (called lawns), anything that might threaten it, including species that humans and animals could eat.
That said, I have a huge appreciation for the grasses. They are hard to actually kill, they multiply like crazy - it's the plant that I most pull out of the places I want my food to grow. They feed a multitude of certain animals, throw their roots into the soil, deep and wide. It is a magnificent invasive plant. And often makes great baskets.
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Cool idea! While reading all of the posts I came up with a couple of plants that I need to cut back and will try making a basket (or 2).
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So, I am following this thread, and the TGN team thinks basket-weaving could be a fantastic topic for an e-course. What do you all think?
And do you have any recommendations for people highly knowledgeable in the subject who might be willing to teach it? If so, we'd really appreciate you reaching out to Nikki with your recommendation at [email protected].
Nikki spearheads our e-courses and will be on the lookout for your e-mailed recommendations.
Thank you so much! <3
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I wish I knew a teacher to recommend! I certainly vote for such a class. My basket making has all been trial-and-lots-of-error. I really enjoy the craft though, and would love to take a course with someone who knows what they are doing.
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I have a couple of posts on kudzu:
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I agree! Another new member seems expert on plant dyes.... I'll tag you on that one
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Howdy @Merin Porter and @judsoncarroll4
First week member here, super excited at the prospect of this e-course... especially focusing on utilizing lovely"weeds" and "invasives" because beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Medicinal and edible uses are discussed many places, yet it never even occurred to me to weave them into baskets. My mind is filling with possibilities already, WOW!!! Thanks @solarnoon.aspen for this thread! I have a new lens through which to see gardens and lawns and forests and fields.
I picked pods of milkweed just yesterday and wondered would their wisps spin into yarn... I gather armfuls of Artimisias- Sweet Annie and Mugwort - and wonder will they wreathe? Every day more plants more questions more fascinating fibers.
This could be an extensive course on practical natural crafting, with actual useful items created by its completion. Or some ideas even more beautiful-to-come!
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I would love to take a class. I especially enjoy vine baskets.
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It is great to see all the excitement about invasive baskets. That's how I feel too. I've been gathering so much fibrous material, it is becoming a bit of an obsession. I must label or I may forget what some of them are once they've dried. I've collected corn husks, pine tree roots, scotch broome, lavender stocks, oregano stocks, iris leaves, grape vines, willow, stinging nettles, dogbane, grass roots, hemp, ponderosa pine needles and so on. So, I guess I know what I'll be doing this winter: making cordage, twining and weaving baskets.
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I would love a basket weaving course.
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What beautiful works of art. Have you ever used lemongrass? Would it work for making baskets?
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@solarnoon.aspen These baskets are gorgeous! What did you use to sew/bind the coils together?
And you mentioned nettles as one of the plants you wee collecting. I have a tall stand here I was thinking I should try to turn into cordage, any advice? I watched a couple of youtube videos where they were working with the nettles green. I just noticed these, and they have mostly lost their leaves and are drying out already. I suppose the fibers are still tough enough to harvest, but I haven't tried it yet.
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For the pine needle baskets, I used a sythetic gut thread that is used for leatherwork. YOu can get it in a few colours to look best with the color of the needles.
the green scotch broom baskets are sewn with a synthetic thread.
It is not my first choice to use synthetic materials, however, helmp is expensive, so I've compromised. I do have some hemp that I'll use soon instead.
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I haven't had too much experience with nettles yet as my crop has fizzled out. however, the ones I did cut off, had a thin outer bark on the stem that peeled off - you've got to be very careful to get it the whole length of the stem. Then you can dry it and when you wet it later to use it the very thin green outer layer may break off a bit easier. that's what I'm hoping anyway, if it is in any way similar to other plants. :)
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@solarnoon.aspen Thanks for the information. I've only made three coiled baskets so far--one of long grasses and I used the same artificial sinew that I use for moccasin making (a bit of overkill I think), 2nd of yucca leaf fiber, tried using the same fiber for the sewing. It was strong enough, but a pain to keep a long strand going, 3rd of long grasses again, and used some flax thread I had spun. I think I liked that one best of the three, but always looking for new ideas. It's nice to have color options.
Haven't tried getting the fiber from my nettles yet, but I suppose I had better get to it before the freeze.
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