Sally Smith
Welcome to my website. I am Sally Smith, an organic gardening speaker and willow weaver working in the East Midlands.
I give illustrated talks to gardening clubs and other groups on a variety of gardening topics. I also teach basketry and willow weaving workshops to make frame baskets, obelisks and living willow structures. Click the tabs for more information.
I am listed on the Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) speakers list , where you may have found my details or from the Garden Club Listings site.
Through my work I hope to inspire people to grow and garden using organic methods to grow their flowers, fruit and vegetables. Thus creating a healthy environment for both the gardener and garden wildlife.
Organic gardening speaker, Zoom talks, willow workshops
Basketry and Willow weaving
I have been creating willow structures and making baskets as a hobby for over 15 years now. I teach the techniques to create a lovely rustic basket in a day using basic materials. The simplest forms are of forked pieces of hedgerow coppice that are bound together using available twining materails such as split willow, bramble, ivy and clematis. A more substantial frame basket is constructed from two hoops of willow joined by an attractive God's eye weave.
Living Willow structures
I work with living willow withies to create beautiful structures for a garden or allotment setting. Archways, a sheltered arbour and fedge all created during the dormant season between January and March, the willow then comes to life, rooting and growing, a living green structure made of sustainable materials that feeds and attracts wildlife.
