Tree Tower

Search engines, the card catalogs of the digital age, often surprise you with unsought items, and so it was while searching for articles on tree architecture (how trees are constructed), the search engine happened upon a year old article on tree architecture of a very different sort, growing live trees to make a tower. In general this is pretty cool, although not at all a new thing as the Phactor pointed out in a blog some time ago. Still supporting a framework with live tree axes woven into a magnificently large espaliered tower is quite a trick. One of the interesting things about both willows and twigs is that both grow around objects very well and both will readily fuse axes, although figs are better at forming woody roots from stems. This puts whole new meaning on the idea of a tree house.