Weaving a Willow Tray for Harvest and Storage

Why a Willow Tray Earns Its Keep

A shallow willow tray is one of the most useful things you can make from a bundle of rods. It is the basket I reach for most often: broad enough to cradle a dozen tomatoes without bruising them, open enough to let air move around drying mint or onions, and sturdy enough to carry trowels, twine and secateurs to the far end of the plot. Because it has no handle, it nests inside a trug or stacks on a shelf, and because it is shallow, you can see at a glance what is inside.

The technique is called stake-and-strand weaving, and it is the oldest and simplest form of basket-making. You set up a fan of upright rods — the stakes — and weave flexible horizontal rods — the strands — in and out between them. There are no knots to learn and no specialist tools beyond a sharp knife, a pair of secateurs and something to soak the willow in.

Choosing and Soaking Your Willow

For a tray roughly 40cm by 30cm you will need about twenty stout rods for stakes and perhaps thirty-five to forty thinner, supple rods for weaving. Any basket willow works, but brown buff willow is forgiving for beginners because it is already stripped and reasonably uniform. If you grow your own, cut rods in winter while the sap is down and store them dry in a cool shed; they will keep for a year or more.

Dry willow must be soaked before it will bend. Immerse the rods completely — a water butt, a bath or a length of guttering works well — for anything from two days in winter to four or five in summer. You are looking for rods that bend like a leather belt without cracking. Under-soaked rods snap; over-soaked rods go floppy and shrink badly as they dry.

• Stakes: thick rods, roughly the diameter of a pencil, cut to 40cm lengths.
• Strands: thinner rods, no thicker than a biro, long and whippy.
• Mellowing: after soaking, wrap damp rods in an old blanket overnight to let moisture even out.

Setting Up the Stakes

Work on a flat board or table with the base of the tray towards you. Lay out your stakes in a row, spacing them about 4cm apart, with the thick ends of the rods pointing away from you. Push the pointed butt of each stake into a shallow groove or simply hold the row steady with a weight at either end.

Now weave a single thin rod horizontally across the row, over one stake and under the next, all the way along. This first strand holds the fan together and lets you check your spacing. Add a second and third strand, alternating the over-and-under pattern so that each stake is trapped snugly. Once you have three or four rows, the base is stable enough to lift and turn as you work. Aim for a firm, even base: any gaps here will show in the finished tray.

Weaving the Sides

When the base reaches the size you want — mine is usually about 40cm by 30cm — you need to turn the stakes upwards to form the sides. Take each stake in turn, bend it sharply upwards over the edge of the woven base and crease it firmly between finger and thumb. Go round the whole perimeter, then weave a few rows tightly to lock the upturned stakes into a raised rim.

From here, plain randing — a simple over-one, under-one weave — builds the walls. Work with one strand at a time, tucking the butt end alongside a stake and weaving round until the strand runs out, then start the next one a few stakes further along so the joins never line up in a column. Keep pulling each strand taut and push the rows down against the previous one with your fingers. For a tray, three or four inches of side is plenty; any deeper and it becomes a basket rather than a tray.

Finishing the Border

A tray without a proper border will unravel. The traditional finish is a three-rod border, though a simpler two-rod border is quite adequate for a first attempt. The idea is to take each stake in turn, bend it down behind the next two stakes, and bring it forward, working steadily around the rim until you meet the starting point.

Tuck the last few ends down inside the weave rather than cutting them flush — tucked ends hold far better than trimmed ones. Give the whole rim a firm squeeze between both hands to even it out, then set the tray somewhere airy and out of direct sun to dry. It will stiffen noticeably over a fortnight and shrink slightly as the willow loses moisture, which is exactly what tightens the weave.

Using and Caring for Your Tray

Once dry, a willow tray will last for years if treated kindly. Use it for gathering beans and courgettes, for laying out herbs to dry in a warm shed, or for keeping seed packets, string and plant labels tidy on the potting bench. The open weave is a real advantage for anything that needs airflow, and willow has a natural resistance to rot.

• Keep it dry: store indoors or upside down on a shelf rather than on damp ground.
• Clean gently: brush out soil with a stiff brush and avoid soaking.
• Refresh: a light wipe of linseed oil every few years keeps the rods supple and the colour rich.

Make one tray and you will make another. The second is quicker, the weave neater, and by the third you will be sizing them deliberately — a small one for eggs, a wide shallow one for drying, and a deep-sided one for the harvest glut in September.