On Saturday, March 5, 2022, Free the Fern members Grace & Joe, organized a Weeding & Weaving event on Fir Trail, just north of the Kinross Creek Co-op. 10 volunteers gathered to remove invasive English ivy & Himalayan blackberry. Volunteers succeeded in removing 2,640 L (9 city green bins) worth of invasives.
After a break for tea & cookies, volunteers had the option of continuing to remove invasives or learning how to weave ivy into baskets. Joe & Grace (who previously completed a workshop on basket weaving with the Still Moon Arts Society) led the ivy weaving demo. Volunteers were shown how to cross 6 woody ivy “stakes” and interweave flexible, green ivy “weavers” to create a basket. Volunteers were excited to learn a new skill and create something useful from invasive plants.
Some volunteers will use their baskets to create lanterns for our lantern festival in December. Other volunteers plan to use their baskets as pots for plants or as fruit bowls. We encourage all volunteers to continue to practice weaving with ivy.
Free the Fern hopes to organize future weaving workshops or demonstrations in 2022.
