Grow Your Own Broom
21.08.2023 - 12:03
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
There can’t be a more iconic symbol of Halloween than a witch riding a broomstick. In olden times it wouldn’t have been a problem to wander out into the woodland and cut a stout pole and then find sticks to make the sweeping end, and then you’d have yourself a fine broom, or besom. I suspect most of them were used for more mundane purposes – they are jolly useful things to have to hand.
Magical brooms may well have been made from birch. There’s no reason why you couldn’t grow your own birch if you wanted to, and it’s suitable for coppicing, so you could have a new broomstick every few years. The allotment forestry website has lots of useful information about growing your own poles. Birch, it says, makes excellent pea sticks, and there’s also the possibility of birch wine (but don’t drink and fly!). Apparently birch twigs are the best for the sweeping part of besoms as well. The Guardian has a lovely article explaining how to make a besom.
Other species mentioned on the allotment forestry site include hazel, sweet chestnut and elder, so you can choose your broom tree so that it fits in with your garden and the other uses you wish to make of it. They don’t mention bamboo, but it has been grown commercially in the UK; you might have trouble growing a cane stout enough to bear your weight, however.
If you wanted to fly a little more under the radar, so to speak, then you might consider growing the Walking Stick Kale. If it’s sturdy enough to use as a walking stick, it’s sturdy enough for a broom handle. And you can eat the leaves while you’re waiting for it to grow.
Once you have your broom handle, you need something for the brush (unless you have birch twigs to hand). In the US it’s quite common to grow broom corn Sorghum
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