What If You Could Grow a Garden Building?

#BunnyGuinness #GardenDesign #LivingArchitecture
What if your garden building didn’t need bricks, mortar or concrete?

In this video, Bunny Guinness explores what she calls “green architecture” — the art of creating living structures from hedges, trees, willow and other plants.

Bunny begins by revisiting a hedge house she created for her book Decorative Gardening by Bunny Guinness, published 20 years ago. She explains how and why the structure was built, including why the supporting columns were deliberately not concreted into the ground, and how the living structure has managed to survive — without rotting — for over two decades.

She also shares another, more informal hedge house made from hornbeam for a private client, before moving on to the garden pods she designed for Horatio’s Garden Oswestry, which gives patients a little extra privacy while enjoying the garden.

From there, Bunny takes us to the Cotswolds to look at the living arbours she created for the Ox Barn restaurant at Thyme, before turning to some more playful examples. These include a willow crocodile made for her children’s book Family Gardens, and a more recent willow play structure created for private clients.

Bunny then demonstrates how a simple second-hand bench, found on eBay, can become the starting point for a living arbour as she shows how she is training plants to form a structure over it.

Moving beyond structures with backs, Bunny explores living canopies, revealing two examples she created for private clients, both using metal frameworks to support the growing plants over eating areas.

Finally, Bunny looks at one of the most remarkable qualities of plants: their ability to regenerate. She shares the story of a seemingly dead willow that unexpectedly began to resprout during the construction of her Wind in the Willows garden for Wyevale at the Chelsea Flower Show.

From practical hedge houses to playful willow sculptures and regenerating trees, Bunny demonstrates just how creative — and surprisingly achievable — living architecture can be.

Could your next garden building be grown rather than built?