Several of you have asked about the English dovecote hanging near our front door as well as the willow garden support, so I wanted to back up a bit and share about those two pieces.  Since the English dovecote came first, let’s start with that.

I was initially planning on making a trellis for this bit of wall that would complement the two larger trellises on the wall just around the corner, but I was wondering if that might be trellis overload.  This wall needed something, though.

Maria of Dreamy Whites had sent me a dovecote from one of her shopping trips in England and Europe last year, but it had been waiting in the basement until we started working more on the exterior of the house.  I have long admired English dovecotes and knew I wanted to mount one somewhere in the yard or on the house, but there were a few places in contention and I didn’t want to start putting holes in the brick or siding until I was sure. I also considered mounting it on the fence or a pole, but we needed to get more landscaping and painting done first.

If we weren’t going to put a trellis there, that might be the perfect spot for the English dovecote.  I brought it up from the basement and had Jeff hold it up so I could see how it looked.  It made me smile.  Not only did it look so sweet on the house but it was near the often-visited concrete birdbath and it’s in a place I could see from my studio window.

Since the piece has some weight to it and it needs to be both secure and removable, we mounted it to the wall using a 12″ French cleat that will support up to 100 pounds.  It’s securely attached to the wall, but we can simply lift it off the part of the cleat mounted to the house to clean it out if necessary.

The bush planted under the house is a fast-growing evergreen that can be shaped into a squared-off shrub so it will fill the space under the house nicely in a few years.  Until then, the space under it felt a little naked, so I decided to plant a Henryi clematis and make a free-standing structure for it to climb.  I purchased some curly willow off of Facebook Marketplace to experiment with weaving garden cloches (I’ll share about that later this week) and I had some pieces that were almost 1″ thick that weren’t going to be as good for weaving but would be great for structures.

I decided to build a teepee/obelisk sort of shape and just tacked the pieces together with a brad nailer.  I honestly just made it up as I went along!

My mom asked why I left one of the branches longer than the others.  She generally likes things tidy and orderly and one branch sticking up more than the others isn’t her style.  My hope is the clematis will climb up the willow structure and then onto and over the birdhouse so I wanted to leave a “bridge” to facilitate that.  When the evergreen bush grows into the space, I’ll relocate the clematis if it’s getting crowded out, but I’ll just let that play out and then decide.

There is a point in the evening when the light shines through one of the large maples and spotlights the English dovecote perfectly.  It’s a magical moment that I love witnessing.

We haven’t had anyone nest in it, yet, but I’m keeping an eye on it.  I’m not sure if songbirds will like the larger openings, but several people who have birdhouses in their yards that were intended to be decorative did end up with birds living in them.  Jeff has told me that if we have nasty tenants who divebomb us or make a huge mess, we’re filling in the holes!

Maria purchased more English dovecotes and they just arrived in her most recent container shipment.  Keep an eye on her Instagram or shop page to see when they are listed for sale.  She is currently running 40% off, so it’s a good time to see if there’s anything special you want to add to your home.  You can find English dovecotes and other charming birdhouses on Etsy as well, but Dreamy Whites offers US free shipping, so I think the price is better when purchasing from Maria.