Not exactly topiary, but close enough. I've been thinking about making a simple bench for a while now. If you haven't yet, google image arborsculpture (if you haven't heard it before). The below is far from impossible, actually it's noob-work in the field. Go on, google it.

The thought is, wire a young seedling into a sort of L shape, with a few feet of trunk flat 180 degrees, maybe 2 feet up from the ground. Then the trunk goes straight up and the foliage starts another few feet up. The part where the trunk goes up is used as a head rest and you can stretch your feet out across the flat trunk bed. Next step a few decades of trunk thickening. To expedite, perhaps a fast grower. Later on if I should so choose to accessorize, I was thinking of cultivating a branch at just the right spot, letting it thicken, and then making jin out of it, and carve it into a cupholder or something.

Now, of course, to do this with only 1 tree would require a very thick trunk, a good at least 18" thick caliper. So patience is necessary, Also I'd need some reliably hard and long-lived wood. For convenience, probably a nitrogen fixing legume, so they grow nice and fast too. A cork oak might be fun tho, I've always wanted a permanent specimen, and they grow real fast too.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Do we have any practicing arborsculpturists on these forums, would you like to share your work? I'd love to hear about the stories and experiences.

-Ryan