WHY STOP AT BEAN POLES ?
Encouraging people to explore the potential of their own environment in terms of producing useful products has proved to be more of a challenge. Our focus on hazel has been fortuitous as few temperate plants have been so widely used. The flexible long stems have been used as the principal wattle material since Neolithic times, with such diverse applications as the walls of houses, fencing, well-linings, scaffold 'planks' and fish traps. Just as we would use a sheet of plywood our ancestors would use wattle work. In addition, the nuts have been an important food source while the leaves were cut for fodder and the forked stems used by water and metal diviners. It is also well suited for urban planting. It does not grow too tall and so become a neighbours shade problem, it thrives on being cut back to ground level at regular intervals, sending up a multitude of useful shoots from the cut stump, and it grows well in those shaded parts of the garden unsuitable for many other productive plants.
WOODCRAFT FACILITY
The
big advantage of hazel is that it can be easily harvested and manufactured
using only simple skills and tools. As well as the traditional hazel
products the same techniques can be applied to new products of more
contemporary use. For example, based on North American and East African
rustic furniture traditions several members have been manufacturing
a range of rustic furniture and other items for the garden and conservatory.
Taken round local shows these tables and chairs have proved to be
as persuasive as any argument on the merits of making better use of
our environment. 
To further encourage people to use products from their locality we are building a woodland craft facility in a corner of the nursery. With assistance from the Greenways Project (an Ipswich based conservation partnership) and a generous £350 bequest from a former secretary of Ipswich Wildlife Group, Mrs Diana Cowley, we have bought a basic complement of tools and equipment, including pole-lathes and shaving horses. A programme of courses is being organised for people in Ipswich to learn and develop greenwood working skills within a club environment.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
It is now two years since planting our first copse and it will be another four before we see the first harvest. As a result of keeping things small and simple we have made good progress with mainly volunteer effort and minimal financial help. In 1998 a collective of local woodsmen sold over 100 bundles of bean poles and so began to build the link between producer and consumer and thereby reduce the number of "bamboo miles". In 1999 and 2000 over 1000 bean poles were sold and a 1000 pea stick all sourced from one wood. Our work over the last two years has inspired a sense of purpose for those involved with the nursery and does, we firmly believe, demonstrate how thinking globally can help guide local action.
Management
With the support of Ipswich Allotment Holders Association and Ipswich Borough Council, the Ipswich project is a partnership of Ipswich Wildlife Group; Ipswich Organic Gardening Group; Ipswich, Gipping Valley and Woodbridge Local Exchange Trading Schemes and local woodmen.
For more information
The Ipswich Initiative contact Geoff Sinclair, Ipswich Wildlife Group, 01473 327720Karen Kenny, Ipswich Organic Gardeners Club, 01473 718874
Sally Moxton, Gipping Vally LETS, 01449 774566
Janet Hamilton Woodbridge LETS 01394 386883
John Fairhurst, Woodbridge LETS 01394 460415