Allotment Forestry Case Study:
Ipswich Wildlife Group Demonstration Plot

(draft 1)

 

Introduction

Ipswich Wildlife Group (IWG) is a small community group established to provide opportunities for local people to get involved with practical work in local wildlife areas. In 1994 IWG began promoting the British Beanpole by growing their own and encouraging others to do the same. Their first Beanpole plot is now six years old and over the years of looking after it and planting further plots they have learnt a lot about planting and looking after small woods in the urban environment. The Forestry Commission in England has promoted their work in a leaflet ‘Allotment Forestry on your patch’ and their experience is summarised in the Booklet ‘Growing your own beanpoles’ published by the Local Woodland Products Initiative.

Where the idea came from

IWG established a community tree nursery in 1988 on a redundant allotment to grow trees for use on their conservation schemes and for free distribution to others. In 1994 when they were looking at how they could better make use of the Tree Nursery they were struck by the great quantity of bamboo being used by their fellow allotment holders. What better general indicator of our alienation from our environment could there be than the importing of twigs from China to support runner beans!?! The tree nursery being based on allotments they considered well placed to initiate a campaign to promote the British Beanpole.

What they did.

As a first step in developing a British Beanpole Campaign they felt it was important to establish a demonstration Beanpole Plot. Once established this would then be used for education work to explain what they were trying to achieve. Initially they rented an adjacent derelict allotment plot for planting. This it turns out was not allowed under general allotment conditions and they were fortunate that once Ipswich Borough Council and Ipswich Allotment Holders Association were reassured they were not going to neglect the plots supported their continued use but stressed the need to keep them informed. Oops!

As of July 2001 the Beanpole copse is xxm by xxm in size and represents an area of xxha (Map One). It was planted in four stages. The rate of planting being dependent on how much they could look after on a monthly work party and how forthcoming permission to expand was. They started by planting all hazel, which makes excellent beanpoles, but later added more species, partly for future educational opportunities but mainly for the crops of poles, leaves, bark and fruit they provide. The basic practice followed was

Plant Spacing: In the beginning plants were spaced at 2 x 2m spacing. This was changed in later plots as they found the weed growth in the open areas so vigorous they wanted to restrict its vigour as soon as practical from shade that would more quickly be cast from trees spaced at 1x1m spacing.

Weed Control: Each plant was protected with a plastic tree shelter and had a 1x1m mulch mat of old woven backed carpet. The trees were planted in straight rows to make it easier to cut the inter-row vegetation easier.

Maintenance: The main task was to prevent the site from looking too weedy as this would give them a bad name with the other allotment holders. They always felt aggrieved about this as the plot before was a derelict plot with much rubbish that they had cleared but this was forgotten and they needed to show they were responsible, all be it atypical, allotment holders. Apart from this the main other task was they replaced the carpet mulch with wood chips when the carpet deteriorated.

Coppicing: At year four the first hazel plants had formed robust shrubby plants with a number of major and minor shoots. They cut out, using loppers, the 2-4 major shoots and left the minor shots to grow. This was largely because they have regular visit by people and they did not want to do a 100% cut which is ideal as for a time in Spring when they do our open day they would have nothing to show! Other species such as Ash that forms a single stem they cut for the first time in 2001. They did this by simply cutting whole trees and leaving a 5cm high stump, which has sprouted numerous new and vigorous shoots.

Layering: To make good the initial wide spacing they have layered a number of hazel shoots into the larger spaces. This has had mixed results as the layers were difficult to see and they regularly disturbed them when weeding the new copse and they formed of a trip hazard, not popular in a nettle dominated site!

Wildflowers: Wildflowers and bluebell bulbs rescued from nearby ancient woodland were planted at the time of the time of the first hazel planting. This was a mistake as the flowers were soon overwhelmed by the vigorous weed growth on the fertile allotment. After three years of painfully hand-weeding the nettles from around the bluebells they succumbed to the inevitable and left the flowers to fight it out for themselves. The only help they now give is by not cutting the interrows in the area concerned to allow them a chance to grow and seed after which they cut all interrows frequently removing the cuttings in the hope they can reduce the fertility of the site.