Archive - Thursday, 8 April 2004


Find by date

Other ways to search

Also look for

Never miss anything again. Sign up for our RSS news feeds and Newsletters.

Picking your own sticks

EASTER SUNDAY will be celebrated in an unusual style in Wotton-under-Edge.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust will be selling hazel, pea and bean sticks at the New Road allotments.

Tom Burditt is bringing the sticks from the trust's Lower Woods Nature Reserve at Inglestone Common.

The sale will start at 2pm, and supplies are limited, so gardeners will need to come early to avoid disappointment.

The sale is open to both allotment holders at Wotton and to members of the public.

Sticks will be sold at £3.50 for a bundle of ten bean sticks (7ft long straight sticks with no side branches); and £2.50 for a bundle of ten pea sticks (5-6ft high 'fans' with all side branches kept).

The Lower Woods hazel sticks are environmentally friendly in two ways.

Firstly, they are locally produced rather than being imported from abroad like bamboo canes.

Secondly, they have all been produced as a result of routine habitat management (coppicing) at the Lower Woods nature reserve.

Species particularly encouraged by coppicing include nightingales, dormice, silver-washed fritillary butterflies and bluebells.

Mr Burditt said: "The sale follows on from the inaugural 'pick your own' pea and bean sticks day at Lower Woods on February 22, at which more than 50 local gardeners benefited from the opportunity to cut their own vegetable and flower supports."

The sale has been organised in conjunction with Wotton Town Council, which partly owns and manages the 40 allotment plots at New Road(as well as 12 allotment plots at a separate site at Knapp Road).

The New Road site, where the sale is taking place, is on the B4058 on the southern edge of Wotton-under-Edge, below the Chipping Surgery.

For further information contact Tom Burditt (Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust) on 07787 511932 or Wotton Town Council on 01453 843210.

There will be another chance to buy Lower Woods pea and bean sticks at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's Gardening for Wildlife Fair at Robinswood Hill Country Park on Sunday May 2 (10am-4pm).