Town councillor Roger Carter plants one of the hazel trees for the Queen’s Green Canopy in the Elizabeth Road allotment in Blandford
Thirty hazel trees have been planted in a restored allotment plot at Elizabeth Road in Blandford as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy.
by Nicci Brown.
The project was jointly arranged by Blandford Allotment Society and Blandford Town Council, which together manage the allotments in Elizabeth Road.
Over the last few months allotment holders cleared the disused plot, which had fallen victim to fly-tipping and become overgrown with brambles, and prepared it for planting.
The coppice will provide beansticks for the allotments in Elizabeth Road and at Lamperd’s Field, where a hazel coppice planted for the purpose is set to be lost because of the allotments’ relocation owing to proposed redevelopment.
Blandford Allotment Society chairman Ian Ricketts displays the plaque commemorating the planting
Town councillor Roger Carter, a former town mayor now chairman of the town’s planning committee and Blandford Plus Neighbourhood Plan monitoring group, carried out the ceremonial planting.
He said: “This represents not only a memorial to our late Queen Elizabeth II but an important contribution to biodiversity and link with the past – hazel trees have been used for thousands of years.”
Hazelnuts are loved not only by people but squirrels, dormice, other small mammals and birds. Hazel is traditionally used for thatching spars, water-divining sticks, hurdles and furniture, and by gardeners for peasticks and beanpoles. The hazel tree also has a mythological reputation for protection against evil spirits.