We were on Anglia TV again this last Monday - the theme was getting 'schools' involved; you can see the programme on the Anglia TV website. Also in the 'Anglia Allotment Extra' our field secretary, Eric, shows how we made our lobelia footballs.

We are a 'long thin' site with a trackway up the centre and plots off each side with our community buildings in the centre of the field - our community buildings include a 20ft x 20ft community building (new earlier this year) which we use for visiting schools groups - and last week we hosted a visi...

Hi Victoria - no, our allotment field is 'Castle Hill Allotments' and is off 'Ashcroft Lane' between Dales Road and Ashcroft Road and next to the railway line - we can't be seen from the road as there are locked gates then its up a driveway which turns the corner, and there's the allotments! There's...

Our allotment field at Castle Hill Ipswich is the 'Anglia Allotment' on Anglia TV this summer. They are doing short - about five minute - slots - mostly live - at intervals through the summer months in the early Evening News programme and then a day or so later it will be on their website (plus some...

We have regular visits to our allotment site by infant school pupils and those from a school for pupils with special and additional needs and we also had requests (lots!) from the ladies (and especially those who bring their children to help on their plots) on our field for toilet facilities. We sol...

Litter droppers and pickers up of their dogs poo in a bag who then throw the bag down are my hates too. We have recently started to regularly pick up the litter on the trackway to our allotment gates and there's one particular dog walker who picks up their dog's poo in a special doggie poo bag and t...

Hi Jacqui I think you would also have found fruit such as gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants (black/red/white)possibly also a plum tree and greengage tree. A housewife at that time would have made jam (lots of it) and also bottled fruit for use during the Winter months so fruit from a...

Hi We have an area of Hazel on our allotments, planted specifically to provide pea sticks and bean poles. It was planted in 1996 and we first coppiced (part of it) it in Feb 2006 for pea sticks and re-growth was very rapid so it was coppiced again recently. There are some bean pole lengths but there...

Hi Weed I think you mean 'hermaphrodite' and Eric did tell the children this in easy to understand words, that when worms are 'grown up' - and you can tell when they are grown up because they have a 'saddle' about one third of their length along from their head - they can choose to be a 'boy' one da...

Hi We have children from our local infants school come onto our allotment field regularly and they all just love worms, whenever they do any weeding or planting they always 'save' the worms so they don't get hurt and then put them back safely afterwards. They also like to look into their compost bin...

Hi Gilly I wonder if you are confusing the blackthorn with the 'cherry plum' which flowers from late February? The flowers do look very similar. The cherry plum has been out in this area for a couple of weeks or so but the true blackthorn doesn't come out until later - about 21 March in this area. T...

The Blackthorn (Sloe) usually starts to flower about 21 March and we usually get a cold spell when it comes into flower.....

We also had loads of frog spawn laid overnight 23/24 Feb. I've been keeping records of frog spawn over about 20 years and this is the earliest its been. Previous earliest was in 1998 (also a warm Feb) when it appeared 28 Feb. Usual time for frog spawn here (Suffolk) is between 7-12 March.

Hi Peter Take a look at the Lakeland Wellington Boots. Website is www.lakelandfootwear.com. However, I don't think they sell through shops. I have a pair of their 'Car Wash Boots' which are mid-calf height and extra wide fitting and very easy to get on and off and very comfortable. I went a size lar...

I wasn't able to attend an 'apple days' (hope to next year as we're not far from Ken Muir's nursery)but we have a farm shop locally which sells fruit of lots of the old apple varieties. We have just purchased four 'heritage' apple trees with Suffolk / East Anglian connections for the community plot ...