Biodiversity
A Plot with a difference
As you look around our site you will see many plots with neat rows of vegetables, some cultivated to a high degree with no weeds or flowering plants.
Our site is very diverse. It attracts many insects and their predators, Since the Metro line works these insects, birds and amphibians have nowhere to go except to our site. We already have a thriving community of sparrows, newts and frogs. Many butterflies that include Red Admiral, Peacock and Orange Tip (to name just a few) and also Dragonflies and Damsel flies. This diversity could not exist in an urban garden. Why? Because of the weeds that proliferate on our site – nettles, brambles and many, many more, that you do not see in urban gardens.
There is, however, one plot on our site that is devoted to wildlife. It is plot 71. At first glance you will not see crops, just a mass of flowering plants, then you will notice the onions and broad beans, and as you cast your eyes further, the fruit trees at the back The flowering plants are there to attract insects and birds, and the crop plants are grown amongst them. I don’t know what sort of yields this plotholder gets from her plot, but I am sure she is more than happy about what she can do to promote our diversity.
Her plot is buzzing with wildlife, bumblebees and solitary predatory wasps, plus the common wasp that both prey on caterpillars. Many birds are attracted to the insects on this plot, some of them not so popular, like the Cabbage White Butterfly.
Plot 71 is not the neatest of allotments (although it is the prettiest), and it will not win any awards in the annual competition. But the plotholder grows a full range of crops amongst the flowers – onions, beans, peas, leeks and garlic etc., to suit her personal needs.
Allotmenteering is not necessarily about the protocols of growing your veggies in neat little beds. You can introduce some flowers to attract beneficial insects, you can install a pond to attract frogs and newts (the frogs, especially like to eat snails and slugs). and you can introduce some flowering plants to encourage ladybirds and lacewings to your plot (both of which are major predators on aphids).
Here are some photos of the flowers on this plot:
As you look around our site you will see many plots with neat rows of vegetables, some cultivated to a high degree with no weeds or flowering plants.
Our site is very diverse. It attracts many insects and their predators, Since the Metro line works these insects, birds and amphibians have nowhere to go except to our site. We already have a thriving community of sparrows, newts and frogs. Many butterflies that include Red Admiral, Peacock and Orange Tip (to name just a few) and also Dragonflies and Damsel flies. This diversity could not exist in an urban garden. Why? Because of the weeds that proliferate on our site – nettles, brambles and many, many more, that you do not see in urban gardens.
There is, however, one plot on our site that is devoted to wildlife. It is plot 71. At first glance you will not see crops, just a mass of flowering plants, then you will notice the onions and broad beans, and as you cast your eyes further, the fruit trees at the back The flowering plants are there to attract insects and birds, and the crop plants are grown amongst them. I don’t know what sort of yields this plotholder gets from her plot, but I am sure she is more than happy about what she can do to promote our diversity.
Her plot is buzzing with wildlife, bumblebees and solitary predatory wasps, plus the common wasp that both prey on caterpillars. Many birds are attracted to the insects on this plot, some of them not so popular, like the Cabbage White Butterfly.
Plot 71 is not the neatest of allotments (although it is the prettiest), and it will not win any awards in the annual competition. But the plotholder grows a full range of crops amongst the flowers – onions, beans, peas, leeks and garlic etc., to suit her personal needs.
Allotmenteering is not necessarily about the protocols of growing your veggies in neat little beds. You can introduce some flowers to attract beneficial insects, you can install a pond to attract frogs and newts (the frogs, especially like to eat snails and slugs). and you can introduce some flowering plants to encourage ladybirds and lacewings to your plot (both of which are major predators on aphids).
Here are some photos of the flowers on this plot:
