January 28

If you build it, they will come part 3

Common plume moth

The Brownfield Site bed has now been emptied. It had about 8 Hylotelephium, probably Autumn Joy, in it which insects love. In late Summer it was covered in bees, hoverflies and wasps and if I could only have 5 plants for insects this is one that I would choose to keep. The other 4 would be Skimmia japonica, Cotoneaster horizontalis, Echium vulgare and Solidago. This meant that I didn’t want to get rid of them, just divide and move them so now we have them grouped all over the garden in the Thugs Bed and there is plenty to give away to the rest of the allotment site. You can read part 1 and part 2 of this series to find out what my ultimate aim is.

Whilst I was working on the hylotelephia (is that how you do the plural?), I disturbed a common plume moth. I have seen them before on the site and they are quite distinctive with those small wings. They look a bit like a miniature stick insect.

Log pile on the Brownfield Site bed

The first thing I wanted to build was a log pile on end. I only needed 4 or 5 fairly sturdy logs which I have after we had some tree cutting on the site last spring. I dug a round hole, stood them on end and then moved the soil back to bury them.

The log at the back had been lying down on the bed for a couple of years I would say, so I stood that up as well because it will have a lot of the sort of life that we want in it already and it will mean that the wildlife we want in this area is already here.

At the bottom of the picture you might just be able to see some stones and concrete rubble. I am making a river of these from the log pile to the edge of the bed, which is south facing, so that invertebrates now have 3 types of habitat in close proximity – wood pile to live in, stones to live under and to bask on in the sun and some bits of bare soil around them. This is all part of building the structural complexity and diversity that invertebrates need. Round, water-shaped stones are something we have a lot of in our soil so it shouldn’t take me too long to complete that part.

The plants in this bed are all going to be yellow and white so I have a Libertia grandiflora to plant behind the pile – in my garden they are in almost full-time shade and at the side a bushy honeysuckle I nipped a cutting off on my morning walk. The flowers are yellow and white and heavily scented so will be delicious. I am planting it in the shade of the logs and hope that it is not too sunny for it. If it is, I will move it.

It is a start. What projects are you working on?

Category: january, the brownfield site bed, wildlife, wildlife garden | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 27

If you build it, they will come part2

Canvey Wick in Essex

Brownfield sites have become a lot more important recently. They are sites where there has been human disturbance, can have old buildings, piles of rubble, uneven ground and many different habitats relatively close to each other. Canvey Wick in Essex is a prime example, situated along the Thames and built to process petroleum but shut down before it ever opened. It is now a Site of Special Interest because it has such an enormous biodiversity and is referred to as a ‘brownfield rainforest’ – rainforests being some of the most biodiverse areas in the world. Often, these places have drought-stressed, nutrient poor soils which can be contaminated but they are ideal for not letting any one species of plant become dominant. They often have bare ground which enables invertebrates to warm up quickly in the sunshine. They can often have slopes and different types of soil, some of which may be compacted. All of this offers a refuge to invertebrates who often need two different types of habitat to complete their life cycle.

And why is this so important?

‘If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse.’ 

Sir David Attenborough

I have an empty bed on the wildlife plot which I haven’t really known what to do with it. Last year I put a planted wheelbarrow on it but that won’t do this year. So, we are clearing it and going to make it into a more varied landscape for invertebrates. The soil is quite poor – no compost has been added for some years now so that is a good start and it has a slight slope on it. I am going to put a path through it that doesn’t have wood chippings on it just to vary the soil – it will just be compacted soil.

Mound of various materials covered in brick rubble from John Little’s, @grassroofco, garden.

To change the topography (to put it another way, to add some hills) I am going to build mounds like the one in the picture. This is a large circle edged in steel with soil dug out. In the bottom is logs and then grasses, twigs, water piping, corrugated iron all covered over with brick rubble. This is specifically built for any and all types of invertebrate. Another mound will be fine sand – probably at the front of the bed to soak up the sunshine as it is south-west facing, and the third one will have logs on their ends built into the soil at different heights with stones cascading down from it to the south. This will create what is called an open mosaic habitat. In between the mounds I will plant verbascums, cow parsley, fennel, poppies and other plants that I can find but with bare soil visible like brownfield sites have. The bed can then be called The Brownfield Site as each of the beds has a name!

I’ll post pictures as we create the bed. You can see part 1 and part 3 of this series here.

Category: brownfield site, january, wildlife, wildlife garden | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 22

If you build it, they will come: part 1

There is a fantastic video from Grassroofco, ostensibly about different substrates for growing particularly on brownfield sites and in urban areas, but I loved his images. I found his message loud and clear: structural complexity and diversity is one of the most important elements for biodiversity. We have quite a lot of different habitats on the wildlife plot but we can always fit in more so here are some of the ideas that I have taken from the video.

My first idea is to build a dry rubble wall that snakes through the Thugs Bed. I did start to build it at the front of the bed but then had a nightmare about children falling on it and cutting themselves open – easily done as it has sharp edges. So, after much thought I have moved it into the bed where it will probably be much more suited to the bugs. The bed faces south so the wall should warm up in the sun and critters can sun themselves on it. It’s not really warm enough at the moment but it will be.

This picture shows the first part and because it is made of different materials, it should provide a greater diversity of materials in the garden and therefore niches.

  • Old bricks on their sides
  • Old concrete base
  • Will we see it when the plants grow?
  • Snaking through the Thugs Bed

This is only about a quarter of the finished length but we are working hard to remove some of the Vinca major to allow other plants a chance. If we find that it is not high enough in summer once the plants have grown, I can make changes to it to increase the height.

Read part 2 and part 3 here.

Category: january, wildlife, wildlife garden | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 31

Changing my mind about ragwort

Cinnabar moth July 21

I have always pulled ragwort up off my allotment but reading Wilding by Isabella Tree made me think about what I do. What stopped me in my tracts was the fact that 177 species of insect use common ragwort as a source of nectar or pollen. That’s quite a lot on a small plot!

 

Seven species of beetle, twelve species of flies, one macromoth – the cinnabar, with its distinctive black-red-and-yellow rugby jersey caterpillars – and seven micromoths feed exclusively on common ragwort. It is a major source of nectar for at least thirty species of solitary bees, eighteen species of solitary wasps and fifty insect parasites. (Tree, 2018, p142)

I know ragwort can be toxic to horses especially and cattle but apparently they only eat it if they are in an over-grazed field where there is not enough grass for them. There are other plants that can have the same toxic effect on them: foxgloves, elder, spindle and daffodil all of which I have on the plot (although I have no horses or cattle!) and no one bats an eyelid about them.

The seed can stay dormant in the soil for about 10 years and only needs a slight scratching around it to stimulate germination which would explain how I come to have it each year on my plot and the wildlife plot. This year, however, I am going to let it grow on the wildlife plot.

And if you want more information about micromoths, this site is useful.

 

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April 17

The biggest bang for your buck with bees (and other pollinators)

I have been looking a lot at lists of plants for bees and butterflies because I made myself a promise that this year I would add plants to the wildlife plot so that  there would at least one more that flowers each month.

So many people have lists and they each have different plants on them which I think suggests that actually it is quite site specific and what bees in one part of the country go for is not always the same across the country. Lists that I use are:

  • RHS – very good list of loads of plants classified according to when they flower. I am using the plants for gardens list but they also have a wildflower list and a plants of the world list. The wildflower list has plants for ponds so that will be useful. They also have three research papers based around Plants for Bugs – bees and other pollinators, plant-dwelling invertebrates and ground-active invertebrates with some interesting findings which I will talk about in a separate post.
  • The Wildlife Trust doesn’t have the biggest list but almost everything that is on it is in the wildlife garden – not surprising because the whole plot was set up by the Devon branch.
  • The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has plants divided into groups according to whether they are shade or sun-loving.
  • The Butterfly Conservation trust has a list of plants for butterflies, many of which are on the RHS list but also has a caterpillar food plant list.
  • Goulson Lab created by Dave Goulson, an expert on bees and other insects in the garden, has a list with stars for their desirability by pollinators.

Bang for your buck!

So, what has proved most popular on the Exmouth Hamilton Lane wildlife garden? In March and April, the plants that have had the most pollinators are:

Red-tailed bumble bee on Vinca major

Buff or white-tailed bumble bee on Symphytum ‘Hidcote Pink’.

Something unidentified yet on the grape hyacinth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Vinca major – this has been full of a range of bumble bees and other pollinators (Western bee-fly) and yet is not a plant on any of the lists!
  • Skimmia japonica – this plant hums with pollinators every time you walk past it and smells delicious
  • Symphytum ‘Hidcote Pink’ – this is a member of the comfrey family and drips with pollinators in both the sun and semi-shade. Again, this particular type of comfrey does not appear on the lists.
  • Grape hyacinths for pollinators other than bumble bees

 

Category: april, wildlife, wildlife garden | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 24

Perennial vegetables for the wildlife plot

I have two goals this year for the wildlife garden on the allotments. The first is to sort out the bed under the apple tree.  It has become overrun with vinca, which has run half way down the plot and will run down the other half if I don’t take action now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I was digging it up, I had the company of a red-tailed bumble bee proving that the flowers are very useful early in the season for insects. This helped me make the decision to leave a reasonable sized clump but to keep it strictly under control. Once some of the vinca was removed I found a gooseberry, 5 strawberry plants, potentilla, mock orange, acquilegia and a large clump of geranium.

The second action is to plant perennial vegetables on the plot. I haven’t got the time to sow and look after more annual crops but sow and plant perennials once and they are then there for good.  I have some cuttings from my perennial kale that I took in the autumn which have taken so one or two of those can go in but I need more than that.  Below is a list of veg that I will start to collect:

  • Asparagus – why wouldn’t you have this?!
  • 9 star perennial broccoli which is really a cauliflower, go figure
  • Globe artichokes – I have sown some of these and they are up but tiny
  • Jerusalem artichokes – an acquired taste but I do like them and I have lots of them already.
  • Sea beet – sometimes known as wild spinach and supposed to taste very good
  • Sea kale – there is a bit of a maritime theme going on here.
  • Narrow-leaved plantain, sometimes called a weed, with lots already on the plot!

On most of the sites that focus on perennial vegetables the flower day lilies appears with everyone saying how lovely the flowers taste.  I have day lilies in my garden so will divide them and bring some to the plot and try them this year.

Do you grow any perennial vegetables that you would recommend I grow?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category: wildlife, wildlife garden | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 2

Six on Saturday – 02/01/21

This is my second Six on Saturday hosted by The Propagator, the first one for 2021 and there are certainly things I will not miss  from last year. However, what this time has meant is that I have had much more time in the garden and on the allotments and this has been to their and our benefit. So, here are my six for this week all based on new year resolutions linked to the garden and allotments.

My first resolution is to be more organised. I realised the other day that my blog is littered with phrases such as I don’t know which variety they are, I didn’t label them or I have forgotten what they are.’  I have used Access and so now I can type in a  month and up will pop all the seeds I need to sow that month.  I have then created, on paper for the moment!, a bed plan that is month by month so that I don’t have any spare beds hanging around empty at any point during the year. Last year I thought I didn’t have enough space but with 2 plots and a large garden that is ridiculous. These two things need integrating but that was beyond me at the end of December.

In order to support resolution number 1, I have bought some very fancy labels – metal hooks which you stick in the ground and slate labels that you hang from them.  This was a present to myself and they will be used specifically for veg or flowers that I want to collect seed from.  Even if the writing wears off, I will at least know which plants to collect seed from. All I need now is a marker to write on the slate – note to self! The whole system could come crashing down for want of such marker.

I will make hot compost this year, before July.  At present I am not building the heap big enough and do not have enough greenery and manure in it.  This will be remedied in January’s pile. (You can see November and December’s attempts but they are not pretty!) I have agreed to create a pile each month to see what happens. I am learning a LOT. What I am finding is that it is far more work in comparison with the way I normally make compost. The videos I have watched about it all have volunteers on training and they build and turn the pile. We hold a sort of allotment school on the plots to help new members and I am one of the people that helps to run it so that has given me an idea 😉

We so rarely have heavy frosts on the south coast but have done so for the last 2 days with more to come. These are my new strawberries – Malwina – a late type, but they have an absolutely delicious taste. I bought my first lot a year ago because the catalogue said that the taste was exceptional but they were too dark red for supermarkets and had a white line just underneath the leaves which doesn’t turn red. Why wouldn’t you try them? Anyway they are so good I have ordered more along with some hanging baskets. I will pot them up into the baskets and then at the end of January/start of February hang them in the polytunnel to force them and try and get some a little earlier.

 

 

The Bergenia are flowering on the wildlife plot and look fantastic. I am not sure what variety they are (I didn’t plant these before you say anything!) but they are a welcome sight especially for the queen bumble bees which fly around when the sun is out.  I took over the wildlife plot in September 20 and decided to list everything that flowers, fruits and seeds on the plot each month and then aim to increase the numbers of each in the years thereafter as we have lots of beekeepers on site.  We have three things flowering this month, the Bergenia, Jasminum nudiflorum and a Viburnum. We can surely do more than that next year; I am thinking of Winter Honeysuckle, Christmas Box and pansies which can also be eaten in salads.

 

 

And finally, with no resolution attached to it is the orchid in my bathroom which has a very long stem of flowers this winter. I have learnt: feed it all spring and summer and it will flower all winter for you. Beautiful.

Happy New Year everyone and do you have any garden resolutions?

 

 

 

 

 

Category: january, six on saturday, vegetable plots, wildlife garden | 18 Comments on Six on Saturday – 02/01/21
October 29

Planning a plant guild

The use of guilds in permaculture is about many things. Firstly, it is a group of plants that work together to provide the conditions that they all need to survive. This is more than being companion planting because the sum of the group is greater than the individual parts. Secondly, they are an ideal bridge between a vegetable garden and a wildlife garden, perfect for my aim which is to demonstrate that wildlife and vegetable growing can go hand in hand.

Perhaps the most famous guild is the Native American of corn, squash and climbing beans. Besides providing food, corn provides a stalk for the beans to climb, the beans provide nitrogen for the corn and help to provide a complete dietary protein when eaten with the corn. The squash sprawls along the ground providing a living mulch and food rich in calories, beta carotene and zinc.  I have tried to grow these ‘Three Sisters’ together a couple of times and whilst the corn and squash seem to do OK, I could never manage the beans – I suspect it is a matter of timing of  the bean transplants.

Several articles and books I have read recently say that there is a fourth plant included in this guild – cleome – a rather lovely annual flower that acts as a squash beetle trap, amongst other things, in America. To my knowledge, we don’t have that beetle here in the UK. Other cultures have used Amaranth as the fourth plant in this guild.

The cherry tree guild I will plant in autumn and spring.

Click here cherry tree guild if the image is not clear.

Guilds usually start with something you want – a cherry tree – and gradually connections are added consisting of other plants to provide protection, nurse it through its young life, cover and build the soil, provide shelter and repel pests.  Once the tree has established itself, climbing plants can also be used to add to the vertical growth. Plants that flower throughout the year will be needed but particularly those that attract pollinators when the tree flowers. Pest predators can be encouraged through the use of log or stone piles – stones are something we have a lot of!  Our role once planted is to observe and take note of what works.

Toby Hemenway in his book Gaia’s Garden offers several questions which can help us decide what works and what doesn’t.

  1. What is the dominant species of the community? Is it useful for humans – food, beauty, animal feed or other benefit?  Is a related plant even more useful?
  2. Which plants are offering food to wildlife? What wildlife uses them? Are these animals desirable in the garden?
  3. Are any plants capable of providing food for humans? Do any of these plants have domesticated relatives that can provide fruits, tubers, seeds, nuts, herbs or greens?
  4. Which species are common to more than one community? These may be able to connect a guild to another part of the garden.
  5. Does any species show exceptional pest damage or have harmful numbers of insects living on it? This might not be a desirable variety?
  6. What species generates most of the leaf litter? Have you got enough? Does it make a good mulch plant?
  7. How well does the community withstand drought or a lot of rain?
  8. Do any of the plants have bare ground around them or stunted growth? This may be due to deep shade but might also be an allelopathic plant (inhibition of one plant by another).
  9. Are any plant families heavily represented?  If so, domesticated varieties could be substituted.
  10. Does the community contain any nitrogen fixers?  These are probably critical members. Are there enough?

If you would like to read more about guilds, here are some articles to try:

Permaculture Research Institute: Guilds for the small scale home garden by Jonathon Engels including a guild for growing tomatoes.

Permaculture Design: Vegetable and Herb Guilds by Paul Alfrey with another guild for tomatoes!

The cherry tree guild and natural pest control from Tenth Acre Farm just in case you think I am obsessed with tomatoes!

How to build a permaculture fruit tree guild from Tenth Acre Farm with an apple tree as an example.

What do you plant around your fruit trees?

Category: guilds, october, wildlife garden | LEAVE A COMMENT