BIODIVERSITY DIARY: urban oasis challenge
<<Sustainable gardening and supporting biodiversity feature high in many of our members' priorities. Climate Action Newcastle member Chris is sharing his personal project through this new regular blog - he’ll welcome your tips, ideas and questions to help him along the way!>>
My Urban Oasis
There are myriad ways for each of us to improve our ecological impacts – cutting out animal products; reducing consumption (especially plastics); ethical banking; being mindful about how we commute. Although they’re all extremely important, a downside is that most of us see only the downside: the hassle of changing banks, extra time to take the bus, expense of non-dairy milk alternatives and so on.
I tried to come up with positive actions that I could take which are less distant or abstract. I wanted them to be directly rewarding, with benefits at a local level and - most of all - something I’ll realistically be able to complete!
My thinking turned to ways to maintain and increase local biodiversity. I’ve not paid much thought to this in the past – I’m the not-so-proud owner of an Astroturf “lawn”. And I’m not particularly green fingered, so at the outset had very little clue on the best course of action. However, an allotment plot came available close to my home, and my wife Charlie and I at last had a great opportunity to do … ’something’!
Charlie transformed 90% of it in 2022, introducing a whole variety of fruits and vegetables. The remaining 10% is my biodiversity oasis project for 2023! It’s a small patch right at the bottom end, hidden behind the shed. It’s not particularly practical for access.
My Biodiversity Oasis project diary below charts what I decided to do - the latest post appears at the top. Below that is the diary from the start, just click on the symbols on the left to join my world, share the pain, enjoy the pleasure! Feel free to share my learning! - what works, what doesn't, and what you think might work better!! Comments very welcome, please add below the blog.
LATEST POST: SPRING 2023 - QUICK UPDATES!
A very quick update here, but I wanted to share a little bit of progress - we are now the proud owners of a cherry bush! It's called a Porthos - which I'm sure is very much on-trend :)
In preparation I dug out a trough, a couple of meters running parallel with the fence, adding some appropriate fertiliser - I have been assured that this is the best thing to do as we train the bush to grow in that direction, rather than where the pond will be.
We also have a few shoots springing up here, I have no idea what this is but I'm going to see how this bit of greenery pans out!
If you do know what I've got on the way, please leave a comment!
Previous Posts - click arrow to read!
October 2022 – Making a start
It’s a bit of a mess on the surface, but the main issue is the bindweed under the plastic covering. I guess the first step in getting this area prepared will be to clear that away as much as possible, otherwise it will take over and scupper my best laid plans. There are also some raspberry plants here that I’d like to salvage if possible – so I’ll need to be careful separating the two without damaging the plant. Lots of work ahead and with the weather turning colder, darker and wetter, progress is due to be slow. Let’s see what can be done before the spring! The area isn’t big, but I‘ve some initial ideas, which I share with you here via the magic of Microsoft Paint:
Introduce a small pond, made from recycled plastic boxes
Small fruit trees or bushes
A small hedge/shrubbery, with space to tuck in a wooden hedgehog house
Wild flower area, concentrating on types friendly to bees and butterflies.
An insect hive, e.g. for solitary bees.
Late October 2022 - some small progress!
I’ve made a start on the weeding, and a few of the raspberries have been relocated to elsewhere in the plot (hopefully they’ll survive!).
I've lifted the plastic covering and started clearing away the bindweed lurking under there. It's proving a pain, as the roots are sprawling and go deep. I hope I’m removing enough to keep it under control. The roots are prone to snapping, so I’m trying to be careful to trace them right back to their beginning. I guess time will tell as to how successful this has been.
November 2022 - SOR (Save Our Raspberries)
The raspberries are now almost totally relocated to the main part of the allotment, so hopefully they will be ok and we'll get some fruit from them this year. Further progress also made with the bindweed! A seemingly never ending task.
I still need to find a home for all the rubbish here. It’s a lot of plastic and currently no ideas as to how to reuse it …unfortunately I can see this going to the tip.
If you can help with some more sustainable ideas of how these can avoid landfill, do let me know.
In better news, I did make a start on the pond! So far this has pretty much consisted of digging myself a hole and putting a box in it :D
Unfortunately I managed to put a crack in the plastic, so I'll need to waterproof this somehow.
I think I can make better use of this space so I'll maybe have a further think about whether I can do anything more effective.
Winter 2022 - Preparations
I’ve not had much opportunity to get down to the allotment over winter unfortunately, so any work I’ve managed working towards my little oasis has been preparation.
The first thing to note is my hedgehog house! It’s not particularly sturdy but hopefully adequate for even the fussiest of hedgehogs and I remain extremely proud of this handiwork 🙂
I followed instructions from the wildlife trust, which you can find here: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-hedgehog-home
I did incur some cost as I bought materials myself, so if you were able to repurpose anything you already have all the better, but's a fun project (and must be easy enough, if I've managed it!).
I've also turned my attention to how to get the best bee-friendly setting I can - I started with the bee-saver kit offered by Friends of the Earth - https://friendsoftheearth.uk/donate/bee-saver-kit-now
These are £5 each, but it’s a nice little kit full of tips and a bee-identification chart. It’s also a good opportunity to donate to Friends of the Earth, if you appreciate their cause, as you can choose to pay a wee bit more.
For the pond, I've decided against using the box that I was initially trying to repurpose, as it was a bit on the small side. So now I have a slightly neater hole to fill 🙂
The wildlife trust had some good tips on creating a small pond which I’ll adapt for the situation: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-create-mini-pond
***More stories on gardening, composting, food sharing from our Climate Action Newcastle members can be read here.