Biodiversity in Newcastle - My 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, from cutting out animal products; reducing consumption (especially plastics); ethical banking; being mindful about how we commute - and many others (many of which are discussed elsewhere on this site!). Although they’re all extremely important, a downside is that most of us see the effort involved - the hassle of changing banks, extra time to take the bus, expense of non-dairy milk alternatives - but without being able to experience the immediate benefits.

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, so not great to use to grow any fruit or veg.

My Biodiversity Oasis project diary below charts what I'm attempting, and, hopefully, the wonderful results :) .The latest post appears at the top. Below that you can read through the diary from the beginning. 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.

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June 2023

Some exciting developments in the biodiversity garden to share with you!

Greenery has spread right across the plot now, and we're now starting to see some colour appear - especially in the form of borage, which has sprung up strongly over the past couple of weeks. The bees seem to be particularly enjoy this! I'm told borage is also good for eating, so I shall investigate that considering we're getting an abundance! I've noticed quite a few ladybirds around too, something is clearly taking their fancy. I've yet to put the bug hotel we have out, but we seem to be attracting enough insects that they may actually make use of it :D

The pond is now teeming with life - a host of wriggly and creepy-crawlies have made it their home, but most excitingly the tadpoles have thrived to the point where we have at least one tiny frog! I was able to count one frog and at least another 6 tadpoles, so hopefully they will continue to enjoy the pond :) The pond itself did threaten to dry out somewhat given the warm and dry weather we had throughout May and June, but I was able to keep the water level up using water from our water butt.

I've got some potatoes on the go which have taken over a planter I have in the corner, and seem to be almost ready to flower.

The hedgehog house is now out, a bit less exposed given there is a lot more foliage to protect it, but I may try to find a more sheltered spot.

The pic below shows how things have changed over the past few months. I'm pretty happy with the results so far!

I've also added a gallery below.

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Gallery

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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

Early Spring, quick update

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!

Late Spring 2023

Here we have the beginnings of the pond! I've also added a couple of plants in there: a marsh pennywort and mare's tail. It's still not a particularly inviting area, so I've planted a host of flower seeds in the area including yellow rattle, Alyssum ('carpet of snow' according to the packet), and Gypsophila Elegans ('Covent Garden'). Alongside that I've added some general meadow seed packs, and some seed bombs, so with any luck some of that will take soon!

And the mystery flower (a mystery to me at least) was...Spanish Bluebells! Which shouldn't have been a surprise really as they're everywhere :D Some not so bright news came in the form of the return of the bindweed. It's source is from the adjoining garden, so I can't entirely pull it out, so I guess I'll just need to keep on top of any shoots I see, until one of us gives up...

Early Summer

I'm very short on time today but I really wanted to share some exciting developments in our little wildlife area, as we introduced tadpoles last week! Pleased to report having checked today that some are still going strong!

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***More stories on gardening, composting, food sharing from our Climate Action Newcastle members can be read here.