Biodiversity

[Barry]

We have a hardcore biodiversity group on our allotment that have tried ruthlessly to stop clearance of overgrown plots in line with growing (pun!) demand. They argue that we are destroying the biodiversity of the site. A biology teacher who has one plot says they're mad and that there is more biodiversity on a cultivated plot than on one overgrown with hawthorn and brambles.
Any comments either way?
BTW, we have learned that "biodiversity" plots are against the law on an allotment.

[peter]

Basically the bio-diversity group should be invited to take a walk to the urinals.
Although their aims in isolation are worthy, when taken in the context of an allotment site they are an irrelevance.
Allotment sites are for the growing of vegetables for their own consumption by local people, not for the maintenance of bio-diversity.

If they feel so strongly about the issue then they should go and join a local nature conservancy trust or the RSPB.

Ths lack of understanding is very common. Local to me people were up in arms about British Waterways felling mature trees along a canalised river. They just don't understand that a variety of habitats leads to diversity, while mature trees shade out the majority of other vegetation and thus restrict the fauna. BW were not clear felling, they were leaving good big trees, but opening up the river to light and allowing smaller growth to flourish.

[Clive.]

Back in the good old days.??...when all was sunny and the butterflies etc abounded.?? which is what is often looked back to.??...my Grandfather hand weeded the railway ballast and trimmed the railway hedges with his hedge knife.. cutting them to a low front garden hedge sort of height....he scythed the embankments grass low too...he kept the ditches clear and dug out too...so all was tidy. Wildlife seems to have survived this olde world tidy up very well ??....my reasoning being that...if it hadn't ..how would it still be here to be saved and provided for today.??

We have in our family an old meadow....we maintain it as a working meadow... It had a very damp patch re developing in the centre that was degenerating into bog with rushes...more diversity.??..but no longer usable meadow..... a meadow it is..so some drainage was done..at sensible level to not over drain it...just enough to sort the problem..and tidy meadow it remains...

At work we garden first...wildlife happily follows...but we don't go out of way to bash wildlife... did catch a mouse today. he'd eaten off some potted scillas.... we trap grey Squirrels if we can, bait for Rats, try to fence out Rabbits, live cage traps if they get in, use slug bait....but wildlife still abounds and we marvel at what we do get to see in the grounds as we go about our gardening. ..

I think I'm in keep it tidy and for purpose camp. and marvel at the wildlife that follows..

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

I second Clives views.

[Shallot Man]

We have a few newcomers who are brainwashing the committee to save a plot or two for nature, with a waiting list closed at 18, I suggested that if they felt that strong on plots laid aside for nature, that they continue paying for their plots and let them lay fallow. I am now persona non grater with them. Which suits me down to the ground. I am with peter, the plots are for growing vegetables on , not turning into a wild life haven.

[Barry]

Shallot Man,
Tell your committee they are acting illegally. The 1908 and 1922 allotment acts define absolutely what can be grown on an allotment plot. You can't let them go as wildlife plots if you have even one person on the waiting list. Are you a council allotment?

[Shallot Man]

Barry. Council owned but run by us.

[Barry]

In which case, make sure the committee is aware of the following use definition of allotment plots included in the 1922 Allotments Act:

The expression “allotment garden” means an allotment not exceeding forty poles in extent which is wholly or mainly cultivated by the occupier for the production of vegetable or fruit crops for consumption by himself or his family;

Wildlife plots are 100% illegal if you have a waiting list. If you don't, they can use surplus plots for other uses and for the highest rent, with the caveat that these plots must then be returned to fruit and veg cultivation within 12 months of demand reappearing!!!!

[Nature's Babe]

Growing vegetables is not incompatible with wildlife preservation, while some may not be desirable many are the gardeners friends. I grow most of my own veg and a wide variety of fruit using natural methods. Wildlife in my garden includes, a wide variety of birds, occasional badgers and foxes, hedgehogs, slowworms, toads frogs, newts dragonflies and many other beneficial insects, many spiders that protect my soft fruit, a good population of solitary mason and ground nesting bees and bumble bees - enough to attract beeflies. We even had a wild boar visit our pond during the freeze up, as I had opened a hole with the hot saucepan method so wild life could get a drink all other local ponds were covered with thick ice.
There is room for both, for compromise, veg and wildlife. and that is without unsightly overgrown brambles. Is there room for a pond, that would encourage natures slug patrol ?

[Clive.]

We have not come across Wild Boar wandering about up our way yet..

What we did see today, and it was an absolute treat to watch, was a little fluffed up Goldcrest. It was flitting around the Orange Triumph Roses that we were pruning. We stood quite still and watched it for several minutes..it came right up to us...almost at one stage coming to rest on my colleagues right boot..an amazing sight.. It moved a bit quick for his phone camera though.

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

The thought of scarecrows springs to mind!

[Mike Vogel]

Barry quotes the law " .... wholely OR MAINLY ... for one's own consumption ..." So let the biodiversity people leave some portion of their own plots to grow naturally as a wildlife garden. A 10-pole plot can have a 2-pole area set aside in this way and will still be cultivated as an allotment within the law. It can be sown with the sort of flowers which attract beneficial insects and will thus be related to the cultivation of the other 8 poles. Carefully situated, it could include quite tall-growing bushes like Buddleia without cutting the sun off cultivated parts of the allotment site.

Of course, there may be a portion of the land which is quite unsuitable for levelling off to provide a family plot. There you have a ready-made biodiversity site. We had one on our plot, until it was decided that it was worth giving over to veg after all.

[Johnboy]

The answer to that Mike is a firm NO! What you are advocating is the production of weeds to the annoyance of the other plot holders.
There is a total wealth of unproductive land for wildlife already and these people are simply wrong in even suggesting wildlife patches within an area set aside for food production. It is a totally selfish point of view to suggest that people who want to grow their own should be denied plots because some misguided person wishes to use the allotment for a purpose other than what it is designated to do.
JB.

[glallotments]

The problem is that weeds don't stay put. Before all the plots on our site were cultivated we had plots left covered in brambles, willow herbs, thistles etc and each year weed seeds blew across and colonised the cultivated plots.

To encourage biodiversity you don't have to have an overgrown plot.
We have grass paths which the beetles, frogs and toads love. We have a comfrey patch which is great for both us and if we leave some to flower the bees too. We also have some buddleias which form a sort of small hedge and grow annual and perennial flowering plants for cut flowers as well as for the butterflies and bees.

We have cultivated blackberries etc which we share with the wildlife and redcurrants that once we have gathered what we want we leave for the birds. Around our fruit trees we let our grass grow a little longer and find wild flowers grow there which are unharmed by the strimming etc once cut down they soon shoot up again.

We also have a small nettle patch. The site has a hawthorn/elder hedge to a couple of sides. Some plot holders also hang up bird feeders etc and have small ponds.

In effect we have a rich habitat for wildlife without annoying anyone with untidy and weed ridden plots.