Topic: Insect friendly plot

[Lottie103]

We have an area of our plot that we aren't likely to get round to cultivating with veggies this year. At the moment it's quite grassy & as it's the lowest bit of the plot, it tends to be the most damp bit. It gets full sun in the morning but is quite shaded in the afternoon. Are there any wildflower seeds that are competitive enough to sow without having to prepare the area as if for a wildflower meadow (as in can we cut the grass short & sow some seeds directly into it)? I'd like to have a go at encouraging insects etc in that area. There are nettles there already - would I just be better leaving it as a nettle area rather than trying to get flowers to grow?

Thanks  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

Grass is very competitive so you/d really need to start the plants in pots and then put them out once they'd reached a decent size.

[Flighty]

I'd basically leave it as you may well find some flowers will grow anyway. Insects will like the nettles and long grass.
If you have any poppy and/or cornflower seeds, or unwanted ones, just broadcast them over the area.

[Bjerreby]

I'd leave it and let nature take its course.

Nettles are getting rare over here, so I leave mine to grow. Ladybirds and butterflies love them.

How about teasels for the goldfinches?

If you insist, you could clear a few small patches and sow borage, bees love it.

Foxgloves? They are biennials of course, but they would like the shade, and should sow themselves once established.

Blue bugle (Ajuga reptans) ?

[Lottie103]

Thanks :) Nettles & grass it is then. I might try my luck with a few annuals too but I hope we will be able to get round to cultivating the area by the autumn
 ;D

[MrBean]

If you can leave a patch, it's a good place for the predators that like the beasties, that like your veggies. If you get a scythe (the bush blade stands up to abuse well) cutting is easy at the end of the year. Then you can rake it off. Flowering plants don't do well if the soil has much fertility.

[Eristic]

If anyone is serious about having an insect friendly plot, grow lots of  veg, fruit and flowers but lay off the poisons.

No weedkiller.
No insecticide.
No slug pellets.

Insects do not require special flowers and weeds, just a toxin-free environment.

[PurpleHeather]

It does take some years to get a new allotment site into perfect order for cultivation.  But I would not encourage some one to deliberately keep areas permanently fallow, the seeds and runners of weeds can make vegetable and fruit cultivation difficult for others.

However it is perfectly fine to grow quite a lot which the insects love such as annual meadow flowers, herbs, fruit bearing trees, roses and more in a cultivated combination.

Many of us always edge our vegetable beds with bedding plants, it takes no additional space and some, like marigolds, mask the smell of carrots to the fly. The herbs  in tubs are easier to keep weed free, some are chopped back before flowering to encourage new growth for the kitchen others allowed to flower.

Lavender is excellent. It has a lot of domestic uses, the bees love it.

Some flowers like rockery plants not only encourage insects they can be a weed suppressant. grown between paving slabs on a path. Simpler to pull up than the weeds they suppress because they have shorter roots.

In short, an insect friendly plot does not have to look like a field and can be dual purpose.

We use nettles in the area around the allotment site together with brambles to form a protective 'hedge' against vandals. Have a bee keeper who does not have an allotment, he just looks after the bees on ours and other sites.

Some owners have hens at home and they bring them down to chomp on the slugs and snails, we have problems with rats so have decided against allowing hens on site.


   

[gardentg44]

If anyone is serious about having an insect friendly plot, grow lots of  veg, fruit and flowers but lay off the poisons.

[No weedkiller.
No insecticide.
No slug pellets.]

Insects do not require special flowers and weeds, just a toxin-free environment.

Thats me out of it then,

 ;D

[Lottie103]

Yip, we're toxin free...... probably explains the 4 hours of weeding & paltry single row of digging I managed today  ::) We've previously done a garden this way though so know it will get easier in time.

I take on board the comments about the potential for our seed / runners being problematic for neighbours but neither plot at either side of us has been cultivated for at least 5 yrs & one has been taken on by someone who hasn't done anything in the last 6 months so the area we have in insignificant in comparison. We have houses / 10 foot+ hedge on our other borders. I don't plan the area to be permanently fallow tho. Selfish perhaps, but I think that area has another few months of weeds ahead of it yet, but perhaps I will chop the grass back from time to time? I plan for our plot to be wildlife friendly anyway (found some fab frogs last weekend, already have lavender & herbs in pots elsewhere) but would rather make some use of the bits we can't cultivate just now rather than cover them with plastic. The nettles already there are a good start.

I've been thinking more about the suggestions made & think I will definitely put some foxgloves in that area. It backs onto an area that will be difficult to make useful any time soon (ever?) given the amount we have to do so biennials such as foxgloves will do the job nicely!
 :)

[angle shades]

 :) you don't have to grow native plants,

if you can spare a bit of land, grow Zinnia's and dahlias, bees and butterflies go crazy for them and it makes them very easy to photograph ;D/ shades x

[Robert_Brenchley]

When I was a kid, sedums were always smothered in butterflies. You don't see that any more, but they'll still attract whatever insects are around.

[hopalong]

Bees love my rosemary, geraniums (cranesbill), nasturtiums and anything with a yellow or orange centre to the flower.

[Eristic]

Bees love flowers. . . .

[Robert_Brenchley]

Bees love flowers. . . .

But not doubles as they have no nectaries.