Allotments 4 All

Just a quick one, we are wanting to plant flowers and such on the lottie that attract wildlife?

Any ideas on specific plants at what they attract?

les

Phacelia definitely are extremely attractive to bees so should be quite useful on a lottie  :D

I would say tagettes to attract hoverflies, sunflowers for goldfinches and canytuft for butterflies.

I know that Hebe and Buddleia attract butterflies.  Also favourable to insects are Tagetes, borage,cornflower,floxglove, globe thistle, lavender,antirrhinim and winter aconite.  

I grow calendula, poached egg plant, and nastursiums on mine  ;D DP

Thanks all for the advise...


Will definately be searching the flowers out to add some colour and life to the lottie.

Thanks again

Les

Got Calendula, nasturtiums, sunflowers, borage, lavender, rosemary, tagetes for the plot & garden as companion plants. I'll get round to taking a cutting or two from my rosemary to take down the plot - the bees are liking their flowers in my garden.

A patch of stinging nettles (in a bucket/pot to keep them contained) is great for attracting many insects - ladybirds will eat the aphids off them and also off your other plants, there are many butterflies that only lay eggs on nettles.

Any flowers of a similar shape to the flowers of fennel, verbena bonar-wotsit, cow parsley, etc will attract hover flies.

Aquilegia

Nettles.......


We have loads of them, fantastic, and I even ripped some of them out yesterday, but thats it they can stay where they are now.

Les

If you have room,a willow,of any kind,dwarf,twisted,golden or native is very popular especially with tits and apparently is a source of many insects for birds.

I also have the world's worst fruit bush.It has tiny fruit,impossible to pick,long deadly spines,grows apace,tall and wide, and colonises everywhere.

Its name?...Worcesterberry,a blackcurrent/gooseberry cross.

Why does it still grow freely in my garden?...the birds love it inordinately,it is a safe refuge,provides cover and food in berries and insect life.But it is a pest to prune,I usually don't bother,I need all my blood.




Toots ;D

Hi Toots

I have loads of Worcesterberry bushes and love the fruit, makes fantastic jam and great stewed, on ice cream (home made full fat of course).

For bigger fruit, loads of mulching with well-rotted horse manure at the start of the season, and prune like a gooseberry bush into a wine glass shape will make the picking easier.

Yes those thorns puncture everything, wheelbarrow tyres, wellies, 6’’ armour plate, but like the saying goes no pain no gain!
;D ;D ;D

Hi Trevody, well you shame me ! I will try to prune the bushes,but I need my suit of armour first! Anyway why should I deprive the poor old birds! ;D ;)

Toots

You say willow is good, any ideas on where and what to get?  And how old a tree should we look at getting, how quick do they grow?

We have an area at the bottom of the plot which we have decided to let go, well just let it do its own thing and thought about planting some trees down there.

We would like them to grow to say 10'-12' in height and cover say 20'.  Would 2 willow trees cover this kind of area?

Thanks

Les.

Les - one willow would happily fill that area. My mum-in-law has one that is easily that size. It is chopped back regularly to keep it going mad.

One tree I'd recommend is the Mountain Ash. Has lovely foliage, and orangy-red berries that the birds adore. It doesn't grow as madly as willow. Go on get one - you know you want to ;)

Alternatively, plant any native tree or even trees and keep them pollarded or copiced. Cut back to about 18inch tall every spring. Then you get lots of thin, young growth each year. The prunings can then be used to make trellises or used on your insect log pile.

I'm trying that with an oak the squirrels kindly planted for me!

Hi Les,you can get dwarf willow also golden osiers.Get them small,ideally as cuttings from a friend or as I did,follow the gardeners at the local country park when they were pruning and trimming and pick up the twigs,and pop them in with some rooting powder if you like.They are best fresh but grow like anything.Yes the large ones will grow as much as you let them but cope with heavy pruning or coppiceing.

I agree about the rowan or mountain ash,but birch is also a beautiful and insect attracting native tree.I love my birches,got as seedlings from the soggy bit at the bottom of my sister in law's garden!Grow big too though! Gean or bird cherry,wild cherry also good.

We have about 1/2 acre so lots of room and lots of trees.

My favourite native besides birch is the Scots pine,I have several ,great for tree creepers etc.

They are bonsai ones.Sadly they did not know this!They are now about 30-40 feet high.

I was given a Bonsai kit,started it  tiny wee pines etc,very pretty,then my youngest son was born,a sleepless restless baby and I had no time for twiddling trees,so they were shoved in the garden and needless to say thrived!

The garden is a tree nursery as they self seed all over the place.I have just found a yew,never had one must be from a bird,as neighbour down the road used to have one ,now gone. ??? ;)

Thanks aqui and toots,

We are currently on the look out for our trees.

We have found 2 little trees that have begun to grow, 1 looks like an oak which has got to about 2' tall at the moment (this is in a bit of no-mans land in between our house an the lottie), the other is a Sycamore, this is actually growing in our border its about 6' tall.

We were thinking of transferring these to our preferred location.  

Have you any advise on lifting and transplanting?

Take care

Les

Hi,Les,

I am no expert but wait till winter or late autumn,getting as much of the root ball as you can.make sure the hole is big enough,well watered and lots of compost.

Place a stake in the hole to support the treelet till it gets well rooted and to protect from winds.

Make sure it does not dry out too much till it has taken root.

Good luck.Toots ;)