Advice on setting up Wildlife garden please

[Curlykale]

I am in the process of planning my new allotment, which luckily is a brand new plot so I have a blank canvas. My 9 year old daughter loves the idea of making a wildlife garden within the allotment.

I really don't have a clue where to start and wonder whether any of you have any advice. For instance: How much space should I put aside? Would any particular situation/aspect within the plot be better? What animals/insects should we encourage and how do we tempt them in?

I want to get it right in the planning stage!

[Two_Sheds]

My 9 year old daughter loves the idea of making a wildlife garden within the allotment.

- have a pond, even a small one will help. There're good books in the library about designs, safety, features, plants etc.

- I don't clear the plot for winter. I leave dead sweetcorn and sunflowers standing, as ladybirds etc shelter in the stems

- I don't have a separate section on my plot: I view the whole as a wildlife garden. I plant flowers among the veg, and I leave some veg to flower (bees in particular love coriander and brassica flowers)

- Have a good browse through the Wildlife section on here: there's loads more ideas.

[BFG]

Well done on wanting to be wildlife friendly.

The 2 easiest and most important things are:-

1. No pesticides. They're counter productive anyway (as they kill the slower growing natural predators too, leaving free reign for the pests) and end up leaving you permanently reliant on sprays.

2. Leave things messy over winter. All the little critters need places to overwinter and hide away.

If everyone did those 2 things, wildlife would be thriving.

In terms of planting, you can devote an area, but as Two Sheds says, you could make your whole plot wildlife friendly.

Ponds are always cited as the best feature for wildlife. And the frogs and toads attracted will do a great pest control job.

Long grass/meadow areas are brilliant for insects and small mammals, but that might be tricky to get away with in an allotment.

You can easily create homes for different things. A shady log pile will be great for frogs, toads and predatory beetles. A sunny rockery and tin sheet will be good for sun bathing reptiles. A big compost heap is like a bug mega city.

You could also put in a wildlife tower/bug hotel type thing. Your daughter would live making that with you.

Fruit and herb plants are pretty much all good for wildlife, so if you make sure you have both of them, then the place will be buzzing with life.

You want to be encouraging and attracting:-

Bees - Bumble, Honey and Solitary. These will pollinate your crops for you.
Wasps - They feed thousands of caterpillars, mosquitoes and othe rflying bugs to their young.
Hoverfiles - Their Larvae eat aphids.
Lacewings - Aphid predator.
Lady Birds - The Larvae and the adults eat aphids.
Butterflies - They're pretty. The white ones aren't so good admittedly, but hey ho, just plant nasturtiums as a distraction.
Dragon/Damsel Flies - Again, very pretty and most of them are aerial hunters taking pray on the wing, including mosquitoes.
Worms - You don't need to do much to attract these, but they're very important to the soil. They constantly stir, fertilse and air the soil and increase drainage.
Ground Beetles - These are often slug and slug egg predators.
Frogs - Good ant and slug control.
Toads - Slug and weevil control.
Slow worms - Slug control maybe?
Birds - Birds consume a lot of pests like caterpillars and aphids. The small insect eating ones like wrens and blue tits are the ones you want.

[Two_Sheds]

No Nettles Required is a scientific study of attempts to make a wildlife garden; they test things like bee houses too (with surprising results)

[peanut]

I have to say that I think T/S and BFG have got it well and truly covered!

I would only reiterate about not clearing until the Spring....I was horrified last year when on Gardeners World they told people to tidy up their borders and cut everything backso it looks neat!!!
Nooo...wildlife need it to be left, for both food and hibernation places. If I had cut back my Teasels I wouldn't have seen the family of Goldfinches feeding on them....and things like that really do make you feel good!

I also have bird feeders up, Peanuts and Sunflower hearts and in the winter fatballs.

Good luck with it and enjoy watching the wildlife.

[Curlykale]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply to my post - I now have loads of ideas and am looking forward to putting them into action. I do love this forum! Thanks again