Last November, we dug out some scrapes to help the land hold water more intentionally and to provide an (ephemeral) wetland habitat. When we first dug, the hollow wasn’t that deep but it was definitely a pond. After the long … Continue reading September Working Party
A lovely May day and a gentle bit of editing: taking out a bit of bindweed and horsetails, uncovering the Water Avens and Ragged Robin, and splitting a few pond plants to put into the pond. Thanks to Karen, Mr … Continue reading Kingcups, Buttercups & Ragged Robin
Much milder this week and, today, sunshine and frogs. A *lot* of frogs! And a lot of frogspawn. There are various small ponds all over the site that are starting to fill up with frogspawn – and today, the pond … Continue reading Build it. They will come.
Storm Claudia swept through Coventry on Friday and now our pond is a lake and the water butts are all full! We even spotted a Grey Wagtail checking out the new facilities! If you really squint, you can see it … Continue reading The rain it raineth every day
Beautiful autumn day for a working party, and a good turn out. There was a bit of general maintenance of the mini food forest areas, but our main focus was on enlarging the pond/scrape/boggy areas in the mini nature reserve. … Continue reading November Working Party
Another beautiful sunny autumn Sunday. The plan for today was to see how far we could get digging out some ponds and scrapes to help intentionally store water on the land in the mini-nature reserve. We’ve tried to time the … Continue reading Digging in
The beginning of September already. The hottest, driest summer anyone can remember ended with a little rain. The rainwater collection tanks and damp meadow gratefully absorbed it, but where the ground was compacted, the rain barely made an impression. Rainwater … Continue reading End of summer working party
The sudden burst of wet weather following the very warm, dry spring has resulted in an explosion of nettles across the project plot, so today’s working party set out to pull those up and give the fruit trees and bushes … Continue reading Nettles and (Ragged Robin) petals
It’s brilliant to be able to wander round (in wellies!) in the mini nature reserve and spot who is currently living there. The willows that we pollarded at the end of last year are sprouting nicely. The other trees (willow, … Continue reading Spotter’s Guide
The heavy lifting is mostly completed – it was good to be able to take stock of the transformation of the site in the spring sunshine but we cannot wait for the leaves to open! It takes some imagination to … Continue reading Site transformation so far & in the sunshine
Urban Allotment: climate resilience & community 