Page 34 - ALG Issue 3 2024

NORTH WEST
TINDALL
STREET Our new wildlife area
At Tindall Street we had an unwelcome visit by unknown intruders in summer 2023.They were not wildlife enthusiasts.
Our community pond was destroyed, the liner broken beyond repair, so all of our frogs and other beasties were lost.We gave those we could save to local schools and friendly, local pond owners for safe keeping, until we were ready to re-home them when we had opened up big enough water areas to fit them comfortably with water planting and features.
Our committee was unwilling to see their wildlife adventures ended, so a decision was made to reclaim an unused area which had been used as a general dump by a previous administration.
A local company was hired to strip
the overburden with a calfdozer to minimise compaction, so that planting collars and small scale beds (to encourage as much diverse use as possible) could
be placed across the site.We rescued
a Marsh-marigold from the debris of
our pond and sited it in a corner of the reclaimed site, close to an ancient hawthorn,
where many birds like to sit and keep watch for the wild cats which populate our site.
The area chosen was deliberately
so, because of its proximity to a long-abandoned sludge bed, which has not been attended by the local water company since the 1970s, so is full of overgrown vegetation and a whole jungle of wildlife, which it is hoped to attract into the garden.
Volunteer labour kindly made a bamboo fence along the site boundary, and our willow hedge is a green backdrop to complement it against the wrought iron security fence of the sludge bed.
The first crocus, daffodils and grape hyacinths were very welcome; the area had been a dumping ground and ‘fly-tip’ for so long and the change is remarkable.
“We rescued a Marsh-marigold from the debris of our pond and sited it in a corner of the reclaimed site, close to an ancient hawthorn”
34 | Issue 3 2024 | Allotment and Leisure Gardener