Page 39 - ALG Issue 3 2024

resources to survive and they may have to compete with other organisms to do so in their environment.’
Certain committee members then sought to research potential funding streams from sources that could support what we would come to call our ‘Wildlife Garden Project’ idea. During our research, we came across the charity organisation ‘Keep Wales Tidy.’
A detailed ‘Development Package’ application was made and a site visit by an area Keep Wales Tidy Team took place in late November 2023. Just before Christmas, Maesycoed Allotments received notification that its application had been successful.A very pleasant surprise for all!
It was only then that the scale of what we had proposed hit home.The plot of land that we had allocated to our project was almost 300 metres/sq. Our design incorporated an ‘orchard’ including many local trees (crab apple, rowan, blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel and field maple), raised trellis with climbing plants (honeysuckle, clematis and op), a defined gravel path that would wend its way through the plot
(flanked by a wildflower meadow), multiple wildlife habitat boxes (for birds, bats, insects and butterflies), a reptile shelter, rock and wood piles, an area for a shed to secure tools, a bird table, water butt, a pond (complete with aquatic plants and grass turf surrounding the pond), five raised beds (filled with top soil and compost), two heavy benches made from recycled plastics, and areas to suppor t wildflower plants (including bergamot, calamint, campion (white & Red), daisy – ox eye, knapweed, primrose, and tansy) along with 300 bulbs (wild garlic, snowdrop and bluebell).
But first the land had to be cleared (see image on opposite page).
Thankfully, from one week to the next since January 2024, various volunteers have given up their time to help bring
this project to its near completion. I am enormously grateful to them for all their efforts. Naturally, the British weather did its very best to make things more difficult. The first pond that was dug soon became a small lake because of all the rainwater that had washed down from nearby hills.
This ever-growing hole then needed to be backfilled.
Other difficulties ranged from navigating over sodden ground and mud to physically getting some items (e.g., large bags of stone and topsoil) from the local main road up into our allotment site.Thankfully, we have a very community-spirited farmer local to the site who helped out enormously moving items around and to the wildlife area.
Now, as I write this article, Easter approaches and most of the work has been completed. I hope you agree with me that the site is much improved, and in a position to be put to good use by local school children, Pontypridd residents and members (old and young) of our Association. All of them may think about the famous Welsh poem ‘Leisure’ as they rest on one of the benches:
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
William Henry Davies (1871-1940)
Mark Goodson, Chairperson, Maesycoed Allotments Association, Pontypridd
Allotment and Leisure Gardener | Issue 3 2024 | 39
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