Wildlife Allotment Report

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Work to clear the rubbish, cut down the brambles and dig out the roots started in February 2004 and continued throughout the year. This was carried out by a team of 15 volunteers from the Chiswick Horticultural Society who over the year have spent around 230 hours working on the project.

In June 2004, twenty two 12/13 year-old boys and their headmaster from Colet Court School in Barnes spent two days excavating and forming the central boggy area. They were very enthusiastic and worked hard despite the rain. The new bog was planted with purple loosestrife, ragged-robin, marsh marigold, yellow flag iris and meadowsweet. The purple loosestrife and ragged robin produced a wonderful display in September and October and attracted a host of bees and hover-flies.

In October and November we were lucky to have help from four volunteers from the World Youth Exchange programme (two girls from Nigeria and two from the UK) who were spending three months in Hounslow and three months in Nigeria working on community projects. They worked for five days on the wildlife allotment digging out roots, preparing and sowing the meadow area and planting bluebells, wood anemones and lesser celandine. They helped to dig out the marsh area and altogether made a great contribution to the project. The girls found the work interesting and satisfying: Juliet Dia wrote: “I found it quite strange and funny at first to be cultivating ground to plant what we would call weeds in Nigeria! The methods and tools used to clear the ground were challenging and very different compared with those used in Nigeria. I was really interested to learn how things were done in the UK, and working in the team was fun.”

In December, two classes of 9 and 10 year-olds and their teachers from Grove Park Primary School spent two days digging and exploring the allotment looking for worms, centipedes and other creepy-crawlies. Great fun was had by all and the children are looking forward to coming back in the spring to see all the new plants growing and to find more wildlife.

More recently the Chiswick Horticultural Society volunteers have been planting 150 small trees and hedging plants to form the woodland edge habitat.

Karen Liebreich with Hannah, Sam and Martha Brummer

World Youth Volunteers Benita, Juliet, Ruth, Donna and Carlos

Ragged Robin and Purple Loosestrife

Colet Court pupils at work