Community Allotment News

Well Spring has finally sprung in the Knockanrawley Community Centre’s community allotment.  The last few days of sunshine has seen us very busy.  There is nothing like getting out into the sunshine and fresh air.  It’s chicken soup for the soul as someone once put it.  So for our first blogpost, we thought that we’d share some gardening tips for Spring time.   We hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

One thing we really loved learning about was how to make an insect hotel.  Although they may annoy us sometimes, bugs are really important in the garden and what better way to encourage them into the garden than to build an insect hotel.   This is also a great project for families to do on the days when it might not be so warm.

A bug hotel provides a place of shelter for insects in the cold winter months.    The main reason we need insects, and encourage them in the garden, is because they pollinate plants.   If we didn’t have them then 80% of all the plants we use for food would disappear.  In fact, without pollinators the human race could disappear.  So we learned that it’s really important to encourage them into the garden.

How to make an insect hotel:

1. An insect hotel is made up of sticks, bamboos, bits of bricks and timber so first gather whatever you can find. You an also use things like pots, or branches, or cardboard rolled up.
2. Get a bit of a drainage pipe or an old flower pot with the bottom missing.
3. Stuff this with bamboos, leaving the cut ends exposed, and in no time your hotel will be full of the most amazing creatures.
4. The insects will naturally find their way into it as they like dark and small places.
5. The key to creating any bug hotel is to make sure that there are holes, cracks, decomposing materials, nooks and crannies for a range of different types of insects.
6. To encourage even more of the pollinators it’s a good idea to plant wildflowers nearby.
7. This will encourage butterflies and bees all summer long, making sure our vegetables and flowers continue to grow and spread.

Be sure to share your Bug Hotel images with us on our facebook page.