Why welcome wildlife to your plot

A productive allotment is already a wildlife habitat, but a few deliberate features make it work harder for you. Frogs and toads eat slugs. Hedgehogs and ground beetles tackle leatherjackets. Blue tits and robins hoover up aphids and caterpillars. Bees, hoverflies and butterflies pollinate your beans, courgettes and fruit. You can add these benefits without losing growing space or breaking site rules. Here is how to do it on a typical British plot.

Build a small pond (a washing-up bowl counts)

Water is the best wildlife magnet. A pond 1 metre by 1.5 metres, with a depth of 45–60 centimetres, attracts frogs, newts, damselflies and dragonflies. If space is tight, sink a large washing-up bowl or an old sink. Put it in semi-shade, away from overhanging trees, and include a shallow ledge or stone ramp so creatures can get in and out. Frogs need easy access, and hedgehogs will drink from the edge.

Plant native oxygenators such as hornwort, plus a small water lily or marsh marigold for cover. Avoid fish, which eat frogspawn. Fill with rainwater, or let tap water stand for a few days. Top up with rainwater in dry spells. Scoop out fallen leaves in autumn and float a ball in winter to keep an area ice-free.

• Position: semi-shade, near a log pile or hedge.
• Safety: check site rules; some ask for a rigid mesh cover if children visit.
• Bonus: dragonfly larvae hunt mosquito larvae.

Make a log pile or dead hedge

Dead wood is alive with life. A log pile in a shady corner becomes a nursery for beetles, centipedes, woodlice and fungi, and damp shelter for frogs, toads, slow worms and hedgehogs. Use prunings from fruit bushes, old bean poles or untreated logs. Stack them loosely so there are gaps and tunnels. A pile 1 metre high and 1.5 metres wide is ideal, but smaller still helps.

For a tidier look, make a dead hedge. Drive two rows of stakes 30 centimetres apart and weave in twiggy prunings, spent raspberry canes and leaves. Leave the base in contact with soil so creatures can burrow. Do not disturb it between March and September, when birds may nest and hedgehogs raise young.

• Use: untreated wood, twigs, leaves, plain cardboard.
• Avoid: treated timber, paint, plastic, diseased prunings.
• Place: north-facing corner or beside a shed.

Plant flowering herbs for pollinators

Herbs are the hardest-working plants on an allotment. They feed you, feed pollinators and attract predatory insects. The key is to let some flower. Chives left uncut produce purple blooms bees adore. Borage is a magnet for bumblebees and hoverflies. Lavender, rosemary and thyme give early and late nectar. Fennel and dill attract hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids.

Aim for flowers from March to October. Start with rosemary and lungwort, then chives and borage, then lavender, marjoram and mint, then fennel and oregano. Most herbs prefer poor, well-drained soil, so do not overfeed. Grow mint in a pot. Leave seed heads on fennel and dill for goldfinches. Cut back only a third at a time so something is always in flower.

• For pollinators: borage, chives, lavender, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, thyme, mint, fennel, dill.
• For pest control: basil, mint, sage, thyme.
• Tip: group herbs in a sunny, sheltered spot near brassicas and fruit.

Encourage birds with nest boxes and feeders

Birds are your best pest-control team. A pair of blue tits can eat thousands of caterpillars in one breeding season. Put up a nest box with a 25–26 millimetre hole for blue tits, or 32 millimetres for great tits and house sparrows. Face it between north and east, away from wind and strong sun. Fix it 2–3 metres up with a clear flight path. Avoid a perch, which helps predators. Clean it out in autumn.

Feeders help, but only if clean. Wash them every couple of weeks with hot soapy water, rinse and dry. Offer sunflower hearts, nyjer seed or live mealworms in spring. Put feeders near cover, such as a hedge or log pile. A shallow dish of water at ground level attracts birds, hedgehogs and frogs. Change it regularly to stop mosquitoes breeding.

• Boxes: small hole for blue tits, open-fronted for robins and wrens.
• Food: sunflower hearts, mealworms, suet balls (not fat balls in warm weather).
• Hygiene: rotate feeders, clean weekly in mild weather.

Making it work on a working allotment

Wildlife features need not cost you a single potato. Use awkward corners: behind the shed, beside the water butt, under a fruit tree. Keep paths mown and clear so you still have order. Check your tenancy agreement before digging a pond or building a structure. If slugs are a problem, a log pile near your brassicas brings in frogs and hedgehogs. If aphids are a nuisance, leave flowering herbs near your beans. The more habitats you create, the more predators and pollinators move in, and the less you need to intervene. A wildlife-friendly plot is not a scruffy plot. It is a balanced one, and it grows better for it.