Wilder St Albans: Nunnery 2 Allotments Hedgerow Project

A fantastic proposal has been put forward by allotment holders at Nunnery 2 allotments in St Albans and has been awarded over £6,000 of funding by The Tree Council.

This proposal is for the creation of a biodiverse hedgerow on the Nunnery 2 Allotments by regenerating a section of a line of trees. The aim is to significantly increase biodiversity in the area, which includes the Nunnery Allotments and the Sopwell Nunnery Greenspace.

The regeneration of the trees will involve coppicing a section of the trees, interplanting the coppice stools with a variety of different wildlife-friendly tree species, and after 4 to 5 years of growth, laying it as a hedge and maintaining it as a hedge.

Field maple is a native tree that is attractive to wildlife but the variety of wildlife that is supported by the line of trees is limited due to the monoculture of a single tree species. Once the field maple has blossomed in April, there is no other blossom to support pollinators and other insects for the rest of the year.

The line of trees is approx 72 metres long and is important as a wildlife corridor linking with other hedges and groups of trees within the Sopwell Nunnery Greenspace and beyond. For this reason, the proposal is to undertake the restoration of only half of the line of trees so that disturbance to wildlife is kept to a minimum. It is hoped to diversify the remaining section in the coming years.

130 whips will be planted in total, containing a mix of the following species: cherry plum, goat willow, blackthorn, crab apple, hawthorn, guelder rose, dogwood and alder buckthorn.

Coppicing the trees and laying the hedge will regenerate the existing trees and extend the natural life of the trees significantly. The proposed hedgerow will, in time, support more species of wildlife including birds, mammals and invertebrates by introducing a range of tree species to complement the existing field maple trees but will also extend the months of the year pollinators and other insects can visit flowers in the hedgerow by introducing a blossom sequence.