It's been a busy time as always at our community allotment. Here's what we've been up to in April, May and June 2025!

Busy Bees for Summer

This is always the busiest time of the year at the allotments. Everything has started to grow, including the weeds! So, we’ve had all hands on deck for planting out crops, weeding, watering, pruning, mulching and mowing the grass. We’ve added lots of our own-made compost to the beds in the polytunnel and the vegetable plots and they are starting to fill up with crops! We’ve started harvesting – cabbages, leeks, courgettes. But everything has slowed down a bit due to the heat wave. So, we’re now very busy with A LOT of watering but at least we don’t have to cut the grass as much.

We have still had time to start work on the new Birds, Bugs and Bees area. And in May, we were joined by the Cambridge Cyrenians staff team for The Big Build of the deer proof fencing around the vegetable beds.

Birds, Bugs and Bees

Developing a new area for wildlife

On Earth Day in April, we completed our newest habitat to encourage wildlife to our site.

To grow our beautiful and productive garden we have to consider the wider environment. Without wildlife to pollinate plants and regulate the population of critters who nibble the crops, the garden’s system would break down. So we built the Bugs and Bees Hotel to encourage beneficial bugs and other critters including frogs, ladybirds and beetles. First we built a frame from some old pallets and then stuffed it with rubble and sticks to make some internal nooks and crannies for nesting and feeding areas. We filled some old guttering and down-posts with straw and laid them inside the structure for insects to nestle in. Then we filled any empty spaces with a selection of hollow stems, bricks, and sticks.

We’ve been weeding and replanting/ seeding the flowering area near the hotel to encourage bees and birds to the pollen and seed heads. The grass area around the hotel has been left to grow and we will be adding some wildflowers in the autumn. The area has already started to grow and mature. We think it looks beautiful. We hope the critters do too!

The Big Build

Muntjac Fencing All Round!

At our community allotment, we encourage and work with nature (see above!) That includes all the visitors to the site such as the muntjac deer who come from the neighbouring common land. However, the muntjac have been seriously nibbling our crops over the last few years. So, we decided to put up protective fencing around the vegetable plots to prevent the damage.

We were really lucky to receive funding for the equipment needed for this project from The National Garden Scheme. With help and advice from the brilliant Cambridge Cyrenians maintenance team, Mick and Frank, we bought everything we needed locally.

And then, on a very hot day in May we were joined by the Cyrenians staff team who volunteered to get the fencing up. Check out the fantastic photos of the team getting stuck in. Posts bashed, fencing attached, gates built and hung – the crops have gone in and the deer proof fencing is doing its job!

Join In!

We run the seasonal gardening and forest skills sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays at our community garden on 6 allotment plots at the Whitehill Allotment site, off Newmarket Road.

Our small groups are usually made up of about 6 to 10 people on both days. If you would like to talk to our coordinator about joining the groups, please get in contact or speak to your project worker about it and we can arrange to meet you.

Contact: kevin@cambridgecyrenians.org.uk

You can also join in by following us and commenting on our Instagram: @our_community_allotment.