Allotments and wildlife
Allotments are not only places of escape for people, they also provide valuable havens for a variety of plants and wildlife by providing a natural environment. If you want to keep your allotment as natural as possible, the first thing you should do is cut out the toxic chemicals.
Most of the toxins found in pesticides are non-specific meaning they kill friend and foe indiscriminately. The knock-on effect of this is that the next wave of pests that arrives has a free hand and can multiply unchecked, meaning you’ll have a worse problem than you started with!
Making wildlife feel at home
If you really want to encourage more of the ‘right’ kind of wildlife, there are several steps you can take to create suitable habitats. One is to create space for wildlife on your own plot; the other is to create a communal pond within the wider allotment area on an unused patch of land (unless you have a very large plot, you are unlikely to be able to sacrifice the space yourself). A pond will provide a watering hole for a range of beneficial wildlife, while also boosting the local frog population, some of the best slug predators there are!