Biodiversity (Net Positive)

Our Gardens team takes good care of Wadham's extensive grounds. The team has cut back on use of chemicals in the garden as much as possible and make very limited use of pesticides. Love Lane and some areas in the Fellows’ private garden are left to their own devices to grow naturally and encourage insect and bird life. Some bulb areas are not mown until June and a wild area under the lime trees in the Back Quad supports wild plants and insects.

The gardeners use alternatives to chemicals and pesticides whenever possible. When one area of the Fellows’ Garden became infected with honey fungus, the team planted Phyllostachys, a Chinese bamboo that is resistant to it and that has been a very successful addition to the gardens, and is a natural alternative to chemicals. They use Phytoseiulus, a predatory mite, to control red spider mite in the greenhouse. This biological control is used during the summer. The gardeners use sulphate of iron, which consists of natural minerals, to control moss instead of pesticides.

The Gardens team make compost in Love Lane, which runs from the back of the College to South Park Road. Excess compost is made available to college members for use in their own gardens and allotments.

We host bird and bat boxes in different areas of the gardens, and there is a hedgehog house behind the chapel. Our development of the Dorothy Wadham Building site on Iffley Road included planting 15 trees, including Rowan, Beech, Malus, flowering Cheering, as well as shrubs, climbers, and bulbs. We installed bat boxes and installed boundaries to allow wildlife, such as hedgehogs, to move freely through the site.