National Allotments Week highlighted the benefits of growing your own produce regardless of gender and age – but it’s not just people who benefit. At Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park on Pershore Road, the animals tuck into home-grown fruit, veg and herbs all year round. From lemon balm, lovage and lettuce to blackberries and bamboo, the meerkats, monkeys, lemurs and lynx all enjoy a healthy diet with food grown just whiskers away in the park’s Eco-Garden!
Grown on site –
- Herbs: lemon balm, thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley, chives & lovage (these are used for enrichment)
- Fruit: strawberries, blackberries (animals are fed whole cuttings of bramble), rhubarb (all used for feed)
- Vegetables / Salad leaves: carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, chard, romaine lettuce, courgettes, and beans (all used for feed)
- Weeds such as plantain and dandelions to add to ‘salad’ portions of diets, and cut things like hawthorn, bamboo etc. to feed as browse.
Animals enjoying the home-grown veg include – lemurs, meerkats, binturong, porcupines, all the primates, otters, lynx and ocelots.