Wildflower Meadow

This winter we have spent quite a bit of time working on the area that we want to turn into a wildflower meadow.

I have planted a hedge down one side of the meadow, which I hope will create a bit of shelter from the wind that whistles down the valley. The plants chosen will all also provide nesting places for birds and flowers and berries, which will provide food for birds and insects.

The basis of the hedge is made up of 135 Hawthorn plants. I have mixed in 10 Blackthorns, 10 Crab Apple, 10 Alder Buckthorn, 10 Guelder Rose and 4 Hazels.

The Alder Buckthorn were chosen as they are the food plant for the caterpillars of Brimstone butterflies. Brimstones occur in England and occasionally they are seen north of the border. However, because there is very little Alder Buckthorn up here they cannot go on to breed. It is a bit of a long shot, but you never know, one day in the future a visiting Brimstone may find the perfect spot to lay her eggs on our hedge!!

Nearer the road we have planted 100 Beech saplings, which will create a more formal hedge at the entrance.

It took me four days to plant the hedge. I hadn't realised how stony the ground is there. For some reason, I thought the soil in the flatter area of the valley would be much easier digging!

More recently we have spent time clearing up fallen branches, old wire fencing and the remains of a mattress. We have also cut back the lower branches of some of the trees to make cutting the area much easier in the future and to encourage wild flowers to grow.

Spot the difference!

A couple of weeks ago I was dismayed to discover that cows in the neighbouring field had taken a liking to our hedge and they had managed to remove the tree tubes and spirals from more than half of the plants and then stripped the leaves off them. Luckily the farmer next door has put up a fence a few feet inside his field, so I hope the cows won't reach the hedge again. I have replaced the tubes and stakes for much of the hedge, but about 20 plants have been pulled out. I am keeping an eye on those that were stripped and hoping that new leaves will soon appear.

I am really looking forward to seeing the hedge develop over the next few years, assuming the cattle don't get to it again!!

A Wee Look Around

Mill Glade is set amongst mixed woodland, with a few more open areas. Dad spent a lot of time trying to improve the place for wildlife and I spent a lot of time helping him.

Here are a few examples of what he did when he was having the house built, so that he could share his home with others.

There are various holes in the walls of the house, which are specifically designed for particular creatures. The hole above, with a small chamber behind it was designed for a Spotted Flycatcher to nest in. And sure enough, every year since the house was built a Spotted Flycatcher has nested in it!

And this hole houses Wrens in the winter. Wrens have communal winter roosts in the winter, which helps them to survive the cold. I am not sure if this was the intended purpose of this particular hole, but I remember Dad telling me that he had seen 15 Wrens going in there one night.

The chimney has a little ledge built into either side of it, with an overhang protecting them, designed for birds to nest on. This one, I think, has a Blackbird's nest in it.

And on the other side, last year, was this Wren's nest.

The lean-to log shelter has a shelf along the back where Swallows nest and another shelf along the front where a Blackbird has nested. Under the overhang at the front of the house is another shelf where Swallows also nest. Many of the trees around the house have nesting boxes in them where Blue Tits, Great Tits and Coal Tits nest. And of course, there are many more nests in bushes and trees around the place.

In the evenings it is a delight to watch bats emerging from the apex of the roof and then swoop over the pond to catch insects. I am not sure that the house was actually designed to allow bats to get into the roof space, but they also roost in an area of the roof behind the chimney breast.

The pond is a wonderful place to watch damselflies and dragonflies. I have learned that they lay their eggs in grass stems that lie in the water's edge, so I now leave the grass longer at the edge of the pond for them. We often see Roe Deer emerging from the trees behind the pond and it is fantastic to watch them walking past the house.

The grass in the foreground of the picture above is a wonderful place for wild flowers. I leave it uncut until late July to allow them to flower and set seed. Then I cut it short, in an attempt to inhibit thick grass growth.

The area of grassland above is a great place to see Ringlet butterflies in the summer. When Dad bought the place there was a lot of Rose Bay Willow Herb, Nettles and young Sycamore trees growing here. Although these each support various other creatures, he had the foresight to keep cutting them back to create this lovely grassy area. I now cut this grass once a year after the first frosts of winter to keep it like this. The caterpillars of Ringlet butterflies feed on the grass, but will spend the winter deep down in the grass, below the height of the cutter.

We have other areas where we allow Nettles to grow!

Claire is keen to rid Rhododendron ponticum from Mill Glade. I was aware that it is non-native and invasive, but I didn't realise quite how bad it is. It can spread at an alarming rate and the dense evergreen cover smothers any smaller plants in the area. The leaves contain toxins, so are not palatable and therefore don't provide food for anything. Even when the leaves are dead they continue to be toxic, so leave a leaf litter that other plants can't grown in. The branches are so smooth that birds can't build nests in them and it turns out that the nectar or pollen is poisonous to bees, so when they take it back to their nests their grubs die!

Claire has already cleared an enormous area. The picture above was taken after we started on an area of banking and revealed a view of the house and the one below was taken the next day after more work.

We tend to cut the stems about two feet from the ground. Rhododendron is very shallow rooted, so this allows us to leaver some of the roots out. Unfortunately, many of the roots don't come out and quite quickly new shoots start to grow. We have been breaking the new shoots off, but if they continue to grow, we may have to resort to spraying them. We would rather not use herbicide, but as there is probably about an acre of Rhododendron still to clear, it may be the best solution in the long term.

There is a plantation of about an acre of Spruce. As you can see in the picture above it has a certain charm, but you will also notice that there is nothing growing under it. Even the Rhododendron has died due to a lack of light. Our plans are to clear-fell the Spruce and to re-plant the area with native broad leaves, but that may have to wait, while we concentrate on other jobs. There are a few Rowan, Beech and Sycamore trees growing in the plantation, which we would leave.

This picture shows an area of grassland which I would like to develop as a wild flower meadow. It is currently quite lush and has thick grasses growing with thistles and a few other wild flowers. I will need to do some research into the best ways to do this. Currently, I cut the area at the end of the summer. I should really rake off the clippings, as this would slowly reduce the nutrients and benefit the wild flowers. An alternative would be to have the area scarified, which may knock the grasses back and encourage the wild flowers. I don't cut the area on the other side of the drive to provide a bit of variety for species that require longer vegetation.

The picture above is looking in the opposite direction. I will be planting a hedge between us and the neighbour's cattle field in the next few days. This area is quite windy, so the hedge would provide shelter for the wild flower area, as well as providing flowers and fruit for insects and birds.

This section of banking was bare with some Sycamore trees growing on it. I cleared the trees a few years ago and Claire has been removing the Rhododendron. I have started planting Buddleia bushes there, with the intention of the whole bank being covered in them. Dad had one Buddleia in his flower bed nearer the house and this was always covered in butterflies in the late summer.

Our intention is to continue in my father's footsteps and enhance the place as much as we can for wildlife.

Introduction

2016 was not a year that I wish to remember for a number of reasons. We lost my father in February and spent many weeks sorting out his house and belongings. It is amazing that such an interesting life ends up being condensed into only a few boxes. I always feel sad that so much ends up being dispersed, but we tried to find good homes for much that was of no use to us. I still have many note books to sort through and thousands upon thousands of photographic slides to check and I hope to produce a list of the countries he visited and the work he accomplished.
My father was a biologist and as well as research work he set up a number of nature reserves in Scotland, France and Africa.
It is comforting to me that he left his house to my wife and I in his will. Mill Glade is set in the middle of 16 acres of woodland, overlooking an old mill pond. There is a stream running through the land. Much of the woodland was completely unmanaged when my father bought the property in 2001 and I spent many happy days thinning out sycamore trees to encourage wild flowers to grow.

When Dad had the house built he had the builder include many nooks and crannies designed for specific species of birds to nest in. I was a little skeptical thinking that they would all be occupied by starlings or sparrows, but he was right. Redstarts nested on a ledge at the side of the chimney, Swallows used the shelf he put under the overhang of the roof. A Spotted Flycatcher nests in its specific hole each year and Wrens use another hole as a winter communal roost.
Currently my nephew, his wife and two sons are living in the house. We will be moving there once my daughter has finished at school. In August 2018 we will start work on some alterations to the house and we hope to move in a few months later.

We have a lot of plans for the place. Most of them revolve around animals! Claire will be keeping chickens and she would like to provide a home for some donkeys from the Donkey Sanctuary. I have a number of projects I want to start to improve the place further for wildlife. I want to plant a hedge, create a wild flower meadow and plant various shrubs to encourage birds and insects. There is also the longer-term plan to rid the place of Rhododendron ponticum and we may clear a spruce plantation and replant the area with native broadleaf trees.