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Design at Penrhos
Late summer 1986; the first year that grazers (other than deer) were excluded.
Grasses grow to flower; unusual. Pasture is usually grazed regularly so that flowering does not occur. Note the Angelica (white flower, lower left) a deep rooted perennial.
Large numbers of tree seedlings to a few inches including conifers but especially birch and willow. On broken ground, numbers exceed 20 per square metre. Some collected for tree nursery and other sites.
Bracken expansion, spreading out into previously open areas. This is harvested heavily in July and used to mulch existing trees and regenerating saplings, on and off site, (potassium).
Bramble begins to throw out long runners into open spaces. Some harvested for goat fodder, others wound into gorse.
Gorse (nitrogen fixer) spreads outward by exploding seed pods. Forms basis for later clumps.
Increased birdlife, (phosphate from droppings)
Same view, 1989 (spot the oak branching into three, just to right of centre).
Grasses begin to give way to herbs, particularly on edges of gorse patches. Notably angelica, hemp agrimony, yarrow, fox glove, hard head or napweed, raspberry. Also wild strawberry, common tormentil, meadow sweet, ladies smock, (these two on wetter areas) honeysuckle, self heal, stitchwort, heath bedstraw, meadow thistle, St. John's Wort, various trefoils, (like gorse, nitrogen fixers). Harvested for fruit or herbal prescriptions.
Regenerating oak and hazel become visible. [In this shot there are loads of birch beginning to fill up the open space under the oak.]
Bramble begins to establish as large beds but also interpenetrates gorse and is harvested. (fruit and goat fodder)
Same view, 1991 [the oak branching into three is still there, just right of centre.]
Trees approaching the thicket stage. A few years on from this it was no longer possible to photograph from this position as hazel from the old hedge line (lighter green running along the bottom of the photo) obscured most of the view- one of the problems with recording regeneration over time.
Next stage after thicket is new space appearing under the closed canopy- more pics to come.