Four acres for wildlife?

[MATTMOSS]

motorbike track........................only kiddin!! its a no brainer PLANT SOME TREES, if you dont need the land for a while, what about planting a crop of xmas trees.

[slack ma girdle]

If you want wild flower you will have to remove the fertile top soil, as they won't be able to compete with that very healthy grass.

You definitely need an orchard on there, and a few pigs.

[blades]

If you want wild flower you will have to remove the fertile top soil, as they won't be able to compete with that very healthy grass.

You definitely need an orchard on there, and a few pigs.

 

I did have alpacas and loved having them.... all summer was fine but as the dark nights started one of them became poorly and it may of ended up with me losing her.... luckily I didn't. From the animal welware stand point I don't want to risk animals when I cannot see them for a week at a time. I feel it is one thing to put food out in the dark, make sure they have water etc in the dark but you cannot check there condition properly in the dark. I feel I have made the correct decision for the sake of the alpacas. Pigs would be great but I suspect again I would be unable to give them the proper care they need. Trees and flowers I can leave with a clear conscience!! The orchard is actually part of the plan. I have attached a picture of my alpacas before I moved them to a friends farm :-) The white boy upfront is called Max.

 

Thank you

[Xaltu]

If you are wanting to return the area to wildlife I would lose the internal fences. I'm not a great fan of tree planting and thing the ground would be better to grow wild naturally. If you have a local farmer / small holder who would be happy to graze it autumn / winter (if the ground doesn't get too wet) then this would help to reduce the nutrient level of the ground and so encourage the wildflower development in the area. I lot really depends on what your local seed bank is like.

[MikeTM150]

If you want wild flower you will have to remove the fertile top soil, as they won't be able to compete with that very healthy grass.

You definitely need an orchard on there, and a few pigs.

 

afraid i disagree, we've planted about 25ha of wild flower's on fertile arable land for our HLS scheme and they've done superbly, all we did was top it at the end of the first year.

[slack ma girdle]

afraid i disagree, we've planted about 25ha of wild flower's on fertile arable land for our HLS scheme and they've done superbly, all we did was top it at the end of the first year.

 

The only reason i sugest to remove the fertile top soil is for the long term picture. As a general rule most native flowering plants that are found in grassland do not do well in the long term as they can not compete with the more aggressive grasses. Remove the nutrient rich top soil and the flowers and the grasses can compete on a level playing field.

[MikeTM150]

The only reason i sugest to remove the fertile top soil is for the long term picture. As a general rule most native flowering plants that are found in grassland do not do well in the long term as they can not compete with the more aggressive grasses. Remove the nutrient rich top soil and the flowers and the grasses can compete on a level playing field.

 

i can see ur point, but i'm still staying to my side of the fence. Ur going down a very narrow route, that allows little room for change of plan if he decides to change his mind. Also because if i'm wrong then i'm up a creek with a barb wire canoe and no paddle with our HLS scheme.

 

Also as a reasoning for my side of the fence, aleopathic interactions play a large part in wild flower colonies in reversion projects. Don't dispute after a longer perios of time, this become less dominant but in the short term future say 10-15years i think it will allow the desired species to stay dominant enough to create the desired effect with annual topping at worst!

 

what do u think?

[blades]

grateful for all the advice guys

[slack ma girdle]

i can see ur point, but i'm still staying to my side of the fence. Ur going down a very narrow route, that allows little room for change of plan if he decides to change his mind. Also because if i'm wrong then i'm up a creek with a barb wire canoe and no paddle with our HLS scheme.

 

Also as a reasoning for my side of the fence, aleopathic interactions play a large part in wild flower colonies in reversion projects. Don't dispute after a longer perios of time, this become less dominant but in the short term future say 10-15years i think it will allow the desired species to stay dominant enough to create the desired effect with annual topping at worst!

 

what do u think?

I can not argue with that. One thing i forgot to mention was that if you don't want to strip the top soil, is making sure that you sow species such as Yellow rattle that are grass parasites which help to slow the grass down. Or the other way is to mow in late August and remove all the cut grass as this will help break the cycle of nutrient repalcement.

If the councils did this then they would have mow the verges alot less and save a fair bit of money.

[MikeTM150]

I can not argue with that. One thing i forgot to mention was that if you don't want to strip the top soil, is making sure that you sow species such as Yellow rattle that are grass parasites which help to slow the grass down. Or the other way is to mow in late August and remove all the cut grass as this will help break the cycle of nutrient repalcement.

If the councils did this then they would have mow the verges alot less and save a fair bit of money.

 

See ur working along the same lines as i think, i tried to explain this theory to the natural england chap who came to view the proposal for our HLS, but he would have none of it!!! They had there set ideal and wouldn't see what i thought to be logical to get the best out of the situation!!! So frustrating!!!

 

Only issue i have with removing all grass after topping, is u also remove any seeds which may help to increase the soils wild flower seed bank. But there's always two sides to a story!!!