2022 – CHW
Illicium oligandrum, planted in 2017, with just a few yellow flowers today.

Started the autumn planting today after a few showers. After the drought we are bound to be in for a very wet period soon which might make planting impossible.

Below the beech tree clearing above the Higher Quarry Nursery a new set of specimen trees to, one day, take the bite out of the north wind:-

Pinus yunnanensis – given to us by Jim Gardener. Wild collected seed from Yunnan and apparently a dwarf form although it does not look it at present.

Abies concolor.

Ilex x attenuata ‘Sunny Foster’.

Planting in progress.

Oak trees raised from acorns from The Cottage in Durham.

A good secondary show now on Rhododendron ‘Norfolk Candy’.

Malus ‘Jelly King’ living up to its name. Real crabs!

Sorbus caloneura with just a few fruits.

2021 – CHW
A few views of the Tregavarras cliff fields which are restored coastal wildflower meadows (from scrub) which are grazed in the summer months with a water bowser. Gorse and blackthorn soon encroach and overwhelm the wildflowers so a late season trim is essential to maintain these fields as open areas.

This field was once (1990s), in part, cut with a tractor and flail but, with expensive modern machinery easily smashed and serious health and safety risks for the tractor driver on these cliff edges, this has now ended. This is how it all quickly reverts to impenetrable gorse and blackthorn scrub with no open areas for coastal wildflowers.

The only way to tackle areas like this today to create grazed wildflower meadows is with radio controlled brush cutting machines with no human risk. Over our boundary on the National Trust Boswinger land you can just see how the bracken has been strip cut (I assume) by a remote machine. The National Trust are supposedly grazing ponies on the Dodman cliff areas to restore wildflower meadows. Big risks of cliff falls (as we have had before with cattle) and I doubt that ponies on their own can really keep the bracken and scrub at bay without additional topping from time to time.Nevertheless a big success in terms of wildflower specie numbers as our recent survey has shown. These fields were G01/G02 in 2011 and are now G03 or nearly G06 (ie very species rich). Demonstrable conservation work but it has taken 30 years to get this far and would not have been possible without Higher Level Scheme grant aid. Expensive, but perhaps a prime example of ‘public money for public goods’ on the coastal path.

A fine lot of seeding knapweed in an untrimmed area.

This is how cattle can bash their way into a scrubby corner to let in light for wildflower seed to germinate.

The 1990s fencing on the cliff edge has collapsed.