Late Spring and Summer 2026
Half the site is now dominated by established trees which are changing the soil climate beneath. With grass under trees giving way to dead leaves and twigs the diversity of invertebrates will change. I hope to encourage a different range of moisture levels and therefore bacteria, fungi and other beneficial microbes. A healthy ecosystem is built on the soil and harnesses a broad biological community.
Looking from left to right lush grass grows in the light gradually giving way to clumpy irregular growth and bare soil to the edge of the now receeding bramble. Light is the limiting factor of grass growth here.
This image shows soil here gets limited direct light and is surronded by different tree species. The thistle has spread its leaves as widely as possible to extract as much light as it can. An adaptive behaviour as they normally grow up towards the light to compete for solar energy.
This is a tree Bumblebee I think. I have a lot of wood piles in my bug zones and this explains why I have a healthy population. They are especially fond of tree blossom and comfrey. This one was very thorough and systematic in its hunt for nector and pollen.
I’m in the process of creating a range of holes in various wood piles to accommodate bees. I recently watched a Martin Dohrn BBC documentary about garden bees and it has inspired me to do even more to encourage bee diversity at five acres. Bees love holes, a behaviour I have seen many times explained and collaborated by Martin.
Rabbits are difficult to film as they are so skittish. See if you can spot how many rabbits can be seen at the start compared to the end of this sequence.
Walnut trees are the last to come into leaf and the last to looses their leaves. This picture shows the male flowers which along with the help of wind pollinate female clusters of smaller flowers. I have these around the site in different zones. It took a long time to get any walnuts but yields have imrpoved in the last couple of years.