Native Woodland
The regeneration of High Edge Wildland began with the planting of over 600 trees, made up of 16 species including willows, birches, alders, cherries, hawthorns and many more!
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Unfortunately, there aren't many trees in our surrounding landscape which meant just waiting for natural woodland growth was unlikely to work. The tree seed bank is almost non-existant in our soils and so all of these trees and shrubs were carefully selected because they are known to thrive in our wet and windy conditions.
Grasslands
We have three main types of grassland; calcareous (limestone) grassland, neutral grassland and a wilflower meadow. We're creating a bee friendly wildflower meadow made up of 25+ species of native flowers and grasses from what was modified grassland containing just a few.
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The 7 acres of calcaroeus grassland is already botanically rich and just requires grazing at certain times of the year to keep everything healthy.
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We have lots of birds that nest and hunt in the long grass including a barn owl who comes out at night!
Heritage Market Garden
In the south-eastern corner of the wildland we've begun to setup a heritage market garden, growing old varieties of annual and perenial vegetables that are suited to our harsh conditions (lots of wind and rain) and short growing season.
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We're working with landrace varieties of vegetable, grain and fibre plants that have adapted to difficult growing sites like the Scottish islands.
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We're using this space to demonstrate what is possible when employing nature friendly agroecological techniques that both produce an abundance of food and suport pollinators and other wildlife.
Agroforestry
We're at the early stages of developing an upland agroforestry system featuring up to 7 layers of plants producing food, fuel and fibre in a highly sustainble way.
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They'll be nut trees, fruit bushes, perenial tubers and much more, all working together in a natural symbiosis. These types of food systems were common place in areas where indigenous populations have lived sustainably for millenia but due to their complexity they are rarely found today in a world of monocultures.
Wetland
Our next project involves creating a series of ponds in what is already quite a wet area (see photo from the test dig). We're lucky in that here the top soil is farily thin with deep clay only about 20cm below ground level making pond creation simple.
Often touted as the best thing you can do on your land to benefit wildlife, our wetland will run alongside the bottom of the wildflower meadow and woodland creating an increadily rich moasic of habitats that will support a huge range of wildlife.