Completing Shill Hill

We returned again to Shill Hill with Glorious Grasslands to continue what we started last week. We had cleared a significant patch of scrub already on a south facing slope, so today was an opportunity to cut and rake the long grass.

The ground was pretty rough underfoot with several low lying stumps from the tree removal. The technique was to cut as low as possible, ideally creating patches of bare earth. There was a mixture of long, dominant grasses, mossy sections and young bracken and bramble shoots.

I elected to do strips, cutting uphill and returning to the bottom again for the next slice.

Once it was raked off (essential to reduce the nutrient content back into the ground) you could see that it had been pretty effective. This is a huge open space with no shading canopy and hopefully many wildflower species will germinate next year from the seedbank.

We also cut a triangular area across the track next to the woodland where the fly orchids are. Hopefully this will encourage the spread of the orchids next year also. We have made a plan to revisit in June and do a survey of the managed areas.