Once the campsite is closed for the season, we get to work with landscaping different areas around the site.
The Secret Campsite is set up to provide a fantastic array of habitats for a wide range of species. In turn this enables campers to come into contact with some beautiful and unusual creatures and plants whilst they are staying here with us.
If we did no landscaping, quite quickly the camping meadows would start to be overrun by brambles and other invasive species.
In the wild this ecological progression would eventually lead to woodland, but we are trying to maintain a meadow habitat, where species like our glow worms and the snakes that we see around the campsite can thrive. The meadow also ensures that campers get the sun onto their pitches and keeps the camping experience light and airy rather than a dark, dank, still space.
Our way of maintaining an open habitat is to cut areas of bramble back on a rotational basis and to let sheep graze around the camping areas to control the scrub from overrunning everything.
This week we had the first frosts and having cut some areas back we have let the first 3 sheep into the orchard to start grazing and browsing the vegetation.
The rest of the sheep from Owena will arrive in the coming weeks and will graze back most of the scrub areas, including our exciting hillock.
This approach enables more delicate meadow species to flourish along with all of the insects and animals that need these plants to survive.
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