Zone 5 – wilderness
November 8th, 2007 - Posted in permaculture - by Sarah|
In the interests of preserving bio-diversity, every permaculture design should have a zone 5 (click for more info about permaculture and zones). Although the Croft is only about 7 acres we have 3 distinct and variously beautiful wild areas.
Native bush
The first of these is approximately half an acre of bush that was selectively logged sometime in the late 19th century. None of the trees or bushes have been planted – they have all self-seeded. The trees are mostly Kamahi with a scattering of Rimu, Kahikatea, Totara and Miro and the canopy is about 15 metres high. The understory includes a wide range of tree ferns and saplings. Supplejack, Rata, Clematis and Bush Lawyer (once it gets its hooks into you it never lets go) wind their way up amongst the epiphytes. This bush protects us from the cold southerly winds and provides cool shade even in the middle of summer.
Tree Fushia, Cabbage Tree & Kamahi along the bank of the stream.
A stream winds through the bush and then falls down the edge of the terrace before meandering through our paddock. This stream is the second wild area. The water is home to eels and a spawning ground for whitebait, dragon flies and damsel-flies. It also provides a focal point for the wekas and pukeko and a host of smaller native birds. We plan on assisting the stream banks to regenerate into native bush which will create a wildlife corridor across the center of the property to join up with the river reserve on our boundary.
Two Juvenile Lancewoods on the terrace edge – the one on the right is just beginning to turn its leaves upwards to change into its adult form.
The terrace edge is the most consistently dry area and is a mass of Lancewood, Lemonwood and small leaved Coprosmas with a deep understory of ferns and lacy club moss. We will be making a new foot track down to the paddock through here but will weave it around as required to avoid destroying anything unusual or especially beautiful. Over time we plan to create more wilderness by planting native hedgerows between our outer boundary fence and the grazing areas.
