Two-three years ago we fenced in the large tawa grove behind the new(ish) house at Struan Farm. Essentially this enlarged one of our existing native bush reserves on the property. We did so because the tawas are rather special, very old native trees, and we wanted to keep the sheep out to allow the extended bush to regenerate.
A few days ago I walked through the tawa grove enroute to some large kowhai trees on the edge of the bush in my quest for kowhai seeds.
And while yes, there are some weeds, it's interesting to see little native trees/shrubs and ferns starting to come back, self seeding. (There's a technical term for this, perhaps "understory," but the process itself is called "succession.") We have planted the odd kowhai, but we're wanting to see what will come back naturally, with the bush's own ability to regenerate and Mother Nature's help.
Last year we also fenced a second tawa grove further out from this one. This one has younger, smaller trees. Here's hoping the same thing starts to happen there!
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