My family and I have been living on the 40 acre holding for 30+ years. Wildlife Trust experts such as Ray Woods, Fred Slater, Bronwin Jenkins, Richard Knight and Andy Shaw made the family aware of rare, isolated, special, native species remaining at Penrhiw.

This led to the desire to help and support the existing habitats to survive and undertake work to create opportunities for new habitat niches to establish and rare species to colonise these from other parts of Penrhiw.

Penrhiw is a mixture of deciduous woodland on a steep sided valley and traditional hay meadows. It has never been intensively farmed, so it supports populations of rare plant species including Whorled caraway and Annual Knawl.

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust's knowledgeable current team have helped to guide us on the journey to maximise every opportunity to ‘stack’ favourable conditions for ecosystem regeneration and recovery into this small but varied parcel of Powys. 

We have created a Forest Garden, which cloaks part of a south facing pasture. Following a well-established principle, a cluster of orchard fruit trees have been planted with an understory of fruit bushes, perennial vegetables and a variety of plants to benefit pollinating insects. This multi layered, mini, open wood supplements the household diet with seasonal fresh fruit, veg and herbs.

Our forest garden is in its early stages of development. The idea is to establish a robust food system in harmony with the native ecology which maintains its own fertility. Forest gardens and agroforestry / perennial food gardens are dynamic systems which everyone with a garden or allotment could develop to support humans within the restoration of wider varied, rich ecosystems.

We are very happy to be part of Wye Valley Wilding and see this blend of traditional conservation management for specific wildlife species and trusting and allowing nature to lead ecological restoration processes, is the most effective way to protect and encourage nature back to our landscape.