So we treat it with care, hence all my grumbling about the three b's - bracken, brambles and birch -- all of which could take over without the work of our green team of volunteers. All this I have written before, but we expect this winter to try to cope in part with the weeding by mechanical means.

As the heather is blooming as I write, it may be a good time to think more about it, because it is in no way the beautiful unbroken purple vista which I remember seven years ago when it was just inches higher than my knees - after two of us had conquered the shoulder-high bracken first! Bracken is not much of a problem now, but birch and brambles are still difficult.

So is the heather, which is now head-high, has long stems as thick as your thumb and is partly flattened to the ground by their own weight. Today the vista is patchy, messy and even ugly once the flowers have died off. Ugly also for us, as we walk through it to weed out the b's.

I think that Sussex Wildlife Trust which owns the reserve and has acres of heather elsewhere, never thought about this problem. Whereas the big reserves can be grazed by animals which can cope with young heather, it would not be worth fencing, providing drinking water and skilled oversight on our few acres -- perhaps a hectare or so. If, in 1997, we had been able to use a mower similar to the one we now use now for the rides, we could also have used it for the heather before it became too long. But we must be practical, which brings us to next winter.

Alice, our long-suffering reserves officer, will be testing a special brush-cutter to get in among the laid stems. Cut them, and the problem will be solved. The cut stems will be moved from the experiment of, say, a sixth of the total area to allow the heather to re-grow. We could then be into our usual annual rotational work of cutting, in this case, one-sixth of the area over six years to cover the whole and then start again.

This way we, and our more discerning visitors, will be able to see the differences in height not only over the years, but in the habitats which they will attract and shelter. I know that the three b’s will also grow again. But the volunteers will take more heart and, hopefully, after six years we will be able to mow the whole area, tend it more easily and then the beautiful unbroken purple vista will return.

I expect to be working there on that occasion. So come and have look, it will be worth it!

John Hall © 2005