Please comment on our ideas

It is a dream come true to own two fields.  We have so many ideas but we welcome more.  Apart from using them for grazing we are considering woodland, ponds, natural beekeeping and community garden.

Commercially thinking, we have in mind to grow hazel to create hurdles.  Some other wood could be harvested for firewood.  Other, slower growing wood, would be a long term investment, realised at a much later date.

We are looking at the following species:

Willow, alder, hazel, oak, ash, mountain ash, sweet chestnut, field maple, hornbeam, small leafed lime and for shrubs along the edge, dogwood, spindle, gelder rose, wild privet and dog rose.

We are now also planning an organic orchard and forest garden with some very interesting species - watch this space.

The environmental project needs to be thought through holisitically.  Our interest is in a return to the pre-war concept of farming that is integrated, following ideas of rotation - pasture, root crops, grain (which might be maize, for example) and fallow.  Not to be backward, but to be sustainable.  Why don't you tell us what you think?   

Contact us if you would like to read more about our plans.