Darvills Hill Farm reports by Charlotte Downing

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1. Tree planting at Darvill’s Hill Farm by Charlotte Downing

A great deal has happened in everyone’s lives since November 2019, when 60 friends and family helped us plant 2200 trees at our small farm on Flowers Bottom lane. However, in the life cycle of the trees we planted, it has been just one growing season which started with relentless rain in early 2020, then the long, hot, dry spring and summer. So, it has proved to be a challenging year even for the trees. We continued on our tree planting mission over the last year and have added a further 1000 trees, including 150 oaks from the ‘Save the Oaks’ campaign (www.savetheoaks.org) and we aim to continue planting more trees each year.  

We have been mulching the saplings during February and March, to keep the grass from competing them, and doing a check on their health at the same time. It has been amazing to find that about 95% of the trees have taken root and, although early in the season, some are already starting to bud. We would welcome anyone who would like to come and check in on the trees they planted.

We are now planning to expand our carbon sequestering enterprise beyond tree planting, diversifying the farm’s ecology at the same time. We will be improving the hedgerows by in-planting towards the end of the year and during this grass growing season we are undertaking holistic planned grazing with our small flock of 40 Soay and Herdwick sheep. This process allows the sheep to use their natural ability to manage grasses to improve the farm’s soil organic content, capturing more of that pesky carbon in the process.

We are slowly immersing ourselves in the world of regenerative farming and would love to hear from anyone interested in this approach to improving our community ecosystem.

2. Musical Sheep at Darvills Hill Farm by Charlotte Downing

Recently a neighbour asked if I was playing musical sheep as they had notice I keep moving our flock of rare breed sheep into a fresh paddock every three days. I agreed it looked it bit odd, especially as I have discovered that if I clap my hands a couple of times, and call “Come on then”, the flock mobilise themselves and calmly walk into the next paddock.

I was sceptical of my shepherding ability when I embarked on this approach to grazing in the Spring.  I figured I would need to engage the services of a sheep dog, or if you have been following Jeremy Clarkson on ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ (Amazon Prime), a drone. However, as much as I would like to think that this magical compliance comes from my skill as a novice shepherd, it is more likely to come from the sheep’s ancient instinct to find new pasture.

The idea behind this steady movement of livestock is that by allowing grazing for only short periods of time, with vegetation and manure being trampled into the ground and a longer recovery time, soil health is improved.  Essentially, we are working with nature to draw down and store carbon in the soil and improve biodiversity

This was brought into sharp focus for me this year when I learnt that there is less than three percent of species rich grassland left in the UK and that we are fortunate enough to have some of this rare habitat at the farm. I am hopeful that this game of musical sheep will, in the coming years, continue to protect and enhance the Flowers Bottom Lane wildflower meadows.

Ps If you are interested in finding out more about the importance of soil in improving the health of the planet, I would recommend the 2020 Netflix documentary “Kiss the Ground”. It is worth a view.

3. 'Field of Dreams' and Fledglings at Darvills Hill Farm by Charlotte Downing