Working with Nature

Our aim for Lower Hampen Farm is to provide an environment where nature is allowed to flourish and thereby help to support a sustainable, diverse system of agriculture. In this holistic, regenerative approach we wish to benefit all life, building soil health, contributing to cleaner air and improving water quality. We operate a low input, low output farming system and constantly strive to reduce our energy requirements and aim to become carbon negative.

Another goal is to help create a Community Assisted Agricultural scheme on the farm to provide home grown fresh fruit and veg to the local villages and to encourage enterprises that give young people a route into farming. This is in the very early stages so we hope you will enjoy reading of our progress in this new venture.

We are very fortunate to work alongside many expert organisations who are helping us in our endeavours. Following are brief outlines of the projects we are undertaking on the farm, most of which are ongoing. From time to time there will be more in depth descriptions of the projects in the Blog section which we hope you will find interesting and perhaps inspire you to create your own schemes

The Farm Shop and Kitchen

In 2022 with the help of a ‘Farming in Protected Landscape’ grant we built a small farm shop together with an annex as a potential processing kitchen. The building is a lean-to on the side of our grain barn which adjoins the market garden. The site offers excellent access from the lane leading to the farm, ample parking area and is on a footpath from the local village, a popular dog walk.

The building is constructed with reclaimed railway sleepers, hemp blocks and lime mortar for insulation, local waney edged larch, donated second hand windows and old elm doors from the farm! The result is a charming and attractive venue that has become a central hub for the farm. The shop offers for sale everything that we produce from the farm, vegetables, grass-fed meat, honey, heritage wheat flour and bread as well as preserves and woollen products. The majority of our customers subscribe to our CSA scheme but on Saturday mornings the shop is open to the public too.

The second stage of the project is to furnish a processing kitchen. The aim is to convert all wonky and surplus fruit and veg into soups, preserves, pies and fermented food and also bake bread and buns using our heritage wheat flour. This ties in with our no waste policy but also adds value to what we produce. The shop offers a social facility for locals to meet and chat and has been described as the ‘new local pub’! In addition, it gives us the chance to explain to people what is happening on the farm and provides an important link between producer and consumer.

CSA Market Garden

‘The Three Turnips’ CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) launched in July 2022 and is a local veg box scheme, providing the local community with a year-round supply of seasonal, nutrient dense vegetables grown in a regenerative way using no-dig principals.

The project has been partially funded by a FIPL grant through the Cotswold AONB.

The area is approximately 2.5 acres and within this we have planted diverse hedge species, created a beetle bank to help with our Integrated Pest Management and we will be creating a forest garden in the Autumn of 2022. We have also planted willow and woodchip which will be used for coppicing and to make compost both for our beds and for seed sowing.

We have chosen to follow ‘No Dig’ principles for growing our vegetables which is a low input system focusing on improving and feeding the soil which, in turn, feeds our vegetables. We make amendments here on the farm which help proliferate fungal networks and activate all parts of the Soil Wide Web.

New Dye Garden

In February 2023 plans for a new dye garden were laid out within the area of the market garden to benefit from the existing infrastructure, rabbit fencing and water supply as well as being close to the farm shop. Interest in plant dyes has increased and it is hoped that the dye garden will produce sufficient material to not only to dye the wool grown on the farm but to offer plant dyeing workshops. The garden mirrors the layout of the vegetable plot with narrow beds and wood chip paths making it easy to manage and the plants easy to harvest.

A wide range of plants were sown in the spring which includes the historical staples of woad (blue), weld (yellow) and madder (red) but others such as Coreopsis, Japanese indigo, dahlias, dyers chamomile, black scabious, dyers greenweed. Rhubarb has also been planted not only as a vegetable but also the leaves for use as a mordant on wool prior to dyeing. Most dye plants will be dried for storing and use over the winter, for workshops or for sale in the farm shop and many can also double up as cut flowers or for medicinal use too!

Farmland Birds

with Higher Level Stewardship Scheme

Over the past 50 years there has been a dramatic decline in farmland birds across the UK. We joined the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme in 2013 to help our beleaguered farmland birds. The scheme encourages farming practices that create habitats to support different bird species. Diverse cropping, good management of meadows, hedges and trees all contribute to abundant food sources and shelter for nesting birds. We plant additional plots of winter bird food mixes and feed supplementary seeds during the hungry gap from mid December to mid April.

We are fortunate to have a range of habitats on the farm that benefit some of our endangered birds such as the skylarks who prefer our open arable fields, while yellowhammers like the shelter of hedges and marsh tits make a home in the broadleaved woodland areas.

We have barn owls, little owls and tawny owls all nesting on the farm as well as buzzards and red kites. All bird life on the farm has increased in number and diversity as a result of the changes we have made and continue to make. Birds not only give us so much pleasure but also help us in return by eating crop pests.

New Woodlands

with Woodlands Trust and the Forestry Commission

In 2013/14 we planted over 11,000 mixed indigenous hardwood trees and shrubs in new plantations under a joint scheme between the Woodlands Trust and the Forestry Commission. The plantations were in five separate locations around the farm strategically placed to link with existing hedgerow and copses to create wildlife corridors so animals can migrate with security of cover from predators.

The primary purpose of the woodland was for wildlife but with the added benefit of thinnings providing wood for fuel, fencing or possibly charcoal production or biochar. The under story of the planted areas has created a vibrant diversity of habitats. Within three years on past arable land there were carpets of Star of Bethlehem in the spring followed by pyramidal orchids in the summer suggesting that the seeds were lying dormant in the soil just waiting for the right conditions.

The Old Railway

with Cotswold National Landscapes

We are fortunate to have an elevated stretch of disused railway running across the farm with south and north facing embankments. In the fifty years since the railway was closed, nature has taken over the embankments with a diverse mix of trees, shrubs and under story, while the open track area on top provides an excellent route for farm vehicles. Many of the more mature trees are ash which are sadly suffering from ash dieback and have had to be felled. With the opening up of the embankments it was noticed that there was an increase in the numbers of butterflies. The south facing slopes with the underlying shingle and ballast from the railway were thought to be an excellent site to create a butterfly bank.

With the help of volunteers organised by Cotswold AONB (now known as Cotswold National Landscapes) sections of the embankments are being cleared of brambles and scrub before being planted with a wild seed mix suitable for encouraging both butterflies and moths. By planting cowslips on the north side we hoping to see the return of the Duke of Burgundy to Hampen.

Lawrence’s Gorse

with Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (South West)

Year 1 – Felling diseased Ash

Year 2 – New growth from replanted trees

In 2018 we purchased Lawrence’s Gorse, 11 acres of mixed woodland adjoining the farm. The woodland had been planted on wet agricultural land over a number of decades. The trees vary in age between 30 years and 120 years old and have suffered little or no management.

With the help of FWAG SW we compiled a full survey of the impenetrable wood and actioned a management plan for the following 10 years. Approximately 4-acres of ash were diseased with ash dieback and we were granted a Tree Health Grant to clear fell this area and to replant with a diverse mixture of hardwoods and additional Scots Pine. We also were given permission to thin other areas and to create rides and glades for greater diversity of habitat as well as restoring hazel coppice. We are hoping to encourage bat population and will be enlisting the help of the Bat Conservation Trust.

Hedges and Shelterbelts

with Cotswold Conservation Board, Woodland Trust, FWAG SW and Ecologi and Protect Earth

Lower Hampen Farm is a patchwork of small fields bounded by a mixture of hedges and dry stone walls. With the help of Cotswold Conservation Board we have made a survey of all our hedges and have created a management plan to improve and/or replant many of the neglected sections. The replanted hedges include mixed species of hedging plants and hedgerow trees that will be allowed to mature. The hedges will provide food and shelter for many birds and mammals as well as a safe route along which to travel. Rural Skills Courses for hedge laying will be offered on the farm organised by the Cotswold Conservation Board.

We have been fortunate to receive a Tree & Hedge Planting Grant from The Environment Agency and The Woodland Trust and organised by FWAG SW to plant 500m of new hedges in January 2021.

We have been granted permission to plant two new shelterbelts which will be part of a trial to evaluate the benefits for both livestock and cropping by reducing wind. The design of the shelterbelts follows many years of research by John Davis at Oxford University and Lindsay Whistance from the Organic Research Centre.

The shelterbelts were planted in Jan/Feb 2021 and were funded by Ecologi and Protect Earth. It is hoped that shelterbelts of this design will become grant funded by EMLS (at present the design is too wide to fall under hedge planting and too narrow to benefit from woodland grants).

Soils

with FWAG, Landwise NFM, University of Reading and UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology

Our soils are principally stoney limestone Cotswold brash with odd pockets of overlying clay and Fullers earth. The wetter and steeper fields are permanent pasture which surround the central farm buildings where there is also much evidence of medieval settlements. On the flat higher ground (900ft) and the level lower ground (600ft) we grow arable crops. On all our arable soils we operate an eight year rotation, no till and direct drill system.

Four years of the rotation are in herb ley. The broad diversity of plants in the herb leys (there are a minimum of 17 different species) include grasses, legumes and herbs which bring a range of benefits to forage, livestock health and soil fertility. Legumes fix nitrogen and deep rooting plants such as chicory and sainfoin mine the soil for important minerals and nutrient which are made available to grazing stock and several plants namely sainfoin, birdsfoot trefoil and chicory have anthelmintic qualities.

All these benefits help to reduce the need for artificial fertilizers and bought in concentrates and wormers for livestock. In addition, many of the herbs and legumes provide nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinating insects. Over the four years the soil structure improves significantly together with its water retention qualities. The four year break in the arable rotation reduces the build up of arable pests and diseases and thereby reducing the need for chemical controls.

Our soils are being studied by Reading University who are running trials to see how effective land-based natural flood management measures may be at reducing flood risk.

Permanent Pasture and Meadows

with Cotswold Conservation Board

Almost a third of the farm is old permanent pasture which has had no artificial fertilizer or sprays. It is an ongoing project to try to increase the biodiversity of these grassland through trialling different methods of management. A system of mob grazing is planned for 2021 as well as the introduction of yellow rattle to reduce the dominance of some grasses.

In 2019, as part of the ‘Glorious Cotswold Grassland’ project run by the Cotswold Conservation Board we have overseeded one field with seed donated from a neighbouring farm with a very diverse mix of wildflowers and grasses. Despite the wettest winter on record followed by the driest spring we had a reasonable germination and the hope is with sympathetic management the diversity of plants will encourage and support a wider range of butterflies, bees, birds, bats and other animals. In the future our hope is to harvest our own seed from this field to overseed other fields.

In 2020/21 Yellow Rattle took hold (so much so that we were able to harvest seed) and depleted the thick grass sward allowing other wild flower seeds to have a chance of germinating. In 2022/23 there was a noticeable increase in diversity and numbers of wild flowers which was so encouraging that we are proposing to restore a second meadow under a new initiative ‘Biodiversity Net Gain Grassland Restoration Project’ again organised by the Cotswold Conservation Board. The meadow will be seeded in autumn 2023 using seed from a neighbouring farm.

The Forest Garden

This year we’ve been planting some very unusual trees up at the market garden. It’s only in its infancy, but these trees will eventually become the canopy layer of a diverse and resilient forest garden.

For those who are unfamiliar with forest gardens (aka food forests), they are an ancient form of agroforestry designed to mimic the structure and function of undisturbed forests. They are common to many parts of the world and to many indigenous communities, and they are believed to be the basis of the mythology from which the garden of Eden story was formed. Most of the ecological niches in forest gardens are filled by plants that are either edible to humans, medicinal, useful for crafts or construction, or which provide other ecosystem services (e.g. fixing nitrogen, attracting pollinators, etc.). Typically, they consist of a canopy, shrub, herbaceous perennial, and groundcover layer, with interwoven climbers and root crops making maximum use of available space, nutrients, and light. For our design we have been following the guidance found in Martin Crawford’s brilliant book ‘Creating a Forest Garden’, which contains all the information you could possibly need, and which we highly recommend.

The Newly Planted Forest Garden

Up on the exposed windy hilltop where we’ve planted the forest garden, these trees will become extremely valuable. Not only will they provide us with a wide range of bizarre and delicious fruits, berries, and nuts for The Three Turnips, they will shelter the plants growing beneath them from the wind and provide a windbreak to the rest of the market garden. They will also build soil and improve water infiltration at the top of the hill above one of our arable fields, storing moisture for slow release during dry periods, and contributing (in a small way) to flood mitigation downstream.

Diversification projects like this will help to increase the farm’s overall resilience, making it better able to absorb and recover from shocks, and the increased tree cover will particularly help with the growing frequency of extreme weather events.

Currently the forest garden consists of the following:

Cobnuts (for nuts)
Hazels (for coppicing for poles)
A mix of heavy-cropping commercial walnut species (for nuts and dying)
Judas trees (for insects and edible flowers)
Endangered Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese plum yews (for fruit)
Mulberries (for fruit)
Bullaces (for fruit)
Heavy-cropping hawthorn varieties (for berries and edible leaves)
Sea buckthorns (for insects, berries, and nitrogen fixing)
Eleagnus x ebbingei (for insects, fruit, and nitrogen fixing)
Autumn olive (for insects, fruit, and nitrogen fixing)
Fruiting dogwood varieties (for fruit)
Szechuan peppers (for spice and insects)

Szechuan Pepper in the Forest Garden

These trees are a mixture of ages and sizes, and have varying shade tolerances. We have designed the forest garden very carefully for most efficient use of light and nutrients. The more shade tolerant species are on the northern side of the more light demanding ones, and we have planted nitrogen fixers alongside nutrient demanding trees. Over time, as the trees grow we will add more layers to increase the complexity. Ultimately we want to reach a point where the garden becomes diverse and interwoven enough that it is self-sustaining, requiring almost no maintenance except for the harvesting of produce and the mowing of paths.

Hopefully some of you will be able to look over the wall on the way to The Three Turnips and watch it as it slowly develops!

Water

with Freshwater Habitats Trust and Newt Conservation Partnership

The only water above ground on the farm are from springs in the clay areas. The water then filters down through the limestone substrate into aquifers that ultimately drain either into the Thames or the Coln rivers. Temporary ponds appear during wet weather but soon disappear. In 2020 the Freshwater Habitats Trust and Newt Conservation Partnership carried out a survey of the wet areas of the farm with a view to creating some permanent ponds primarily for the Greater Crested Newt but for other native amphibians too. Other areas will be fenced from livestock to allow wetland plants to thrive and encourage greater diversity.

In 2021, three clay-lined rainwater fed ponds were dug in Lawrences Gorse. Two ponds held water successfully and DNA testing revealed that they had been used by Great Crested Newts in the first year! The third pond was re-excavated and made water-tight in 2023 and at the same time three more test ponds were dug in Bottom Taffy’s Knoll field up the hill from Lawrences Gorse. This we hope will encourage the newts to continue to broaden their distribution.