
Kittisford Acre
We moved into Ridgeacre in Kittisford in July 2024 and I started to work on the one acre front field. It had just been topped in preceding years so wasn’t too bad from a biodiversity point of view with meadowsweet, knapweed, birds foot trefoil and meadow vetchling all present.
We startd by rotovating strips in the front acre at the house for wildflowers.
My aim is to increase the floral diversity, put in a pond and leave areas of blackthorn scrub and longer grass. My garden here has slow worms, grass snakes and great crested newts so no shortage of animals to be creating habitat for! I have rotovated areas and put in wildflower seed from Julian Paddy at Goren Farm and put in the pond.
There is also tree regeneration – mostly oak but also birch, hazel, and sweet chestnut. The regenerating trees I have protected with mesh from the deer and I am also creating lots of places for amphibians and reptiles to hibernate and hide with rubble, brash and hay. I hope to have breeding frogs, toads and great crested newts.
I also have ten acres of land over in north central Devon where we run a rewilding project called Rewilding Roborough Fields – see www.roboroughrewilders.org I do talks on the project and site visits on water in particular and rewilding generally. My number if you want to get in touch is 07734 386 243.