Very exciting to be here. But im trying to understand what has happened to this land of yours, because when you arrived here, this was an intensively farmed land, wasnt it . It was. My husband, charlie, inherited it from his grandparents when he was in his early 20s, and this was back in the 1980s. And every inch of the land was ploughed, it was producing arable crops and dairy. And we fully expected to be farmers for the rest of our lives. Mm. 17 years on, we were £1. 5 million in debt, tearing our hair out and realised that, you know, this is very marginal land. Were walking on 320 metres of clay, over a bedrock of limestone, and its an absolute pig to farm. So you were literally close to going out of business . Yeah, the farm was a failing business. And we did everything we could. We diversified, we tried different crops, we tried different cows. We sold ice cream. We did everything we could. But always it was this clay that was against us. So lets just stop for a second and look a
ah, well, it s actually still, for me, very exciting to be here. but i m trying to understand what has happened to this land of yours, because when you arrived here, this was an intensively farmed land, wasn t it? it was. my husband, charlie, inherited it from his grandparents when he was in his early 20s, and this was back in the 1980s. and every inch of the land was ploughed, it was producing arable crops and dairy. and we fully expected to be farmers for the rest of our lives. mm. 17 years on, we were £1.5 million in debt, tearing our hair out, and realised that, you know, this is very marginal land. we re walking on 320 metres of clay, over a bedrock of limestone, and it s an absolute pig to farm. so you were literally close to going out of business? yeah, the farm was a failing business. and we did everything we could. we diversified, we tried different crops, we tried different cows. we sold ice cream. we did everything we could. but always it was this clay that was ag
it s notjust people who have thousands of hectares that rewilding can affect. rewilding really is on a spectrum. so you have the wildest lands, the yellowstone national parks at one end, where you don t need so much intervention. you have the knepp in the middle. but you can also rewild your garden, your window box, your roadside verges. all of us have a part to play in restoring nature across the landscape, and we have to connect, too. you ve just written a new book, a sort of practical guide to rewilding. it s upset some people because your message is that everybody sort of has a responsibility to engage in this notion of rewilding, of sort of rebuilding ecosystems. and some who garden, who love gardening, who think that the human intervention in their little green space is what makes it beautiful, have said that your notion of letting it all go wild runs contrary to
it s notjust people who have thousands of hectares that rewilding can affect. rewilding really is on a spectrum. so you have the wildest lands, the yellowstone national parks at one end, where you don t need so much intervention. you have the knepp in the middle. but you can also rewild your garden, your window box, your roadside verges. all of us have a part to play in restoring nature across the landscape, and we have to connect, too. you ve just written a new book, a sort of practical guide to rewilding. it s upset some people because your message is that everybody sort of has a responsibility to engage in this notion of rewilding, of sort of rebuilding ecosystems. and some who garden, who love gardening, who think that the human intervention in their little green space is what makes it beautiful, have said that your notion of letting it all go