Making a hugelkultur bed

Making a hugelkultur bed

For those who haven’t come across them before, Hugelkultur beds are basically a pile of wood or branches, covered with soil to form a raised bed. It is a great way to use up material that might otherwise get burned off. The idea is that the pile rots slowly,...
The woven fence is finished

The woven fence is finished

So after a week, the wonderful woven birch fence is complete (at least for now – we have used up all the material), and it looks really fine. It is amazing how much birch was needed to create the fence, but now as we coppice the birch woodland, we’ll cut...
Eco classroom update – week 2

Eco classroom update – week 2

At the end of our second week, and we are within £100 of being at the two thirds stage in our bid to raise money and build an eco classroom here at the farm. In the process we’ve got to know loads of new people, and will hopefully get to meet many of them in...
A day out

A day out

Something of a busman’s holdiay this, but some time ago I helped our friend Brian (of Woodhill Farm) to put up his polytunnel frame, and ever since we’ve been waiting for the weather to be warm and wind-free enough to put the cover on. To hope for sun...
A unique experience

A unique experience

There’s just something about tipis, isn’t there. That iconic conical shape with smoke drifting up in the breeze, flags fluttering from the pole tops. We fell in love with tipis years ago, and knew that we had to bring one back here to Lackan Cottage Farm....
Well done you

Well done you

It was great to meet the bus full of people who arrived today with Tom Woolley, who has been running an introduction to eco building course. Some great stories, wonderful plans, and glimpses of old buildings that will hopefully be reawakened by the amazing enthusiasm...
Turning up the heat

Turning up the heat

This is a rocket mass heater – the way in which we will be heating our crowdfunded ecobuild.  It is an incredibly efficient way to burn woodfuel, and extracts the maximum amount of heat energy from the fire. The flue gases heat a big cob bench, which then...
Weaving a fence

Weaving a fence

  Isabelle and Josiane have come from Quebec, Canada to volunteer on the farm for 3 weeks, and having spend days clearing and mulching young trees, they are turning their attentions to creating a fence from the piles of birch trimmings that have been sitting in...
A unique experience

Some great rewards

As part of our crowdfunding campaign to build an eco classroom we are offering all sorts of great rewards. For every person who makes a pledge of £10 or over, we’ll plant a native tree here on the farm. We welcome visitors to spend time in the woodland here, it...
Great reasons to plant trees

Great reasons to plant trees

An incredible 35 tonnes of carbon will be locked up over the lifetime of the trees we will plant for those who have so far pledged to our crowdfunding campaign – as well as being beautiful:) We’re planting a tree for everyone who gets involved, as well as...
All fired up

All fired up

We’re all fired up – not only because the benign weather has allowed us to share food around the fire for a few days, but because after just three days of campaigning we have reached over  30% of our funding goal! We’re full of exciting plans for the...
Making raised (lazy) beds

Making raised (lazy) beds

Today we created a simple raised ‘lazy’ bed, although why they are called that I’ve no idea – making them is strenuous enough. The first step is to mark out and then turn over all the sod on your bed area. At this stage the bed is pretty flat...