Where do you get inspiration for the garden?
I find inspiration in nature. Strong ecosystems, bursting with biodiversity. Intercropping plants with other plants to bring balance.

What’s your favourite thing to grow in the garden? 
For me that is a difficult question. Throughout the past 50 years I've done most aspects of growing. So I'll say edible flowers. The reason I say this is, nothing gives me more pleasure than picking flowers early in the morning before my staff arrive to work, listening to the dawn chorus.

Picking Winter radish gone into flower in early spring was an amazing start to my day at the first spring time working on Our Farm. 

What tips do you have for other gardeners?
Avoid walking on wet soil you intend growing on. Water at dawn or dusk.  If you can, avoid using tap water.

Which is your favourite part of the farm?
My favourite part of the farm is our small but compact orchard at the top end of Our Farm. It is situated next to our wildlife pond and our newest growing field. The reasons why I am fond of this part of the garden are that it’s still a work in progress.

It is teeming with wildlife and I get to see our resident goshawk and sparrow hawk hunting our huge population of songbirds. Those two songbird predators are a great indicator of the superb biodiversity and quantity of songbirds we have around the grounds of Our Farm.

Plus, watching the frogs spawning in the spring in larger numbers each year and the dragonfly population rapidly growing year on year.

What wildlife do you get currently?
Egrets, frogs, toads, squirrels, butterflies, a huge number of songbirds and their predators, occasionally see an osprey, buzzards, moles, shrew, dragonflies, saw a rabbit once in the last five years, a hare, a family of pheasants, owls, bats, the occasional kestrel, eels in the beck, nuthatch, tree creepers, spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, flocks of goldfinches, many types of bumblebee, grass hoppers.

Lots of spiders and beetles in the fields, foxes, stoats and mice. I have a bird song app on my phone and recorded for three days for forty minutes a day in spring and recorded 35 different bird songs. I should have done another few days recording in the summer to see what other bird visitors we have, but our summer months are busy with work. We get the occasional deer visiting.

How do you attract/look after the wildlife?
On Our Farm, we plant comfrey and borage to attract pollinators, we have log and stick piles for over wintering habitats. As our farm is a chemical free zone, no pesticide, herbicide or manmade fertilisers.

We get pest insects which attract the birds and other pollinators that eat them. Our biodynamic farm is a magnet to both pests and life forms that eat the pests. The balance of biodiversity is quite amazing. One example, I noticed a lot of greenflies on the brassicas one day three years ago, within two weeks there were dozens or more ladybirds, shortly after the green fly had gone.

We plant a type of verbena flower which attract flocks of goldfinches in the winter months that eat the seeds of that flower. When a bird species knows there is a food source, they nest close by. Goldfinch are seed eaters, but when their chicks hatch the parent birds feed them insects.

Wildlife is my pest control. We also have a rough overgrowth area in one corner of the farm which is an ideal habitat for critters that go dormant in the winter months. Like a safe haven that doesn't get disturbed. Our wildlife pond is also a great habitat for all kinds of wildlife.

What steps do you take to keep it 'tidy' whilst being wildlife friendly?
We mow the grass on the paths, but not the orchard, along the beck and the field edges. We trim our hedges in the winter months.

We have planted the orchard with a plant that reduces the height of grass (yellow rattle) which will hopefully allow the natural wildflowers to grow. We strim the orchard in late autumn to allow the wildflowers set and drop their seeds.

What are your future plans for helping wildlife?
Last winter we put up two bird nesting boxes and an owl box in our barn. The bird boxes were both in use last year but sadly not the owl box yet. Future plans are to put up more bird boxes, a couple more owl boxes in the adjoining woodland and bat boxes.

Some insect hotels are something for the future and more log and branch stacks in different area, plus more pollinator attracting plants.