Hi
After 4 years of looking myself and my partner completed on our lovely little piece of Cornwall last April and are now starting to make inroads into establishing our own little small holding and business.
The land is close to the north Cornish coast, is 16 acres and has a slight southward slope. It is bare agricultural land-no electricity, no water, no buildings and no gates so we have a mammoth task on our hands in just getting some infrastructure in place.
At present we have separated a 2 acres strip for ourselves and the rest is rented to the local farmer who currently has a crop of Barley on it which, pleasingly, is going to the local brewery (and I'll be having a sack to start my own brewing!) We have loosely separated our 2 acre strip into 3. In the first area we have established a 25m x 50m veg plot with rabbit proof fencing and a 10m x 5m fruit cage and within the next month it will also contain a 24' x 72' polytunnel, which we are starting this weekend, and a 30m x 50m plot for growing flowers. In the second area we have sewn a non intensive paddock grass mix and in the third area we have laid 10 x 20m strips of mypex under which we will plant the mixed orchard this autumn and the area in between the strips have been sewn with a wildflower/grassy meadow mixture which looks fabulous at the moment. We intend on planting mixed coppicing/edible hedgerows to separate the three areas this autumn.
Myself and my partner have very little agricultural experience though i originally hail from a farming community (last of the summer wine country) and my Mrs is from a family of North wales sheep farmers.
Expect lots of differnet questions over the coming months and years as we intend on doing lots of different things. The plan for this coming year is: borehole, chickens for food (we already have chickens for eggs at home) a couple of pigs and I'm starting a beekeeping course in a month. I am self employed so can put a reasonable amount of time in but my Mrs is looking to go full time on her flower growing in the early part of next year.
Thanks for reading.