[urban farmer]

We are in the process of trying to buy a house which has about 2 acres, which I believe has an "agricultural holding number".  The current owners have kept ducks and chickens and had a bit of a garden but being a keen garden I would like to have at least part of the garden as formal planting.  I am aware that the land has an "agricultural holding number" on it - does anyone know if we would need to apply for a change of land use please and how we would go about it??

any help very gratfeully received

[doganjo]

I don't know where you live but in Aberdeenshire we did exactly that  - we wanted to grow fruit and vegetables so John established raised beds where previously there was a strawberry patch (pretty old plants and not very productive), we pruned and fed a number of old plum and apple trees and brought them into production, then created a woodland garden around them, with a small wildlife pond.  John reclaimed loads of bricks from all over the property that had just been dumped, and made a patio from them.  No-one said a dicky bird.
The aerial photo shows the strawberry patch in front of the house, and the earth square at the right hand side is where we put the pond and wildlife plants;  the other photo is after John had done most of the work.  The whole thing was covered in weed membrane and gravel when the man I sold it to decided he didn't like gardening.

[RUSTYME]

legally yes you do need to apply for change of use , from agricultural to , not sure what they class it as now if it is  residential ?. But you do need to apply for change of use .  It all depends on how indoctrinated you are as to whether you DO apply , but if you do , you are likely to be turned down .
 My own view is to say feckem !!! .... the jobsworths should get a life and leave people alone .

cheers

Russ
 

[Helencus]

Unfortunately you do and you won't get it trust me. We are in a similar position but our 'garden' area of the field is totally open so the council complained and that was just about raised veg beds. I got away with them just but no way would they tolerate formal planting. If you're not overlooked or open to inspection then go for it if you are don't be surprised when the letter arrives. These guys have to justify their salaries after all and you growing flowers could be seen as a heinous crime..

[doganjo]

Good point, Helen, i should have added that we had a small croft of 22 acres in a hamlet of 6 houses, 2 miles from the nearest conurbation and main road.  But every house needs a kitchen garden - even large farms have that - just do it, and you can argue the point if the planners ever find out.

[Helencus]

You have a very lenient council you're lucky mine are gits

[shearling]

Hi just read this with interest. So what in general can you have or not have on agricultural land in England?

[DJ_Chook]

You can grow anything that is agricultural, forestry or horticulture. No permanent structures.

[shearling]

Still being dim. How permanent? What is the difference between a filed shelter and raised beds - raised for producing better crops?

[suziequeue]

Our local place (Coed y Dinas) does a field shelter on skids so that it can be "towed" if necessary.

We are just waiting to the groundworks people to come and level a bit of land for us and then we are planning to get a 12' by 24' one.

[Plantoid]

Perhaps you could ....
Think differently and run your garden design along the lines of market garden for veg , fruit bushes , cane fruit, bushes ,  trees , ornamental plants and selling flowers write up the " business " as such and make it run through the whole year . Have your formal garden area as a nursery for cloning plants.
 
 My pal Don & his wife Wendy  did exactly that , once in a while he took produce to sell at the local auction or a car boot , kept his reciepts and always made a loss ..it's not illegal to make a loss .

 A large part of his holding was well fenced as  small grass paddocks and his crops with geese & chickens in them ( all securely put away at night 0 , they got sold at christmas to a local butcher as local produced organic geese. The geese kept the weeds and grass down around the trees , shrubs and cane fruit .

 You could even consider making your plot a tree farm with all sorts of sapling under cultivation and stock grazing the grass  ...... crimbo trees can be financially rewarding if you are in the right place .

[Roxy]

Certainly cannot have a garden, even a veg one, on agri land round here.  Lots of people have just done it, and got in trouble.  And someone I know planted fruit trees down one side of his field, and put a patio area round the well that was already there.  I believe he has to cover the patio up with grass, and they are worried the trees will have to come out too, and the wooden fencing is frowned upon (post and rail)

[Womble]

Just a thought - is the whole thing agricultural land?  When we bought our place, approx. 1 acre around the house was designated 'garden grounds', and then the fields were effectively sold separately (something to do with capital gains tax I believe?). Anyhow, my belief is that we can basically do anything 'gardeny' in the un-fenced area near the house, with the fenced part being the agricultural holding.

Of course the hens and geese don't recognize this, and are busy scratching the garden into a muddy field, but there you go!!

[Sudanpan]

When we got our planning permission to build our cottage, because the residential land was in corner of our field which was designated agricultural (there had been an existing cottage) we had to specify and put in place a physical boundary between the garden and the field, we couldn't just leave it open. This was to stop the 'annexing' of the agric land into garden land, and presumably in due course stop the application for permission to build on the extended garden land (which could be deemed to be 'brown land' and therefore the presumption is in favour of development.)
Tish