Opening for this year

Hopefully we will be able to put away the flippers and snorkels soon and we will have enough clear skies to get some work done!    We are finally planning to open the farm shop on Monday 21st as we ease into the lavender season.  We have been growing our lavenders in our polytunnels and they are looking really great so this year we will have plenty of choice to select from again.

We have also taken the precaution of covering some of the lavender with agricultural fleece in the more exposed parts of the field because last year we were hit by a late frost in May that killed all the early emerging flowerheads.  Hopefully we will not have to contend with this again this year and the lavender will look as good as it did in 2010.

So roll on the sunshine and we welcome everyone who can make it to visit us.

Lorna and Brendan

Join us at The Sow and Grow Food Fair

Come along and join Mayfield Lavender at The Sow and Grow Food Fair in Richmond on Sunday (May 13th).

We will be among a host of interesting stallholders at the National Trust event.

Visitors will be able to get hints and tips from the Trust’s expert gardeners, watch cooking demonstrations and there will even be fun fruit and vegetables games for families.

And we will be selling our popular local produce, and telling people about our 25-acre organic lavender farm that opens on June 1 and is free to visit.

The Sow and Grow event is taking place between 11am and 5pm at Ham House, Ham Street, Ham, Richmond, TW10 7RS.

For more information telephone Ham House and Garden on 020 8940 1950. Normal admission charges apply.

Our New Project on Reigate Road in Epsom

We are continuing to work our our exciting renovation project.  The 11 acres we have taken over have been neglected for many years and as a result they are severely overgrown with brambles.  On top of that there are some damaged polytunnels and glass houses.  As a result we have spent many many hours picking broken glass from the site and we have already filled several skipfulls of rubbish as we decontaminate the area.   Its feels like a special project and following a weekend crash course in restoring old fruit trees in Brighton we have commenced carefully pruning the 500 apple trees that had become severely overgrown.  Its great to be able to directly apply our new learning so that the trees are brought back to life over a two or three year period.

In parallel we are also clearing the land so that we can start to plant our first Lavender varieties.  We will probably try several varieties in addition to popular Folgate, Mailette and Grosso.  Hopefully we will be able to find some good early and late flowering Lavenders to help extend the season a bit.  we are also planning to plant between 600 to 1000 trees as part of our programme to create a native woodland walk.  We want to be able to add picnic areas and some natural space.  As the land sits on quite a high elevation it is possible to get a great view over London.  Landmarks like Wembley Stadium, Canary Wharf and the Shardhard are all visible on a clear day.

We have so many ideas that we would like to implement we have to keep reminding ourselves that its a long term project and we are limited by time and finances and energy- and of course we will inevitably be limited by planning regulations!  However while it is very hard work it is also very satisfying and rewarding.  We will keep everyone posted and hopefully it will all be ready top open in 2013 - We will have to add some photos so we can track our progress!

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan

Hi Everyone,

We have finally uploaded the winner and the best of the runners up.  They can be found on our photo galleries tab on the home page.  There really is so much talent its often very hard to pick a winner.  We look for photos that celebrate the experience of being on the farm and ones which we could possibly commercialise if we ever got organised enough to do it properly!  The photos in the top 12 could all be winners in their own right and the ones in the other category (best of the rest) were photos that we loved but we had to make some tough choices.  If your photo was not chosen it simply means that we had to cut out about 85% of photos submitted to make it a manageable upload and as we will be running the competition again next year you can always have another go – who knows – you might be the one that captures something special to make you our winner next year.

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan