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

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.

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

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

Tao Wei winner of 2010 Mayfield Lavender photo competition

Congratulations to Tao Wei who won the £200 top prize for this fab photo of the girl jumping in our lavender field. We loved the composition and the mood it conveyed.
We feel that it embodies lots of the emotions that we identify with for our lavender farm and think it is a worthy winner.

Well its all finished for 2011.  We will just spend a few days tidying up the field but the hard task of cutting all the lavender is now complete.  We will shift our focus to our new project for a few months and see what progress can be made.

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan

Best wishes

Brendan

Maybe we will see you there.

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan

First of all a really big thank you to everyone who supported us this year.  It was a challenging season but as with previous years it brings its ups as well as its downs.  The lavender staged a late recovery albeit not as profuse as in previous years but it means that the season was extended by a months or so as well.  Anyway we have cut about 60% of the lavender now and we are aiming to cut the balance as soon as have the time to get it completed.  The colour has now totally faded so we have shut the gate and closed for the season.  We will open again in December if we are not snowbound and we will have some lovely Christmas gifts for sale.

In the meantime we will be working on our new venture – which is the renovation of a delapidated nursery in Driftbridge, Ewell, Epsom.  We have acquired 11 acres of land which has been totally overgrown and we have plans to bring it back to life.  This is quite a challenge in terms of time as well as physical and financial resources but we remain foolishly optimistic!

We will keep you posted.

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan

We are beginning the harvest today.  Lets hope it stays dry.  We will begin with the Mailette and then the Folgate and then the Grosso (well thats the plan anyway!).  It normally takes us a week but we are not going to distill all of the lavender this year so it should be a bit faster since we are not bagging the crop for transportation to the still.

Best wishes

Lorna and Brendan