Peat bogs may not be at the forefront of most people鈥檚 minds when it comes to sustainability, but for Cumbrian tenant farmers Simon Bland and Jane Barker, they are very much at the heart of what they do.
The couple produce peat-free compost using natural ingredients and also run a second business restoring peat bogs. They use the resources of the nearby commons 鈥� where they hold rights to harvest the bracken and graze their sheep and herd of fell ponies 鈥� and use the bracken and the wool in their composts, sold through their Dalefoot Composts business.
鈥淚t starts with a double strength mother聽batch and we dilute that down to get the聽different styles of compost.鈥�
NFU member Simon Bland
Jane, a scientist by profession who still works part-time as a professor at the University of Cumbria, says her love and knowledge of science and husband Simon鈥檚 agricultural background and skill with machinery, means they have forged a strong partnership; each of them bringing a particular skill to the business.
Both have a passion for peat bog restoration, and the need to protect these special places prompted them to look at finding peat alternatives, using the natural materials on their doorstep. One of the more unusual ingredients is wool, but as Jane has always been interested in keeping rare breed sheep, particularly those breeds indigenous to the region, it made perfect sense to put the fleeces to good use.
鈥淚 have Whitefaced Woodlands, which are magnificent sheep,鈥� says Jane. The upland breed originated on the Pennine hills and is a combination of two breeds, the Woodland and the Penistone sheep, named after the Yorkshire town. Its fleece is finer than many breeds and, as they eat woody species, including bracken, which is an invasive plant on the hills, they thrive on the commons around Jane and Simon鈥檚 uplands farm.聽
聽鈥淚 also have Blue Texels and the remnants of a Cheviot x Texel cross and Suffolk crosses,鈥� Jane adds. 鈥淎nd using our wool in compost makes perfect sense 鈥� it鈥檚 high in nitrogen and hygroscopic, which means it holds water, reducing the amount of watering the compost needs.鈥�
Inspiration strikes
The idea to use bracken came after reading books by horticulturalist Lawrence D Hills, founder of the Henry Doubleday Research Centre, who wrote many books about different plants and their benefits. 鈥淗e said that there was a fortune to be made for anyone deciding to make compost from bracken,鈥� says Simon. 鈥淭hat pricked up my ears and I thought: 鈥業鈥檓 fed up with trying to gather my sheep through six-foot-high bracken, so maybe we can put it to good use鈥�.
鈥淓veryone sees bracken as a weed and it spreads about three percent a year, but we have now turned it into a crop. We have been harvesting the same beds for about 30 years. We harvest the bracken in the green in July and August. You want it when it鈥檚 in full frond, after bird nesting season, so you get the maximum return for your labours.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a natural source of potassium, similar to seaweed and comfrey, so is a component of compost and a natural fertiliser.聽 Comfrey is another crop that came to their attention through Lawrence D Hills.聽
鈥淗e worked for part of the Ministry looking at crops and crop development and he developed lots of different strains of comfrey,鈥� says Simon.
鈥淐omfrey 鈥楤ocking 14鈥�, which we grow, is very prolific but is also sterile 鈥� if it weren鈥檛, it would take over. Its high in nitrogen, trace elements and minerals, and we now have 28 acres growing for our compost.鈥�
Photograph: Wayne Hutchinson
鈥業t鈥檚 a bit like mixing sourdough鈥�
Other ingredients include bark, which comes from a business based three miles away, and rye grass, and the key is to combine the ingredients, as you would in a baking recipe, to produce composts suitable for different growing situations.
For instance, seed compost needs a different nutrient mix to a top-dressing compost. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit like making a sourdough,鈥� Simon explains. 鈥淚t all starts with a double strength mother batch and we dilute that down to get the different styles of compost. We take grass and rot it down like manure, which is an anaerobic process, and we use that to fertilise our fields and it also goes into part of the recipe at the start of the composing process.聽
鈥淭hen we will use some grass, comfrey, straw and bracken to make the double strength. It鈥檚 all about getting that base right and, from that, we can make it into several different products by diluting and adding different elements 鈥� such as bark or wool.鈥�
鈥淢y dad always said if you have healthy
wildlife, you have a healthy farm. It鈥檚 a
good indicator of how sustainable you are.鈥�NFU member Simon Bland
Natural, simple technology
We are standing in front of a huge mound of composting materials and Jane climbs into the middle to demonstrate the process going on inside the heap. She sticks a probe into the pile and when it comes out it鈥檚 steaming and the probe is hot to the touch.
鈥淭he temperature on the probe can get up to 73 or 74 degrees,鈥� says Simon. 鈥淭hen we turn the heap to release the heat and also to mix it, so that all the compost goes through that temperature process. When turning, it鈥檚 just like you would do at home on a smaller heap, the outside goes to the middle. The heap reduces down to just over a third through the composting process and this will take about 12 weeks.鈥�
鈥淲e do much of this under cover because we get a lot of rain and we don鈥檛 want too much moisture. I want to be able to control it by adding water and so we have sprinklers in the roof, which are switched on every time we turn, and we measure how much water is used and monitor the moisture content, to make sure it鈥檚 just right.聽
鈥淲e want the right moisture content to ensure we get the most bacterial action through the compost heap and speed up the process. We use spring water as we have a natural spring here. We don鈥檛 want chlorine or anything else getting in to the compost, it needs to be natural.鈥�
Jane says they were keen to make sure that nothing went back into the water course.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a dry system so there is no run-off,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut we still wanted assurances so we designed and built a reed bed at the end of the drainage pipe about 20-25 years ago. All the yard water goes through the pipe and into the reed bed and is processed by it, and you can see as it comes out of the bed and into the beck 鈥� it鈥檚 clean. It鈥檚 a fascinating process but is natural, simple technology.鈥�
Thriving wildlife
Jane says the habitat around the reed bed is thriving with lots of insects and wildlife in the area. 鈥淭he habitat down there is amazing. We are working with nature and have been planting more trees and hedgerows 鈥� we have a champion hedge layer coming next week to work on a section on the farm.
鈥淲e also want to get involved more with the RSPB. They come and do bird and moth counts. The birdlife is interesting. We have fewer of some, such as curlew and lapwings, but are seeing an increase in buzzards. We also have tawny and barn owls and we put up boxes to encourage them to nest here.鈥�
This area is a stronghold of the red squirrel, which live in a wildlife corridor that runs through the area.聽 Simon adds: 鈥淢y dad always said if you have healthy wildlife, you have a healthy farm. It鈥檚 a good indicator of how sustainable you are.鈥�
Jane also has a number of bee hives on the farm and to encourage more pollinators they replanted a wildflower meadow. 鈥淲e have a field, which when my dad retired, we wanted to plant with wild flowers,鈥� explain Simon. 鈥淭he soil was on the verge of being too rich but we wanted to try. We harvested seed from our neighbour, who has some of the nicest SSSI meadows. The resulting field was lovely and there were days walking through it where, with every step, you heard a bee, and that was the moment when I realised how important the meadow was 鈥� we have a field of rye grass next to it where you hear nothing.鈥�
Also a boon for pollinators are the acres of comfrey that Simon grows for the compost. 鈥淲e have a comfrey plant every square metre in a diverse sward with lots of clovers and other cover crops drilled into the fields and I walked through last year and there were four or five bees on every plant. It鈥檚 a plant that flowers from May through to November and comes back every year.
鈥淲e also grow some dock and thistles, which deliver significant elements for the compost as well 鈥� dock is very high in magnesium, and you have your big roots as well, bringing all sorts of trace elements. I also want to grow a field of nettles alongside the comfrey,鈥� says Simon. This is something that could be used in the compost but would also be good for wildlife.聽 To ensure their compost is the best it can be, the couple spend a lot of time trialling different mixes, as well as growing plants in the competitor鈥檚 compost to see how it compares.
鈥淲e trial flowering plants as well as veg,鈥� says Jane. 鈥淩adishes are one of the best tell-tales of any issues and they are quick growing.鈥澛�
Peat restoration
Although the composting business keeps them busy for much of the year, during the winter months, the couple focus on the peat bog restoration business; work that can only really be done outside of bird nesting season.
They have worked on sites from the north of Scotland to Dartmoor and one of their major clients is the Scottish government, which has made 拢250m available for peatland preservation; once these sites have been restored, they can be registered for the peatland code, a voluntary registration scheme, and used to trade in carbon credits.
Jane explains: 鈥淭here is blanket bog found on top of the fells and lowland raised mire, a rare acidic wetland, which is found in the valley bottom. They have slightly different functions, but the two key elements of restoration are hydrology and vegetation. You can stop the release of carbon by turfing it using the vegetation around the bog. It鈥檚 a mechanism which we developed where you are also creating little bog pools for water to encourage sphagnum moss and insects. Our mantra is to restore the bog from within the bog itself, 聽if possible. We have invented different techniques to do that now, which will hopefully be used by others in the future.鈥�
Back on the farm, the different styles of compost are supplied to a variety of customers 鈥� some of which goes to bigger businesses, but a large amount is bought through the website by gardeners keen to use a growing medium that is sustainable, but that will help their plants to thrive. Jane says their range of composts, from their 鈥榗laybuster鈥� Lakeland Gold and their bulb compost to their range of wool composts, have many benefits, including the natural water retention of wool fibres which means up to 50% less watering.
It also provides a slow sustained supply of nitrogen in the wool, high levels of natural potash from the bracken, which promotes flowering and fruiting and means there is no need for any additional plant food, and ultimately, it鈥檚 made from 100% renewable resources with great environmental benefits.
鈥淕ardening should be one of the most sustainable and natural things,鈥� says Simon, 鈥渁nd our compost enables gardeners to grow in a medium full of nutrients to encourage growth, which has been made without any detrimental effects on the environment.鈥�
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