We’ve had two seasons of contradictions on the land at Sacred Earth since our last update. Like everyone, we’ve struggled financially because of lockdown.

All our school groups, the Earth Steward Apprenticeship and overnight camps had to be cancelled and rescheduled for October, when we managed to run them on a smaller scale. We were forced to scale down our agricultural aims too, because of the lack of staff during lockdown. But watch this space in the coming months, because we plan to create a whole new growing and farming project during 2021/22.

The land itself is as healthy as ever and our Ash Dieback partnership project with Coventry University is progressing well. We worked throughout the summer establishing our tree nursery and grading our biochar supplements, which are a key part of the study. We now have written permission from DEFRA to continue this much-needed research, which we hope help save the beloved Ash from this devastating disease.

Our community forest garden has produced its best ever harvests of pears, applies, blackberries, crab apples and greens like dandelions, silverweed, hairy bittercress and sheep sorrel.

Lockdown has been great for the wildlife. We’ve seen foxes, badgers, roe deer, stoats, voles, buzzards and herons regularly. There have also been more butterflies on our site this year, with the rare comma, brimstones, marbled whites, meadow browns, peacocks and red admirals. Our friendly robin raised two chicks, after losing its first batch of eggs to a naughty squirrel who seems to think our kitchen is a great place to forage. We’ve spotted grass snakes swimming across the lake – slightly disconcerting because we were in the water at the time!

We have been developing our Touchstones garden, creating raised beds and planting new herbs, flowers and veggies. We’ve set up a partnership with Deborah Barker from the UK Fibre Shed, so she will be using the space to create natural dyes and running workshops on our site next year.

We’re looking forward to 2021 and feeling glad that we’re still afloat. As always, we look to nature for inspiration. She is constantly showing us how to adapt to changing circumstances.