The farm borders Calke Park which is the seventh most important National Nature Reserve and is famous for its ancient trees. We have plenty of old trees on the farm along with hedge rows, but we are aware that to maintain the environment around the park we have to plant new trees that will eventually replace the old.
A five year tree planting programme has been set out. Over this time we will plant some 350 trees to create areas of woodland pasture. Some of these areas used to be under arable cropping.
The trees that we are planting are predominantlyOak, grown from acorns collected from around the farm, with Ash, Sweet Chestnut, Beech and Hawthorn.
Some of the trees are planted as individuals whilst others are being planted in groups so that rough areas of grass will develop to provide habitat and food for insects and birds.