Growing Wilder started as a way for me to reclaim my self and my life after years of abuse and feeling like I had no choice but than to keep going amidst so much pain.

I wanted to come home and run wild in the fields where I grew up. I wanted my daughters to have the same opportunity to be free and see so much sky that they knew they had a purpose and a place here on this fragile planet. I wanted to be surrounded by nature, have space to heal and do the work through my trauma therapy with a safe space to process everything. I wanted to feel embodied and feel part of something bigger than myself. I wanted to create beauty in an abandoned field that hadn’t really been used for anything for the last 20 years. I wanted to be here as support for my parents, to reconnect with them and get to know them better as adults.

So we moved here, in Spring 2023, into a static caravan in the middle of a field with the only plan being that I was going to grow some things. We had it put on some old concrete paths that were part of the farm before it was taken down years ago. Both to give them a purpose and incorporate them into the design, and save them from needing to be torn up. I wanted to put love into this place and heal the land whilst healing myself.

I’d been studying Permaculture, and have always loved growing plants. I have a fascination for trees, and as a 25 year vegetarian, it’s always been important to me where my food is sourced. After a period of rest and recalibration whilst I’ve been going through trauma therapy, I’m ready to do this now.

I am using the skills I have learnt while studying permaculture and over the last 4 decades while growing plants for myself and with my parents at their plant nursery, to create a food forest and permaculture plant nursery within this 5 acre field. But that’s not all. As I’ve benefitted from this type of healing so much, I want to offer other people to be able to come here and experience some for themselves. We will be offering the chance to join in with planting the food forest, learning how to grow your own, harvesting and just general nature immersion. There will also be workshops and classes running here in the warmer months - if you are a facilitator, please get in touch if you’d like to use our space to run your own workshop.

If you’d like to know more about my journey, or the work that I’m doing here, you can follow along on YouTube (videos) and Substack (words)