Farmland and Farming

Our Farms

orgoheOur area of the Low Weald has had a long history of producing hops and fruit from fields shaped by the drainage needed to work our challenging soils, and the need to shelter these crops.  This has allowed Marden to retain good biodiversity.  In a farming community increasingly aware of the need for nature recovery, new ideas are being embraced.   The formation in 2020 of the Marden Farming Cluster, supported by Kent Wildlife Trust, has proved a practical way of pooling good practice to work on joint initiatives, to conserve soils, as well as to support declining species – bird, insect and plant- and to improve water quality.

In winter farmers spread supplementary seed on sites around Marden to help birds avoid starvation. A scientific bird ringing programme is also in place in which volunteers count marked yellowhammers in farmland and gardens. This programme, originally funded by Natural England, is not only providing useful scientific data, but has also united farmers and volunteers in a joint endeavour.

In the current year, farmers are planting well over a hundred acres of bird seed crops that will be left to feed farmland birds over the winter, and additional seed will again be spread during late winter – ‘the hungry gap’ – the time of year when wild birds really struggle to survive because natural resources are depleted.

With an additional three kilometres of new hedgerow being planted, and the creation of areas of scrub, Marden is anticipating a marked increase in farmland biodiversity.