Agroforestry in the Sussex Hills, East Sussex
Working with a farm overlooking the hills of East Sussex, we designed and implemented a regenerative agroforestry system to strengthen biodiversity, increase resilience, and diversify incomes for the farm.
The system was designed on the principles of keyline patterning, syntropy and alley cropping. This innovative design includes a mix of native broadleaf trees, interplanted with fruit and nut trees, and each underplanted with berries and other perennial vegetables. We completed earthworks on the site to improve the hydrology, ensuring water can move from wetter valleys to drier ridges and have now planted over 500 trees.
Overall, this system will be a pilot site, it aims to produce food, fuel and fibre in a more regenerative way. It will also provide numerous ecosystem services that sequester carbon, increase biodiversity, provide wildlife habitat, regenerate the soil and its microorganisms, support water cycles and overall strengthen the resilience of the land to future climatic stresses.
In the long-term, and in partnership with the landowner, we hope to process the harvests on-site and transform them into high-value goods. We are also engaging with local restaurateurs and food businesses to provide them with local organic produce for their events.
