Digging For a Miyawaki Forest at Lovebrook, Lewes, Sussex.

Dug by Padstone Homes.

We recently went to see the growth of the native trees in the Miyawaki forest at Lovebrook. We dug down to as close to 60cm as we could, to aerate the soil and give native trees and windblown seeds a chance against the stronghold of grass. We flattened the earth again as we went, without compacting it again with the digger, making sure to leave some grooves and holes to form microclimates and a place for seeds to land without being blown off again by the wind.

The Miyawaki forest is in a paddock of about an acre and we managed to dig over one third of the forest, adding in bio-char, compost and humanure from the composting toilets on-site. The native trees are planted densely, of which we assisted in some of the planting too, mixing in a range of full growth heights to accommodate for all the different levels of wildlife. Trees like oak for the highest, birch and hazel for the middle and native roses for the lower cover. Seeds for native plants have already blown in and been disturbed from the seed bank by our digging - it’s a joy to see.

The other parts of the paddock were planted in different styles, with a smaller concept of Miyawaki being used, by digging holes for the native plants and filling with both bio-char and compost, along with humanure. And in the last third, native plants were planted without the added nutrients, nor aeration of the soil, to be able to see the difference in growth rate. It’s already clear that the ones with all of the nutrients and the aerated soil are growing stronger.

Notes : More photos will be added over time as the plants grow. Farm volunteers planted most of the trees during one of the volunteer days, of which you could get involved in too at Lovebrook.

We are excited to add more elements of nature habitat to the farm and to create space for species in a more targeted way, leading with educating, with community surrounding the projects.

Completed 02/04/2025.