LANDScapE design

As part of the Be The Change project, developing a functional landscape at Manor Farm was highlighted as an area of interest for Sarah to explore.

Marian Boswall, landscape architect and friend of Carbon Calling, visited in December 2025 and explored the farm with Sarah and her two children. Marian tells us how they approached the process...

Liz and I did the Create course with Nicole Masters a couple of years ago and I admired the way Liz works; she is open and pragmatic and approaches every new challenge with a freshness and intelligence that is hard to match. She also loves a flipchart, so I knew we would collaborate sooner or later.

Our first chance to work together was at a visioning day with Sarah, who was being coached by Liz as part of Carbon Calling’s Be the Change. Not many people know what a landscape architect actually does, so I was happy to start without preconceptions. We began by walking the land and observing what was thriving, what was struggling and the varying conditions of the farm, from plants to bird life and insects.

Manor Farm OS comparison map 1888-1915

We looked at the historic maps, land uses and water and energy flows and then we came back to the house and ran through some questions and prompts with the ‘stakeholders’, which in this case were Sarah and her two children who might take on the farm in the future.

My focus is on understanding how to support the healthy parts of the land first, as a holistic doctor would look at a human body, and then how to improve any ailing bits to bring them into balance. In this case there was much that was healthy as Sarah has a wealth of experience from her old farm to bring to the new land, as well as consulting and working for the NFU. There were also several areas that we discovered together where the farm might develop in new directions, both by slight changes in land management and possible new routes to market.

It was a real honour to share the first meal in the new farmhouse and to share ideas for ways to make the new farm thrive.