Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

Second Wilding Weekend in June 2023 (Jan23)

Come to our next Wilding Weekend on 17th and 18th June 2023. We’ll be opening our garden and land through the National Garden Scheme, offering lunch, tea and cakes as well as showing what we’ve done to create more wildlife-friendly habitats. Stalls, Talks and/or Tours will include:

Woohoo – A barn owl has nested in our box! (Feb22)

I can’t believe it. We put up the barn owl box in an old ash tree about a year ago. I have to admit that I was extremely doubtful that it would get any inhabitants. In part, my doubt was because it isn’t in the ideal location. The box is supposed to be facing into […]

Rewild schools before it’s too late (Jul21)

Rewild the world before it’s too late!  I’m supporting Operation Future Hope in their mission to change the devastating impact of current land management practices in schools. School grounds have become wildlife deserts. They’re chopped, mown, poisoned and slashed. The brief is for well ‘managed landscapes’ – neat and tidy. What this means in practice […]

Peat in compost is environmental vandalism (Mar21)

That’s what Monty Don says and I agree. But it’s incredibly common. UK gardeners are responsible for destroying our ‘rainforests’. It has to stop and we can make it happen. OK, so why is this such a big deal? First and perhaps most importantly, peatlands are essential in our fight against climate change.  Whilst they […]

BEING FRIENDLY TO BARN OWLS (Dec20)

I’m learning about owls.  My interest has been propelled by the regular nightly call of a male tawny owl. He seems to be much more vocal than the female because I’m not sure I’ve heard her calling back….  However, what I’m now listening out for is the screeching call of a barn owl.  I’m very […]

Wilding week 2 (Jul20)

The diggers are in their element The water meadow is now looking pretty earthy with very little water at all. The old mill pond has been drained to reveal a shallow muddy bottom – it turns out that it was pretty full of silt. If we’d left it for a few more years, it would […]

ANIMALS TURN HUMAN…(May20)

A role reversal. Imagine humans behaved like animals and vice versa. What would we think about our homes being destroyed, our oceans poisoned and our forests being hacked? This video does the imagining for us. It shows human’s petrified on a shrinking ice block, whilst polar bears sit in offices and wheel trolleys through over-stocked […]

Going wild in Dorset (Sep19)

I’m tremendously excited about our new landscaping project… The central idea is wilding and I’m learning about what this means in practice. One concept I found rather appealing was to look at nettles and docks, which love fertile, agriculture land, as the bully boys. And we’re going to replace them with a myriad of other […]

CHASE Africa empowers women through family planning (Nov18)

“I’m not a great supporter of aid in Africa. I’m much keener on getting things done on the ground through small and effective organisations. CHASE Africa is one of those. They have small overheads and a great mission. Tackling family planning, particularly in conservation areas, has a multitude of benefits for individuals, communities and the […]