What would you do with 3 acres of land??

[Hotdamn]

Hi - this has just been offered to us to purchase right next to our house. It is affordable, it can't be developed for housing. Currently has a few trees and sheep. We live on the edge of a town and we have never had more than a small back garden before, we are proper townies. I'm excited at the prospect but... any advice on how to use the land / what to do with it?! We have 4 secondary sch aged children. Thanks!

Quad bike circuit

This is my dream! Lots of lovely fruit trees, beehives, chickens, a wildlife pond, and a garden with a greenhouse. If you’re feeling community minded you could create an allotment association and rent out family plots.

Check planning. Apply for necessary consents.

Plant native trees (about half the land) inc for fruit and nuts - benefit to birds and insects
Plant native hedging. Would get the hedge laid if I could afford it to thicken it up.
Put in a pond - good for wildlife
Chickens
Polytunnel
Couple of sheep (have sheep experience)
Bees
Would use the woodland and any area sheep not on for training my dogs

Even if I didn't plan to do anything with it other than keep renting it to the same farmer, I'd buy it to stop it being covered with houses.

Rent it out (or some of it) to solar energy company and make a fortune?

Definitely buy the land if you can afford it, it can make some money for you, or become a fantastic place to keep animals, encourage wildlife, grow vegetables.

You can get a local farmer or horse owner to plant a particular mix of grasses to make hay and pay you when they harvest it. The price of hay is quite high ATM. You have to research this properly though as in some countries a farmer gets rights over the land if they work it consecutively for over five years. (Not sure of UK law.) You can make money doing this though.

It's been our experience that once you own a small piece of land, farmers and horse owners are always interested in it for extra grazing or hay growing.

Rescue donkeys

You need to be careful with insurance if you're renting it out.

I'd also make sure there's good solid fencing all the way found with clear signs that it's private land.

I'd plant trees and slowly turn it into a little wood. With a nice sized pond. It would be my little slice of heaven.

There was a great YouTube video on building a wild swimming pond. That'd be fab, good for nature and you.

@Disfordarkchocolate

I'd plant trees and slowly turn it into a little wood. With a nice sized pond. It would be my little slice of heaven.

You can get grants for creating woodland from the FC.

Food forest/permaculture with a large wildflower meadow and lots of space for the kids to run and play.

Orchard, wild area, big veg and fruit garden, chickens, bees. I might be persuaded to let the orchard fruit go to a food bank or community homeless organisation. You could look into conserving heritage varieties.

It would be my very own nature reserve. I would let the grass grow and mow paths throughout. Plant a small woodland. It would be a dream come true.

If it's agricultural land, you have to use it for something agricultural.

I am not familiar with the rules.

Riding horses are not agricultural, though heavy horses somethimes are.

My grandfather bought a smallholding in retirement, had an orchard and kept geese and ducks. Most livestock need a lot more constant attention. An orchard does not need a lot of attention.

A natural swimming pond for friends and family to use plus encourages wildlife by way of a large variety of plants. Very eco friendly, chemical-free.

Chickens, a yurt an orchard and a swimming pond would be on my list!

Rent it out as secure dog fields (obviously make sure it is secure). They charge £10+p/h to hire around here!

We have about that . A quarter of it was extended into the garden. The rest is divided into two halves. One half has two fenced off chicken runs, a greenhouse, cold frames, two big veg plots. The other half is grassed with a small orchard & fruit bushes round the edges, I keep half a dozen geese on there with their house. They mow the grass so I don’t have to but don’t harm the fruit bushes like the goats I used to have ( that died of old age) did.

If you can afford it buy it, it will add value to your house. Let it out to a farmer for grazing sheep on a grazing license. Get them to top it for you a couple of times a year and trim the hedges even if that reduces the rent they pay. Horses will make a mess. Keep on top of pulling and safely disposing of any ragwort, it is poisonous and you have a duty to control it.

We are in the process of buying a house which comes with 1.5 acres so not as much but still an exciting / daunting prospect. Half of it is classed as agricultural land which limits what you can do with it - the rules are not exactly clear but basically you can't build anything on it, e.g. a shed or greenhouse. I think a chicken run is OK though. The planning stuff is only a problem if someone reports you, and the worst that can happen is you have to take something down. We are planning on turning the agricultural land half into a wildlife area with native wildflowers, bird boxes, a beehive (I already keep bees), chickens and maybe a pond. I'm really excited about it, the land is one of the main things that drew us to the house. Though my DH is a little apprehensive about mowing all that grass. I think a ride on mower will lose its novelty factor quickly!

Someone near us has just bought a house with 2 acres. They've dug half of it up to put in a massive natural swimming pool, so bloody naff.

My garden is just under three acres. It’s mainly laid to lawn, with big borders, trees etc, has a stream and veg beds, wood stores and a wooded area. I’d say it was more a typical country garden.

We’ve kind of got maintenance down to a tee but constantly needs stuff doing, as you’d imagine.

The one thing we learned is you need the right tools to do the job.

Trees and wildflower meadow. We did this last year on a third of an acre and it was our greatest pleasure during lockdown, watching as different grasses and flowers emerge. It's not without some management - it needs to be cut to within an inch of its life in the autumn. But its soooo lovely. i might also add a pond actually. make it a wildlife haven. We also have apple trees and walnut trees.

I think a ride on mower will lose its novelty factor quickly!

We can do ours in an hour and a half. Often we do it over two days. Likely he’s looking at a 45 min job, it’s no biggie, just make sure to get a decent ride on that mulches.

You can rent out some of it to sheep/horse owners.

The rest, i would make some of it for vegetable growing and some for children's playground/jungle/wildlife.