Gardening on agricultural land

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We've recently had an offer accepted on a house which has a huge garden - about 200m in length (though relatively thin). It's a big dream for both of us - I grew up with a big garden and we both love wildlife. My DH is also keen to build himself a big workshop for his woodworking. So we're pretty excited about it!

However, the situation is a bit more complicated. The garden was originally about half the length that it currently is, then some years ago the farmer who owns the adjoining land sold off some parcels of land for garden extensions. The owners of the house at that time bought the strip behind, about 0.4 acres. This patch of land is still designated 'agricultural land'.

Currently it's all laid to lawn. The original garden half has some nice mature apple trees on it and there are loads of different trees along the boundaries, but no other real planting at the moment. The agricultural land bit is just grass.

I'm planning on making a wildlife friendly flower garden nearest the house, then a veg garden beyond that. However, we're at a bit of a loss about what to do with the rest of it, especially the 'agricultural land' bit. I know there are some restrictions on what we can do there. Ideally I'd like to put the workshop and a greenhouse there but don't think that would be permitted? At least part of it I'd like to 'rewild' with wildflowers and try to attract more nature into the garden, but it's a huge area so not sure how I'd start.

Does anyone have any experience of incorporating agricultural land into a garden and what you can / can't do on it? Or any experience of rewilding a large area of land in a more effective way than just letting the grass grow?

I read that if you want to get wild flowers and native grasses then ideally you want to remove the fertile top soil. If not then use yellow rattle to reduce the grass. Sow a proper meadow mix for your region. There’s good advice on the British wildflower meadow seeds site.

Could you use a digger to remove some of the top soil to build up the vegetable beds? I’ve just removed our front lawn for this (tiny compared to your area). I’m planting an orchard, fruit bushes and a wild flower meadow. And keeping chickens.

No idea about the agricultural land sorry.

Finally before you start have you considered a ground source heat pump?. There are good financial incentives at the moment and if you have a big area then installation is so much easier. It could save you money and be good for the planet but they need to go in before the plants.

@peakotter thanks, will look into ground source heat pumps! I remember the Yellow Rattle tip from Gardeners World a while back, will definitely try that. A digger might be an option, or I guess I might end up doing it in patches over time.

As far as I'm aware you're not allowed to garden on agricultural curtilage.

You need planning permission for change of use to agricultural land. How long has the plot been incorporated into the garden? What are the boundary treatments?

Make sure any mortgage valuation take this into account too. The house doesn't have a large garden, it has a normal garden plus extra agricultural land.

I'd be very wary. And as it stands, no greenhouse or workshop would be permitted.

I'd also be very wary. I'm no expert in this area but I had a friend who bought some agricultural land for leisure use and got into all sorts of trouble with the local authority over it. They had to take down their sheds and had to be able to show that it was producing a crop of some kind, they were lucky in that they'd continued to allow a farmer to use it as meadow land (ie for a hey crop) and that was classed as agricultural activity. Fruit trees/veg growing is classed as a leisure activity, not agriculture btw.

OP, do the sellers have any documentation regarding the agricultural zone in the garden? Also, have any of the neighbours put buildings on the agricultural part? You could have a chat with them.

Call the local planning department/council and see if they can give you any guidance. I THINK that a greenhouse on the agricultural part would be acceptable as it is for the purpose of growing vegetables which is allowed.

sorry, just saw ProfYaffle's post, so it looks like veg growing not allowed? Madness.

Hmm thanks everyone, food for thought there. The land was bought about 30 years ago and we have aerial photos going back a long way showing it being mown and maintained, though nothing has ever been built on it or planted there. The neighbours on one side seem to have a similar arrangement, and on the other side they have a bigger plot and have a smallholding on it. As far as I'm aware, veg and orchard growing is allowed but not ornamental gardening. DH thinks that if we can prove it has been maintained as part of the garden for a long enough time, we might stand a chance of getting the classification changed from agricultural to residential.

My friends had part of their land planted as an orchard and that wasn't deemed to be agricultural use. 'Agricultural' has a very specific meaning and has to relate to commercial activity, eg, the farmer paid my friends for the hay at a commercial rate. Smallholding activities are often seen as leisure rather than commercial though I imagine that must depend on the nature of the set up.

As I say, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about these things but in your shoes I would research it very carefully and get some specialist advice. Agree with Frankie, it's a good idea to start with the local planning dept to see what local regulations are.

I'm no expert but I think your DH is right, if it's been used as an extension of your garden for a certain amount of time then I believe it becomes part of your curtilage. We've certainly developed our land on that basis and no-one has ever questioned it...

Get your solicitor to kick the tyres on this v carefully OP. You may want to ask them to seek specialist legal advice too.

What have the other people who bought parcels of the land done with it? If they have turned it into garden it might be an idea to ask about how they went about it.