Turning a paddock into a garden/orchard

[alphabiggins]

Hi, we are in the process of moving to a more rural location. We are looking at a house which has a large garden but also 3-4 paddocks. We would like to change 1 paddock into a orchard/vegetable garden if possible. Has anyone done this? I have been reading about planning permission to change from agriculture to residential but is this more for gardens/ swimming pools?

Has anyone any experience of doing this? Any advice would be great.

I'm no expert but I think the rules are pretty strict about what you can do with land designated as Agricultural Land, unless you get it changed which is a long process. I think an orchard is acceptable and lots of people do this as a stepping stone - once it's established as an orchard it can be easier to transition to garden use.

Depends what you mean by 'garden'?

Orchards and meadows can be lovely. We have planted a 'nuttery' in our field.

Also i would consider planting woodland - the woodland trust will come and advise - they have lots of grant schemes for woodland planting, which is likely to be very popular with your council planning department. You can even plant coppice woodland and harvest the wood sustainably every four years for carbon neutral firewood (its neutral because you will be continually replenishing the supply once you cut you grow and 'capture' the same amount of carbon in a four year cycle - if you do it right you have four sections and harvest every year for personal or local use - you can be harvesting coppice in six years)

If it's just an orchard, that should be ok without PP. Vegetable garden is a bit more tricky. Technically the production of food falls under agriculture, but if you are proposing lots of beds, with mown paths and sheds and possibly some flowers to make it pretty and a trampoline in the corner etc that is taking it into the realms of residential use and will require PP for a change of use, which is often a problem. Decide exactly what you want to do, then speak to the local planning department.

Thank you so much for all advice. I will look further into it. It will definitely be orchard not a garden I think. I love the idea of woodland too

You will need planning. It will either be seen as extension of your curtailage or change of use from agricultural to mixed use. We had to do it when we put a poly tunnel and fruit trees into our paddocks

I think you will need change of use for at least the vegetable garden. We have a near neighbour who used former agricultural land to change to a plated area and had a long battle with the council on his hands.

We bought some agricultural land and turned it into an orchard together with some native trees. Still needed to get change of use permission from the council and had to submit a planting plan to them as well showing the names of the trees we proposed to plant. If you're in doubt, just ring the council planning department, they will tell you their policy.

We did just this about 10 years ago, but didn't apply for planning permission. It's overlooked by quite a number of houses but no-one has complained. We are mindful that it isn't a 'garden' so we wouldn't do things like dry washing but we have put up a small shed for tools.

Thanks for all advice