Agroforestry

Wakelyns is now one of the oldest and most diverse agroforestry systems

What is agro-forestry?

Wakelyns is distinguished by the system of alleys and tree lines that have been established over the past 25 years making it one of the oldest and most diverse organic agroforestry sites in the UK.

This is what the Wakelyns fields looked like when Ann and Martin arrived in 1992

Here’s Martin and Maria doing some of the early planting in 1994
Here are those early trees after a few years of happy growing

There is abundant evidence that simple mixtures of crop varieties can provide a way forward from mono-culture towards more natural control of plant disease without external inputs.

Agroforestry is the deliberate integration of trees with other crops on the same land area to gain benefit from the natural interactions within the whole growing system.

Martin Wolfe described the system in this short paper and talked about Wakelyns and agroforestry more generally in this video interview:

Wakelyns in the media

Right from when Ann and Martin Wolfe first established agroforestry here at Wakelyns in 1994, the project has featured in the national and regional media and TV, from Permaculture Magazine in 1996, through appearances in the Guardian in 208 and 2019, and then BBC Countryfile Magazine in 2020.

Click on each image to go to the piece itself or to play the video.

Wakelyns Team’s Presentation at ORFC 2022: ‘Short Food Chains and Enterprise Stacking’


The Landworkers’ Alliance

The Landworkers Alliance has recently produced a major report about agroforestry in the UK. It looks at the related issues of carbon and climate because they are so integral to which direction land use takes over the next few decades. It features eight established and working examples of these new forms of agroforestry in the UK, and explores what we can learn from them, including Wakelyns (on page 10, and see also the aerial photographs on pages 4 and 5).


AboutFram

More locally, we had a lovely write up in “About Fram”, a local magazine focussed on what’s happening in the Framlingham area of Suffolk.


Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin came to Wakelyns in May 2021

And here again at the start of this clip


James Wong and BBC World – Feed the World

In Autumn 2020, James Wong visited with a film crew to film at Wakelyns as part of his Feed The World series for BBC World TV. The episode in question was broadcast globally the other week. Being BBC World it was not broadcast in the UK, but you can download it from their website We are in episode 5, about 13m 40s from the start. Not a long piece, but some lovely footage of Wakelyns and a great opportunity to spread the Wakelyns message.


BBC Countryfile Magazine 2020

We were delighted to feature in BBC Countryfile’s Magazine’s March 2020 roundup of “positive projects”


Another perspective

Cordelia Rowlatt from Vallis Veg kindly included a view of Wakelyns at 1m 24s into her “Business As Usual” clip:


Documentary films

In early 2020, Swedish documentary maker, Maja Lindstrom, released this great film about agroforestry, featuring extensive footage from Wakelyns and interviews with Martin Wolfe. Also available dubbed into Russian here (Wakelyns starts at 9 minutes 40 seconds in). Well worth a watch!

And if you want more, then the first film in her series, Life Within Planetary Boundaries, also features Wakelyns, click here.

Maja also recorded some lovely detailed radio interviews with Martin, available, here, here and here

Most recently, James Wong’s BBC World series “Follow the Food” featured Wakelyns – see 13 mins 40 seconds Series 2 Episode 5 (February 2021).

The Landworkers Alliance has recently produced a major report about agroforestry in the UK. It looks at the related issues of carbon and climate because they are so integral to which direction land use takes over the next few decades. It features eight established and working examples of these new forms of agroforestry in the UK, and explores what we can learn from them, including Wakelyns (on page 10, and see also the aerial photographs on pages 4 and 5).

At Wakelyns, we have a total of 56 tree lines, some are 12m apart, some 15m and some 18m.

Tree lines 1-11 are willow on a short rotation (3 year) coppice cycle for use in hedging, weaving and (the rest) chipped for use in our biomass boiler to heat the Wakelyns farmhouse.

Tree lines 12-16 are a mixture of walnut trees, apple trees, plum trees and pear trees.

Tree lines 17-38 (planted in 1994, and so our oldest) are a mix of timber trees, cherry trees, and some apple trees.

Tree lines 39-45 are a mixture of apples, pears, plums, quinces, peaches, apricots, medlars and other food trees.

Tree lines 46-56 are hazels, on a medium rotation (7 year) coppice cycle for coppice cycle for use in hedging, thatching and (the rest) chipped for use in our biomass boiler to heat the Wakelyns farmhouse.

Wakelyns has a long association with the team from the Organic Research Centre some of whom were based at Wakelyns for several years. Together with Martin Wolfe, they undertook groundbreaking research across a range of issues related to organic agroforestry at Wakelyns.

Jo Smith and Sally Westaway from the ORC have put together this fantastic booklet describing some of that work and its conclusions.