Springtime on the farm – our organic working land at Newgale Holidays

The nights are getting longer, the frost is still nipping at our toes but the sunshine has started to peek through the clouds – it’s springtime on the farm!  At Newgale Holidays, not only do we offer luxury holiday cottages, green camping, and a brand new farm shop on the way, but we’re also a working farm.  Rainbolts Hill occupies 130-acres of idyllic Pembrokeshire countryside, just a mile from the golden sands and polished pebbles of Newgale beach.  Our totally organic farm runs neatly alongside our holiday offerings, including our 10kva wind turbine, meaning that it’s not only the rolling green hills around our site that are green!

Springtime on the farm means that, after a long, cold winter, there’s plenty to be getting on with.  Not only are we eagerly awaiting the lockdown restrictions to be eased in readiness to welcome guests back, but we’re busy preparing the land for a fertile and fortunate few months.  The shifts in seasons bring new challenges and tasks to each individual season which impact growing and harvesting.  

Springtime on the farm sees the Rainbolts Hill team busy fertilising fields and growing crops ready for the summer sun to help them flourish in preparation for harvesting crops and ploughing fields in the autumn.  We’re a totally organic farm, so we’re proud to say that we don’t use any artificial fertilisers or harmful pesticides on our land.  We apply natural, organic manures to our land with our own equipment to stimulate growth and create rich, fruitful soil for growing.  This enhances the fertility of the land, creating the strong, vibrant, green-coloured grass that’s characteristic of the Pembrokeshire fields you see rolling towards the sea all around our cottages and campsite.

It’s not just the land that needs maintaining: springtime on the farm also means maintaining and laying new hedges in time for new growth.  Hedgerows become tired, heavy with weak growth and bulge at the bottom, and they start looking pretty tatty, too!  But it’s not just that they look unsightly, they become unsuitable stock-proof barriers that create problems of their own.  In order to provide strong barriers, adequate shelter for livestock and a blossoming wildlife haven for small animals and birds, it’s imperative to maintain our current hedgerows for existing habitat provision.

This spring at Rainbolts Hill, we’ll be laying over 150 metres of new hedges across our farmland!   We can’t wait to see which of our plethora of small animals will take up residence in our new hedges and enhance the biodiversity of our farmland – did you know that hedgerows on farmland provide some of the richest semi-natural habitats for our British wildlife, including dormice, beetles, nesting birds and hibernating hedgehogs?

In Pembrokeshire, we’re lucky to have organisations such as the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park that give official advice and funding for those who wish to enhance the biodiversity of their land.  This springtime on the farm, we have begun laying new hedges with their help – if you’re interested in the historic and geological significance of our unique hedgebanks here in Pembrokeshire, then take a look at their informative online leaflet here.

Springtime on the farm in 2021 also means the imminent opening of the Rainbolts Hill Farm Shop, providing high-quality products to our guests and to local community members wanting the best of Pembrokeshire produce.  Keep an eye on our Facebook page for our official launch!