2023 Newsletter
Our Back Garden has had another year of transformation and plenty to be thankful for. It doesn’t need to be said that for a lot of business this year has been challenging but I think also for us all as human beings living in the world we do currently can feel extremely scary. With that said Our Back Garden always finds a way to show us the beauty in our environment and the good will that surrounds us.
Business
This year we hadn’t planned to take on anything big or new (so we had thought). We welcomed lots of new and old faces back to the farm for what we could describe as tricker season of alpaca experiences with lots of unpredictable weather it seemed like the summer never really landed. But that didn’t stop a lot of you who either braved the conditions or helped us re-arrange for another day. We didn’t have any supper clubs or our summer gala this year due to our planned house build, but fear not there will return next year. The house like any build is delayed but we hope to be in by spring and to finally be in our forever home.
Recently launched is our Café horse box and relocated our very humble shop into our new visitors area which we hope will enable our local community to pop in to say hello when the gates are open. Currently we are running this Friday-Sunday 10-3pm. We have had lots of you already visit and hope to become a little pit stop for all of you on your walks or when you just need a decent coffee or brew.
Animals
This year we welcome some new alpacas Bobby Dazzler & Middlington who’s lovely owners needed a new forever home for them. They have settled in with our bachelor paddock and are very much-loved members of our herd. We also welcomed two gorgeous cria girls this summer, Dusty (Springfeild) and Sade who have already melted many hearts born to Winnie and Athena. We are still running our rare and local herds of Hampshire Down sheep who are due to lamb in February and although declined in numbers our beautiful Sussex Red cows are still thriving on site and are also expecting next year.
Family
The Our Back Gadren family welcomed our wonderful little Felix back in January. Almost one year old he has brought us so much joy as well as the sleepless nights but we couldn’t be more thankful for his cheeky personality and watching him discover his home every day.
Family has become wider than blood and we now have an amazing group of volunteers who help us take cadre of the farm and its inhabitants. We also have brought on additional staff member Joanna to deliver our customer experiences. We hope into 2024 we can provide more jobs for our local community and for the team to grow from strength to strength. Whenever we hit dark times it’s our OBG family who always seems to help me up on my feet and help move us forward.
Conservation
As well as welcoming new animals to the farm we are also excited to bring a new species of plant !! The impressive Black Poplar tree used to be a common species in the riverine woodlands of Sussex but has almost disappeared . Kew Gardens have been propagating young Black Poplar seedlings and through our patnership with Chichester District Council have been given 15 of these advanced seedlings now planted into our rewilding area as part of the mixed woodland we are encouraging there.
Finally, all that is left to be said is thank you for all the support you give us. We hope what we are doing here in our back garden inspires others to protect our green spaces and see there is a different way to working smaller bits of land and become caretakers of our beautiful wildlife. We couldn’t do what we do without the kindness and goodwill of our community, customers and friends.
From Our back Garden to yours we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Stay tuned to hear about all we have planned for next year.
