Preparing for New Growth: An Introduction to Grow With Me

If you've been looking for an activity that's a bit more than a day out, Grow With Me might be worth knowing about.

It's a hands-on tree planting experience on our smallholding, designed for families with young children. You come for around one and a half hours, plant your own Christmas tree by hand, make a wooden name plaque for it, meet the animals, have refreshments by the pond, and take home a printed picture from the day. It's relaxed, outdoors, and genuinely good fun.

But here's the part that makes it different.

The tree stays here and grows on the smallholding. Each year, during a different seasonal window, you're invited back. Every visit involves a different husbandry task — something hands-on that's appropriate to where the tree is in its growth. By year four, you harvest it and take it home as your family Christmas tree.

Your children get to watch something they planted grow over four years, and understand a little more about how it actually grows each time they visit.

Just to be clear on how the pricing works

Grow With Me is £30 for the whole family, and that's for your first visit — year one. Future years are optional and booked separately. We'll email you each year with details when the window opens, but there's no obligation and no automatic charge. You're not signing up for four years when you book today. You're just coming to plant a tree.

Most families have said they'll come back. But that's their choice, made each year on its own merits.

Why Easter?

Christmas trees need to be planted while they're still dormant — before the growing season properly gets underway. The Easter holidays sit right at the end of that window, which makes this the last opportunity to plant until next winter.

There's more on the science behind the timing in next week's post. But the short version is: Easter planting gives your tree the same strong start as winter planting, and after Easter that window closes for the year.

Dates and booking

Grow With Me will be running during the Easter holidays. Slots are limited and each visit is private — just your family, no other groups on site at the same time.

Full details and booking are on the Grow With Me page.