Plants are essential to everyone's lives. Welcome to Plantlife.
On the ground at Ranscombe
The woods at Ranscombe. © Plantlife
Everything we do at Ranscombe is intended to improve the habitat for as many plant species as possible.
And when plants thrive so do all the wildlife they support - from birds to bees to butterflies.
Our tenant farmer manages the arable fields, where he grows mainly wheat. Around many you will see grass headlands. These are strips around each field that are not sprayed, creating a haven for flowers and other wildlife and also act as a buffer between different areas of the farm and other conservation measures.
The woodland is managed through coppicing, which involves areas of trees being felled each year in rotation. This has been a traditional method of managing the woods for over 200 years creating a unique habitat of trees and flowers. As the trees grow back in their distinctive way with many small trunks rather than one single trunk.
The wood from this has many uses, from logging to biofuel. As the trees regrow, light reaches the woodland floor allowing plants such as bluebells to thrive.