March 2023 at Stourton

Landscaping Products

As the weather has turned more spring like, demand for ornamental bark and woodchip has increased.  These are both great weed suppressants so ideal for gardens and keeping unwanted weeds at bay as well as maintaining moisture in the ground.  To view our landscaping products or to place your order online, please click here.

2023 Events

Have you spotted our 2023 events leaflet out & about?  We attended a leaflet swap at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall earlier this month to spread the word & hopefully people are becoming aware of what we’ve got on offer here this year.  If you are a hospitality business, hotel, B&B or holiday cottage business and would like some of our leaflets to share with your guests please get in touch as we have a big box we’d like to get out & about locally.

16^th April – Countryside Lincs

Coming up in April is the fantastic Countryside Lincs Event at the Lincolnshire Showgound  – it’s being held on Sunday 16^th April & we will be there to launch something new and rather exciting that will be taking place across the Estate this year… find out more when we see you there!!

20^th April 2023 – Lincoln Orienteering Group Spring Series

23rd April 2023 – Focus Rides Mountain Bike Race

Both of the above events are bookable directly with Lincoln Orienteering Group and Focus Rides so please click on the links above to register your involvement.

7^th May 2023 – Artisan Market – Deer Safari Tickets are on Sale now!

Following the success of the Artisan Markets last year we are holding two more this year.  There’s no need to book tickets to actually get into the event, there’s a parking charge on the day but entry to this event is free.

We are running our signature deer safaris on the day and you DO need to book tickets for these. To book your tickets please click here!

This is definitely an event to make a day of.  As well as the wares of the many talented Lincolnshire Makers to enjoy, there’s live music, picnic space, deer safaris, walks, a picnic area and a wealth of food vendors.  This is an event to get in diary. Find out more here!

Estate News

We’re working on a project to make Stourton Woods more sustainable going forward.  More details & photos will follow soon…., suffice to say it has involved Antony making another eBay purchase as well as a fair amount of angle-grinding, paint and sourcing timber to create this feature.

We’ve been hindered by the weather as it’s been such a wet March we would normally be repairing farm tracks and grading roads but this will have to wait until things dry out!

Woodland Weddings in the Safari Tent

Julie has been busy meeting with prospective couples looking around the venue in the arboretum and those who are having their wedding at Stourton Woods this year.  Plans are being finalised and updated to ensure everything goes smoothly ahead of the big day!   We take great care to help you every step of the way and it has been lovely to receive such positive feedback from those who have held their wedding here in the past.

“Such a stunning venue that captures you heart as soon as you pull off the main road. Every small decision is yours, what time it starts, where the ceremony is and even what food vendor you want!”

Paula & Karl

“You made our day absolutely perfect”

Camilla & Will

“Every detail of the day was absolutely perfect for us and we can’t get over how magical every single moment was. We cannot thank you enough for every single tiny detail and ensuring the day went as smoothly as possible!”

Amy & Dan 

If you’d like to speak to Julie or have a look around the venue please get in touch as we have some Saturday availability in 2024 and we would love to work with you to ensure you have your wedding your way.

On The Farm

The general theme for what has been happening on farm during March is… NOT ENOUGH! However, we did manage to prepare ourselves for sowing spring barley with some seed dressing in early March.  Seed dressing is a process whereby a large machine sorts through the seeds and throws out anything ropey before applying a coating to protect the seed ready for drilling.  However, after an unseasonably early dry spell in February the great British weather has made up for it during March!

We have been snatching an odd day here and there spreading fertiliser, with all of our winter crops and some of our grassland receiving an application of nitrogen. We are currently applying the second and final dose of nitrogen to our oilseed rape crops, this will be followed by the second pass on our winter barleys but guess what… it’s raining again!

When the weather eventually gives us a decent window we will get on with sowing our spring barley and sugar beet crops, the sooner the better now as we will be losing yield potential the later into the spring we go. The poor weather means that we have a much shorter window than usual to complete the work required which means some long hours throughout April.

In amongst the showers we are applying a grass weed herbicide on a few fields of winter wheat and just starting to think about our first fungicide applications on wheat and barley.

All being well by the time the next blog rolls around we will be drilled up and have the vast majority of our fertiliser applied.

Deer Diary

We’ve been busy repairing fences and putting in a new race-way and gates to improve deer handling and make things a bit easier.  This will be tested out next month when we release the deer from the roundhouse into fresh pasture and a little more space.  We will try & get some video image of this so we can share it with you… it’s a lovely sight but they don’t like being watched & typically decide to go out in their own sweet time!

We’re about to start giving our hinds a dose of copper ahead of calving in May.  This keeps them healthy and helps ensure their calves are also strong when they are born.

Payment gateway changes and taking payment over the phone…

If you buy products regularly online from our website you may soon notice a slight change to our internal payment gateway.  We are working behind the scenes to move away from PayPal to an alternative payment gateway and shortly hope to accept payments over the telephone.  This has been something our customers have been requesting for sometime & we are currently testing this out before Tina can take payments from you over the phone very soon… all being well!

We hope to see you soon at one of our events!