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Episode 05226th March 202601:12:08
Three Years In: The Honest Truth About Rewilding 80 Acres
No guest this week. Just Tom and Chloe with a drink, a lot to catch up on, and roughly an hour to get through it all. It's been 18 months since the last proper project update and quite a lot has happened. 4,000 trees planted. A tiny forest that nearly died twice and is now over six feet tall. A ...
Episode 052
Three Years In: The Honest Truth About Rewilding 80 Acres
Chapters:35
0:000:00
About This Episode
No guest this week. Just Tom and Chloe with a drink, a lot to catch up on, and roughly an hour to get through it all.
It's been 18 months since the last proper project update and quite a lot has happened. 4,000 trees planted. A tiny forest that nearly died twice and is now over six feet tall. A market garden. A distillery in the barn. A charity. Four schools through the gate in one week. And an otter, which felt significant.
This is the third update episode - episode 9 was the start, episode 29 was one year in. This one's the most honest of the three.
What We Cover Restoring More Nature
– The trees, the dragon's nests, and what happens when you prepare the ground properly
Producing More Food
Contributing to the Local Economy
Connecting More People to Wilder Nature
Timestamps - Tom's opening confession
- What we said on episode 29, and how much has changed
- The four pillars explained
- 28,000 listeners, 125 countries, and someone in Cape Town saving for their own rewilding site
- PILLAR 1: Restoring More Nature
- 4,000+ trees, dragon's nests, and the saplings finally breaking through
- Tiny Forest: 98% survival, over six feet tall, future outdoor classroom
- Hedgerows: planted, lost to drought, replanted
- Wood Meadow: what it is, why it's rare, and a lot of hand-scything
- Deer: why culling became unavoidable, and the experiment with over-planting
- The pond that collapsed - and then gave us house martins, a kestrel and an otter
- Voles everywhere, and what doubling bird species in one year actually means
- Pigs: what went wrong, what's coming next, and the ecological case for them
- The cow debate
- Welsh Rewilding Alliance: founding members
- Naturfa Pathway: recognised by the Welsh Government
- PILLAR 2: Producing More Food
- How a market garden ended up being run by the people who said they wouldn't run it
- Ducks, chickens, and the orchard
- 50-100+ varieties: why growing diversity is also food security
- From least to most efficient food production on the same land
- PILLAR 3: Contributing to the Local Economy
- Wilder Spirits: the distillery, the story, the paper bottle, 2 April
- Mark, Sandy, and why six people working on site matters
- Platform Nature: what it is, who's using it, and where it's going
- The Grange Hub: opened by the Future Generations Commissioner
- Wilder Away Days: NHS to corporate
- Why talking about money is part of the project
- Cabins: off Airbnb, direct only, and why that was the right call
- Revenue transparency: the real numbers from the first six months
- PILLAR 4: Connecting More People to Wilder Nature
- Wilder Connections: what the charity is, and why Chloe built it
- Four schools in one week
- Teenagers, sticks, and what co-design actually looks like
- The oak tree moment
- Open days: what they are, and why April sold out a month early
- Hopes for the rest of 2026
Links and ResourcesThe Grange Project
grangeproject.co.uk
Wilder Spirits - pre-orders open 2 April 2026
wilderspirits.co.uk
Wilder Connections - Chloe's charity for nature connection in young people
wilderconnections.charity
Wilder Away Days - nature-centred corporate experiences
wilderawaydays.co.uk
Platform Nature - tools for nature restoration projects
platformnature.com
Leave Curious - Rob's rewilding YouTube channel (120,000 subscribers)
https://www.youtube.com/@Curious Leave
Dayhike Magazine – the magazine Tom said had him turning every page
dayhike.co.uk
Book an open day or open morning at the Grange Project
grangeproject.co.uk
Previous Update Episodes
🦩 Did you make it to the end?If you listened all the way through, send us an email with just one word: Flamingo
mailto:hello@grangeproject.co.uk
It tells us you're here, and it means more than you'd think.
Subscribe and FollowIf this episode made you want to see what's happening on the land, get updates on the distillery, or just come for a walk - all the links are above.
To support the podcast: share it with one person who'd genuinely find it interesting. That's it. That's all we ask.
It's been 18 months since the last proper project update and quite a lot has happened. 4,000 trees planted. A tiny forest that nearly died twice and is now over six feet tall. A market garden. A distillery in the barn. A charity. Four schools through the gate in one week. And an otter, which felt significant.
This is the third update episode - episode 9 was the start, episode 29 was one year in. This one's the most honest of the three.
What We Cover Restoring More Nature
– The trees, the dragon's nests, and what happens when you prepare the ground properly
- Why the tiny forest survived a drought, deer, and voles - and is now extraordinary
- The wood meadow: a rare habitat, hand-scythed by the community, and why it matters
- The pond that failed, then gave us house martins, a kestrel, and an otter
- The pig situation (it got complicated)
- The cow debate: October, says Chloe. Tom is less sure
- Breeding birds: double the species recorded between 2024 and 2025
- Naturfa Pathway: one of four sites selected across Wales by the Welsh Government
Producing More Food
- From silage grassland to 50-100+ varieties of fruit and veg - and why that matters for food security
- The cathedral polytunnel, the duck pond, the new orchard, and chickens planned for under the trees
- Courses launching this summer: market gardening, agroforestry, mushroom growing, seed saving and more
- What it actually means when the food you grew feeds the people who came to help grow it
Contributing to the Local Economy
- From two tractor drivers twenty days a year to six people working on site
- Wilder Spirits: pre-orders open 2 April. The first spirit distilled on a rewilding site in Wales, in a paper bottle
- Platform Nature: 20 founding partners from Wildlife Trusts to a koala sanctuary in Australia
- The Grange Hub, Wilder Away Days, and why Tom talks about money on a nature podcast
- Revenue transparency: what the first six months actually generated
Connecting More People to Wilder Nature
- Wilder Connections charity: Chloe's co-design phase with schools across Monmouthshire
- What happened when a group of teenagers asked if they could hug a tree
- Monthly open days: selling out a month in advance
- Hopes for the rest of 2026 - and why Tom wants everyone to slow down a little
Timestamps - Tom's opening confession
- What we said on episode 29, and how much has changed
- The four pillars explained
- 28,000 listeners, 125 countries, and someone in Cape Town saving for their own rewilding site
- PILLAR 1: Restoring More Nature
- 4,000+ trees, dragon's nests, and the saplings finally breaking through
- Tiny Forest: 98% survival, over six feet tall, future outdoor classroom
- Hedgerows: planted, lost to drought, replanted
- Wood Meadow: what it is, why it's rare, and a lot of hand-scything
- Deer: why culling became unavoidable, and the experiment with over-planting
- The pond that collapsed - and then gave us house martins, a kestrel and an otter
- Voles everywhere, and what doubling bird species in one year actually means
- Pigs: what went wrong, what's coming next, and the ecological case for them
- The cow debate
- Welsh Rewilding Alliance: founding members
- Naturfa Pathway: recognised by the Welsh Government
- PILLAR 2: Producing More Food
- How a market garden ended up being run by the people who said they wouldn't run it
- Ducks, chickens, and the orchard
- 50-100+ varieties: why growing diversity is also food security
- From least to most efficient food production on the same land
- PILLAR 3: Contributing to the Local Economy
- Wilder Spirits: the distillery, the story, the paper bottle, 2 April
- Mark, Sandy, and why six people working on site matters
- Platform Nature: what it is, who's using it, and where it's going
- The Grange Hub: opened by the Future Generations Commissioner
- Wilder Away Days: NHS to corporate
- Why talking about money is part of the project
- Cabins: off Airbnb, direct only, and why that was the right call
- Revenue transparency: the real numbers from the first six months
- PILLAR 4: Connecting More People to Wilder Nature
- Wilder Connections: what the charity is, and why Chloe built it
- Four schools in one week
- Teenagers, sticks, and what co-design actually looks like
- The oak tree moment
- Open days: what they are, and why April sold out a month early
- Hopes for the rest of 2026
Links and ResourcesThe Grange Project
grangeproject.co.uk
Wilder Spirits - pre-orders open 2 April 2026
wilderspirits.co.uk
Wilder Connections - Chloe's charity for nature connection in young people
wilderconnections.charity
Wilder Away Days - nature-centred corporate experiences
wilderawaydays.co.uk
Platform Nature - tools for nature restoration projects
platformnature.com
Leave Curious - Rob's rewilding YouTube channel (120,000 subscribers)
https://www.youtube.com/@Curious Leave
Dayhike Magazine – the magazine Tom said had him turning every page
dayhike.co.uk
Book an open day or open morning at the Grange Project
grangeproject.co.uk
Previous Update Episodes
- Episode 9 - Building the Ultimate Mosaic: A Grange Project Update
- Episode 29 - Failure and Success: 12 Months of Rewilding at the Grange Project
🦩 Did you make it to the end?If you listened all the way through, send us an email with just one word: Flamingo
mailto:hello@grangeproject.co.uk
It tells us you're here, and it means more than you'd think.
Subscribe and FollowIf this episode made you want to see what's happening on the land, get updates on the distillery, or just come for a walk - all the links are above.
To support the podcast: share it with one person who'd genuinely find it interesting. That's it. That's all we ask.