Our Gardens in Brief
The pub’s acclaimed gardens and 6 acres of former farmland provide a beautiful and productive setting for the Listed building. They greatly enhance the environment we provide for our customers, our staff and – as importantly – the biodiversity of our locale. We have everything from a sunny 1960’s-era crazy-paved beer terrace at the road junction to shady streams and ancient hedgerows.
These offer a huge array of habitats for us to grow food in and nurture native flora and fauna too, as well as to provide restful spaces for visitors to enjoy. We are committed to natural, chemical-free and regenerative approaches to land management, and in 2023 we commissioned an Ecological Survey to record the baseline biodiversity on site and inform our future management plans.
Our improvements began as soon as we acquired the pub in 2021, with planting 100m of native hedgerow plants and restoring the roadside dry stone wall. In 2022 we trialled a small vegetable growing area and planted some soft fruits, to great success, leading us to the decision to stop sheep grazing on the fields and turn them to a more diverse use.
Who Gardens Here
In 2023 we appointed Matt Turnbull as Head of Veg to kickstart the growing of fresh herbs, vegetables and cut flowers for our kitchens in two new beds created by Grizedale Arts’ volunteers on The Farmer’s Fields. In 2024 we held a beginners’ edibles growing course and took part in the national Big Green Week. Grizedale Arts Head Gardener Karen Guthrie contributes to the masterplanning for our land, and curates and programmes garden-focused talks and events at the pub. She also teaches the monthly The Farmer’s Arms Gardening School on site, helping to maintain the gardens with students. With Grace Holland, Karen designed and planted The Ungarden in the carpark, two soil-less gravel beds sown only with seeds, supported by brownfield garden icon John Little. Anna Burton joined the pub as Gardener in 2025, whilst local gardener Crispin Spencer has maintained our grass since 2024.
In summer 2025 we held our first National Meadows Day events including a scything workshop with Steve Tomlin, and opened our new Diana’s Orchard, designed and planted by our own School and open to everybody.
Awards & Recognition
DEFRA selected The Farmer’s Arms for a Bees Needs Award in 2024 for our work increasing pollinator habitats, and in the same year we hosted a popular insect safari and talk by Rachel Richards of national insect charity Buglife. We were also honoured to appear in the Royal Horticultural Society magazine The Garden as one of the UK’s top pub gardens, described by them as a ‘a hug of a pub’! Grizedale Arts thanks the National Lottery Community Fund, Friends of the Lake District and Cumbria Community Fund for supporting our land-based and biodiversity enhancement projects.
