Delightful combination

Flowers and alpacas are a delightful combination at Bewl Rookery, where visitors can also enjoy traditional English tea served on vintage china, writes Alpaca editor Liz Mason.

I was looking forward to my visit to Bewl Rookery to meet Carol Ballet, and her husband Mark, and learn how their herd of 14 alpacas contribute to Carol’s flower garden.

Carol has a field of a quarter of an acre, as well as garden flower patch, devoted to annuals and perennials, including roses and dahlias, which she sells as flower posies and seasonal hand tied bouquets.

The couple also offer afternoon tea in a garden marquee as well as a weekly ‘Paca picnic’ lunch in the marquee or orchard. Carol and Mark aim to give their guests a high quality traditional tea or lunch using local and homemade produce and comments from appreciative visitors suggest it is a five star experience.

Unfortunately I had to cancel my visit due to Covid-19. However, during a telephone interview Carol told me how the couple discovered alpacas and why they are responsible for a flourishing flower enterprise.

“I first fell in love with alpacas in Australia because we used to live there,” she explained. “I was working at the Royal Agricultural Show and part of my job was to write a newsletter for the show members.

“I had to find stories for the newsletter and early one morning I went into the barn where all the animals were and there were alpacas. I’d never seen them before and I just fell in love. Fifteen years later I was able to fulfil my dream.” After travelling the world the couple came back to the UK and found a beautiful house in East Sussex with 10 acres of land. They kept hens but Carol had not given up on her alpaca dream. She learnt more about the animals she loved and her research included visits to open days at Toft Alpacas, and Lightfoot Alpacas.

Carol and Mark bought three girls and three castrated boys in April 2019 from Vicki Agar at Spring Farm Alpacas. Carol also went on a husbandry course with Vicki and learnt about Camelidynamics, a handling method developed by Marty McGee.

It didn’t take long for Mark to fall for the alpacas as well, and he now gives entertaining and informative talks to their tea guests.

“We started with six and at that stage it wasn’t a business it was fun really. We had a bed and breakfast and we said that the alpacas were for our guests to see, but it was really for us.”

Advertisements on the online site booking.com and a location close to famous gardens, including Great Dixter and Sissinghurst attracted international guests to Bewl Rookery. But after the Covid-19 pandemic the couple decided to close the B&B to new guests and focus on the alpaca teas and flower enterprise.

Bigger herd and more flowers

In just a few years the herd at Bewl Rookery grew from six to 16 alpacas, and what began as a “garden patch” to provide cut flowers for guest rooms has also grown to include a quarter acre field. “I grew vegetables but as the vegetable garden got bigger I just put in more flowers,” Carol said.

The alpacas are responsible for the flower field Carol adds, because the couple needed to fence their open 10 acres into smaller paddocks to enable them to manage the land.

When the land was fenced the couple sectioned off an area close to poisonous rhododendron and laurel bushes. This left them with a quarter of an acre plot which they were unsure what to do with. Seeing the potential for sales of home-grown seasonal posies and bouquets they decided to use the field for flowers. “It is all because of the alpacas really because we fenced that piece of land and I thought why don’t I have a go at flowers?”

Carol follows organic principles and the alpacas make an essential year round contribution to the growth of healthy plants. “The whole cycle of everything we do here is organic - chemical free and no-dig as I am a massive follower of Charles Dowding,” she said.

Charles Dowding is a pioneer organic gardener who developed the ‘no-dig’ method for vegetable growing at Homeacres in Somerset. When Carol contacted him to ask about growing flowers using the method, which involves covering the soil with organic material rather than digging to prepare beds, he said it would work.

“It completely made sense because all you need is cardboard, compost and alpaca manure and you are off,” Carol added. “It’s also an incentive to clear the fields, which you need to do for the health of the alpacas, but we also have the manure to use on the flowers.”

Alpaca manure has “amazing advantages” over fresh cow or horse manure because it doesn’t need to be left to rot for at least a year, she explained, It can also be used fresh or composted on the flower beds. And it is fantastic for no-dig beds. “Alpaca manure has all the goodness the plants need including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus but it has lower levels of nitrogen so therefore it doesn’t burn the roots like other manures,” Carol said. “The benefit of no-dig is that you are protecting the soil underneath and leaving it undisturbed and so the (soil) structure is good. You build on top of it, and the cardboard rots down and eventually it becomes all one.”

All Carol’s flower beds are made by covering the soil with cardboard, which she wets, before heaping on alpaca manure and compost made from vegetable peelings, chicken manure and garden waste. Ideally beds would be made in the autumn and the manure left to rot over winter. But when there is a need these can be ready earlier. “I made my first bed in March 2020 and I was putting plants in by June because I needed to get my first year going.”

The flower field beds were sown with annuals in the first year and then Carol has added to these with perennials including roses and dahlias. In spring she uses alpaca manure on the hydrangeas and roses. “The other thing it is great for is making alpaca tea - for the flowers not our guests,” Carol added. The tea, made in a big barrel, is also an excellent feed for seedlings and once a week is used to water the flowers.

As well as taking alpaca husbandry courses Carol has completed a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Level 2 course. Keen to learn more she has joined Flowers From The Farm, a “massively supportive” group of British flower growers where buyers can find home-grown flowers for sale.

Carol’s jam jar posies and bouquets are sold locally from a table at the farm gate, at the village cafe as well through a farm shop. “Demand for British flowers is growing in the same way as demand for British vegetables as more people want to reduce food miles and buy locally,” she said.

Cut flower workshops are a possibility in future but with the alpacas, the teas, and the flower garden the couple have little time to spare. After our interview Carol was planning to plant out dahlias – cold, wet weather had delayed planting but whatever the weather Carol and Mark are enjoying life at Bewl Rookery.