Town & Country

In March 2021, photographer and farmer Amy Bateman began a journey to record the stories of 40 farms in the Lake District and Cumbria. Her travels took her from the Lake District commons to the Solway marshes; seeing isolated farmsteads, unchanged for generations, as well as businesses at the cutting edge of innovation. At a time of profound change in the farming industry, these images and conversations present a visual record of farming in a hostile environment, physically, mentally and financially. An exhibition of the images will begin at the Windermere Jetty Museum, Cumbria, on March 4 and the book can be purchased for £29.90 at www.amybatemanphotography.com

- James Fisher

Rooting out hidden gems

THE Threatened Plant of the Year competition is underway, Plant Heritage has announced, and those with a love of gardening, plants or flowers have been asked to scour their own green spaces for 'hidden gems' that could become 2023's winner.

The competition is seeking 'unusual, rare, or special cultivars' that are not currently commercially available, and are named cultivars that have been sold or grown in the UK or Ireland prior to 2013. Last year's winner was Paeonia 'Gleam of Light', which was discovered in the garden of Roz Cooper.

'Roz's garden was the only recorded location of this type of peony, which is one of the reasons it won,' says Vicki Cooke, conservation manager at Plant Heritage. Thanks to her ongoing care, its future is much brighter, as she has provided plant material to someone starting a historic peony collection in Cornwall, which is helping to rebuild numbers of this unique plant.

'Since winning our competition, Roz has had contact from others who believe they may also own one, which is just fantastic. We hope to see more interesting entries this year, which we hope can help change the fortunes of another rare plant, just like with Roz's pretty peony.'

To find out more and to enter, visit www.plantheritage.org.uk

A shot in the arm for Nature

FUNDING for the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme has been extended, Defra has announced, much to the joy of national parks such as Exmoor (above).