Traditional practices of regenerative land management have been regaining traction in agriculture but what lessons do they hold for garden and landscape designers? Zoe Claymore went along to find out more at the tenth Groundswell Festival

The Groundswell Festival is often described as the Glastonbury of regenerative farming, but that only tells part of the story. Held over two days in Hertfordshire, Groundswell attracts an international set of farmers, policymakers, researchers, conservationists, journalists, food producers, and businesses, alongside a smaller contingent of horticulturists and landscape designers. 

There are campsites and coffee vans, vast marquees and smaller tents, a bewildering programme of talks, panel discussions and Q&As, alongside live music in the evening from a world-class DJ who also happens to run a regenerative farm. Sheep graze beside tractors, while a large assortment of trade stands linked to farming businesses fills the site. Everywhere, conversations are unfolding, ideas are being debated, and collaborations are taking shape.

It was exhilarating and, at times, slightly overwhelming, or at least that was my experience as a first-time visitor. Thankfully, I was taken under the wing of garden designer Claire McArthur, who has attended for several years and who helped me navigate what felt like a festival of ideas.

Opportunity knocks
While walking between talks, Georgie Newbery of Flowers from the Farm described Groundswell as ‘a meeting of the curious, not the converted’. It was perhaps the most fitting description of the event. Rather than promoting a single vision of regenerative agriculture or the future, Groundswell creates a space where ideas are challenged, evidence is scrutinised, and uncertainty is openly acknowledged. 

Compared with many other conferences and events, I was struck by the quality of the discussion from the audience as much as that from the speakers themselves. There was a palpable energy: a genuine sense of earnest urgency, balanced by refreshing pragmatism, a ‘get on and do’ spirit and a real willingness to work together and experiment for the common good. I think areas of horticulture and some of the design spheres in which we garden and landscape designers work could learn a lot from this.

The programme of more than 500 talks covered everything from soil biology and agroforestry to food security, technology, market gardening, and public policy. As with any event of this scale, the quality inevitably varied and I quickly learnt that researching speakers beforehand was just as important as choosing topics. Note to self for when I go again.

Across the two days, several themes surfaced repeatedly. Conversations were less about climate change in the abstract and more about pragmatically adapting to increasingly frequent weather extremes. Shade, water, biodiversity, the role of animals and healthy soils were discussed not as environmental aspirations but as practical necessities for creating resilient landscapes now.

Soil health, more than anything else, was the thread that connected almost every conversation. Whether discussing cover crops, microbiology, carbon storage or water retention, speakers repeatedly returned to the living systems beneath our feet. The breadth of scientific research in this area and the close collaboration between academics and practitioners, I found inspiring. It highlighted just how much horticulture and landscape design could learn from the pace of innovation taking place within agriculture and soil science. We are all part of the same planet.

Technology also featured prominently in discussions, although often in unexpected ways. Artificial intelligence, precision farming, and data collection were discussed alongside a more fundamental ethical question: not simply what technology can do, but who benefits from it and how it is used. Likewise, discussions around policy repeatedly highlighted the tension between ecological timescales, measured in years or decades, and political cycles that often last only a few years. Speakers, including Helen Browning, an organic farmer and current Chief Executive of the Soil Association, argued that long-term environmental improvements require long-term consistency, something that has sadly been lacking in recent years.

What good is it for landscape design?
For landscape designers, I think perhaps the greatest value of Groundswell, beyond the soil science and approaches, is that it signals how easily, without knowing it, we can become siloed and is an opportunity to step outside our professional bubble. 

Listening to farmers, scientists and policymakers from around the world, I was repeatedly struck by how many of the challenges mirrored those we face in horticulture: improving soil health, responding to changing weather patterns, balancing productivity with biodiversity, designing for resilience rather than perfection/optimal short-term efficiency, and educating the public on necessary shifts for our shared future. The scale may differ, but the questions are remarkably similar.

Next steps
Overall, for me Groundswell’s greatest strength I think is that it does not pretend regeneration or how we need to work in the future has a simple formula. Instead, it creates a space for adaptive approach, curiosity, challenge and collaboration. I left the event determined to look beyond the boundaries of horticulture, to deepen my understanding and play my part in the wider conversation of how we adapt, listen and thrive in our changing world. 

I arrived seeking answers; I left with hope and with better questions. Perhaps that is the true value of Groundswell; it is a reminder that nature rarely fits into neat boxes, and that the future will depend less on finding a single fixed solution and more on learning how to collectively adapt, listen and respond over time. Survival of the fittest at play in real time.  

For more on regenerative land management in this issue: turn to page 14, to learn about Chalk to Coast, a project to create wildlife corridors across Kent; to pages 17 and 34 for thoughts on regenerative processes in garden design; and to page 50 for more on the closed-loop system applied to the making of the Queen Elizabeth II Garden.

USEFUL RESOURCES
FarmED, learn more about regenerative principles and see them in practice at FarmED’s base in Oxfordshire, which is also home to a community-supported kitchen garden, apiary, heritage orchard, and natural flood management scheme; courses include an Introduction to Permaculture, Climate Change and Honeybees, and Landscape Design for Animal Health; farm-ed.co.uk

Groundswell Festival 2027, 23 and 24 June 2027, at Lannock Manor Farm, Hitchin, Hertfordshire; groundswellag.com

One Billion Acres campaign, launched this year to support the transition of one billion acres of the global land mass to regenerative land management; pledge support at onebillionacres.org

Regenerative Agriculture Foundation, offers grants to organisations that promote regenerative processes; regenerativeagriculturefoundation.org

Photographs, Groundswell/Zoe Warde-Aldam