Awen Bach 'A land art and self-sufficiency project'

Posted on September 04, 2026 by Steph

Awen Bach is the birthplace of a new direction for my creative practice, linking land art with my professional creative practice in community mosaic art.

Inspired by a need to be set free form the city and the demands of technology and the pressure of life.  My husband and I longed to nurture a landscape and create abundance, protecting our self wellness, learn to grow and become custodians of land and nature.

It didnt take long to feel the health benifits of spending more time in wellies and waterproofs, than time on the computer. Soon, visions of land art projects, growing our own food and creating spaces for specific crops and animals, brought new designs to my sketch book. 

First we needed to divide the land into spaces dedicated to vegetables, berries and healing plants, a food forest, coppice woods, chicken and animal padocks. This meant fences and hedges, to fufil our desire to lay the hedges in years to come.

Our time was filled with a lot of observation and process, of learning the lay of our land, new and exciting. Making new connections with surrounding land owners and researching and developing ideas. Fencing was emence completed by Stevie by hand with support from the dearest of friends.

YES.. 15 posts in the ground!

We were then luckily enough to discover Stump up for Trees. An ethical and inspiring team of people that bypass the government to grow trees using private investors. Together we planted over 1000 trees in our first autumn with support from them and their amazing volunteers. We were naturally finding people that are never happier in wet weather gear, mucking in, getting hot/cold, tired and definitely dirty. People who cared more for nature, ecology, sustainability, self sufficiency, who held very tightly a healthy and moral, moral compass. It was like breathing fresh air itself. The lichen on the trees also reminding us of the fresher air we were breathing.

 2026/09/07/Stump-up-for-Trees

No dig beds became my full time job. Part of our permaculture philosophy of design agriculture - earth care, people care and fair share. Design and be inspired by nature, limit water waste, make use of all resources and limit pests. Most importantly be beautiul and bountiful. A haven for insects and birds, a place to loose myself in. That was my goal. And no straight lines. I lost count of how many wheel barrows of mole hills I added to my neighbours horse manure, coya husk and green waste council compost. Stiring it up with my bare hands, it was a delight to do, slipping back to a chlldhood playing in the mud. Happy.

I read and planned countless designs, then plotted out my design for this growing space. Based on natural shapes. The beds ranged from 10ft to 20ft x 3ft to 5ft wide. depending on my planting plan. I was new to this, the only things I had grow was a few tomatoes in a grow bag and a few potatoes and beans, in amongst the plants of my garden. My husband reminds me of wise words said by a gardener "best to plant plants, root side down', this is my new mantra.

 I loved the new tools, new eqipment and new jobs. It was addictive and incredibly rewarding, I was exhausted but happy. My head was clear and my heart felt full. But I was niave to the obsticles that lay ahead. Wildlife in the country, need I say more. Fences to keep rabbits out, deer out but what controls the voles and moles? As it turns out, the more I followed the no dig method, laying carboard then earth and planting into that, the more spaces I created for safe nesting. I was digging and pottering about, look down to see a vole on my boot, quite happy just sitting their. It was a beautiful site. Soon enough to found endless nests, filled with babies. I know we were aiming to grow for abundance but was this pushing the limits of what we were going to be able to grow?

While Stevie put in endless posts and possibly losing the plot in the process. I focused on planting beds. Getting the mulch in and on for winter. Garlic was planted, our first crop, that gave me great joy. 

These words share insight into the first 3 months of owning land. More sharing will come on specific subjects and persoanl adventures into life and the land.

We now have 10 zones that are utilised for diferent purposes. 4 hens and a cockerel called 'Porkchop'. This summer 2 paddocks are ready for animals to begin grazing, we will start with neighbours sheep. Over the past 2 years, we have grown close to 60 courgettes of many varieties and still counting, 40 kg of tomatoes still counting, 11 winter squashes, 22 sweetcorn that only 7 were edible, watched 9 artichokes flower into glorious specticles, although we should have eaten them, watched the raise and fall and rise again, of two rhubarb plants. We planted 12 species of soft berries, 17 orchard trees, 10 cider apple trees, a almond tree, 2 walnuts, 3 mulberries, a medlar and quince and another 2.5 thousand coppice, woodland, hedgerow and silvo pasture trees. Who have fought for life this summer. Most have made, it if shrunk slightly. We have germinated 70 plus saplings, also in a fenced, taken 30 plus cuttings and started an asparagus bed with strawberries as companions. 

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We realise that life on the land is difficult, plants are up against the odds so much of the time. But a desire to survive is powerful and inspiring, especially during the relentlessly hot and dry summers we have experienced since owning the land. We have 7 1000ltr storage containers but we need mor water catchment to keep up with these arid summers. Ponds are next.

Tea made with fresh herbs is always a welcoming treat.

One 'passion project' came to a nautural close of stage1 this summer - growing what was in my cupboards. It was a mission I set myself and encouraged my daughter and her boyfriend's support. To rotivate a rectangle of pasture land 4m x 12m, ready for growing grains. Wheat(emmer), rye, linseed(flax), poppy and oats. The wheat didn't germinate. The others did.

I spent far too long thinking about the site but an obvious ideal crop test would be straight lines. Given a few more minute to thing about this concept a duel purpose grow materialised. The grow was to send up a message to the skies, 'love not war'. I marked out my 15ft heart, to be defined by blue poppies, infilled with flax, surrounded in rye and edged in oats. I wonder if anyone noticed it while flying over? I often lookat instagram to see if any posts arrive where I see a heart growing in the Usk Valley. Not yet. But, what a joy from start to finish watching these amazing grains grow, flower or turn to seed. Do we really think enough about what these plants look like and how the food arives in our food bowls? Its been a bit of a mission of mine to grow every seed that touches my lips. Just see what happens. I'm a natural born enquirier.

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I thought I might loose the crops this summer but they had just enough growth in them to make a decent enough crop, according to the flax and linen producing community I have just had the pleasure to meet and share my crop. Linseed is the seed, flax is the crop, linen and linseed oil is the main outcome we utilise. I now have 7 bundles of raw flax to process and a community to help me learn how to process and spin my yarn. A journey that is taking on my first footsteps into growing art materials and dyes. I could not be more happy.  The other crops are being stored, semi processed for art materials stock, seed gathering and feed for the chooks. 

Awen Bach will shortly be sharing on Instagram.

Thanks for reading our story so far.

Steph and Stevie

A snap from the past, but always happy to see rain and its started to rain! I can hear the trees gasp a breath. Horray!