Our approach at Ragmans

Our approach is focused on increased system health by improving soil and plant fertility.  We encourage life and diversity from the micro-level (microbes and minerals) up to macro-level (people!) creating more sustainable farming practices. Much of our thinking at Ragmans has been developed by Juanfran Lopez (left) who has studied and taught in Europe and South America. These techniques were originally introduced by Jairo Restrepo (right), who continues his relationship with Ragmans, teaching here every summer. Our video - Harvesting the Sun introduces Jairo and his thinking. This article also explains our approach in more detail. 

Our goal is to measure the effectiveness of these biological techniques on system biology and mineral balance on plant and soil health.

In addition to this we are developing a high quality range of preparations and techniques such as biofertilisers, bokashi, aerobic teas, mineral chelations, mychorriza, chromatography, lactic acid bacteria, and native microbe reproduction among others methods…. We wish to offer a service tweaking these techniques into specific land situations with local farmers.

This section of our website is a bit complex. We have put some of the tools that we use in the section below. We have also gone into detail with our fertilisation plan for the orchards as it shows how we actually apply these tools. We would welcome comments!

  • Treatment Free Beekeeping in Horizontal Hives

    11 & 12th November at Ragmans Lane Farm

    The Course will take a natural approach to beekeeping including:
    • How bees live in nature and how to respect their ways in your apiary.
    • Natural and less intensive management.
    • Start or increase an apiary by attracting swarms of local bees.
    • Horizontal hives and their advantages.
    • Wax foundation v foundationless natural comb.
    • Colony management - what to do and what not to do.
    • One-box hive, no feeding, no queen excluders, no requeening.
    • Healthy strong colonies without any treatments.

    Dr Leo Sharashkin is editor of Keeping Bees With a Smile: A Vision and Practice of Natural Apiculture, a comprehensive resource on keeping bees naturally in horizontal hives. He is contributor to American Bee Journal, The Beekeepers Quarterly, and Acres USA, and speaks internationally on sustainable beekeeping, organic growing, and Earth-friendly living. He holds a PhD in Forestry from the University of Missouri and a Master’s in Natural Resources from Indiana University, USA.

    For more information or to book a space please click here



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