Hello 2026!
The end of February is here and it has been an awfully wet and grey start to the year. We are all feeling the seasonal blues as the winter months draw to a close. A miniscule glimpse of sun gave the slightest hope to us here at Billingley, but it hasn’t decided to stick around.
We had an amazing year last year, our sunflowers were cleared out and we introduced our first ever pumpkin patch – which you all absolutely loved! We also opened our coffee shop ‘Seasons’ which has been a total hit, boy do you all love your hot dogs! The main event, Christmas trees – WOW. We have never received so many amazing, kind comments, it blew us away. We love seeing all your faces, old and new and appreciate how much curiosity you all bring into our yard. I suppose every day is a school day, which is possibly why you all lead with the same question…
‘What do you do for the rest of the year?’ 
The natural presumption being we sit around with our feet up on a sun lounger for the remaining 10 months. Now you wouldn’t be wrong for assuming we like a holiday, an annual rest bite to somewhere hot after Christmas allows us to recharge our batteries. Whilst sat on the sun lounger, we talk and talk over a rum punch or two, discussing what’s next for Billingley. You always praise us for the farm’s expansion year on year, well now you know these ideas are conjured up on the white sands with complete peace and quiet.
Don’t be fooled however, once we have satisfied our cravings for winter sun and beer, we get straight back to it. Our crops (if the rains ever stops) get drilled. Our sunflower, wildflower and pumpkin seeds are ordered, all farm maintenance is ticked off the list and pruning begins.
Pruning being possibly one of the bigger jobs here at Billingley. See you all love us for our trees, they have the perfect presence, but without endless hours of care throughout the year, these ‘award winning’ trees would actually probably be quite funky!
We nurture the trees throughout the whole year, showing you glimpses of each step on our social media. Pruning them so all branches are uniformed, bud rubbing, checking and treating any possible irritants, leader control and bird perches to ensure no breakage of the perfectly proportioned leader – where else would your angel sit?
The steps are endless to keep your trees to our standard, and we love doing it! That’s when it’s not raining anyway!
We aren’t done yet though, those pumpkins and sunflowers won’t grow themselves…
We can only hope for a better 2026, after last year’s drought we felt lucky to even see our pumpkins come to fruition, never mind sell out of them!!
The demand has been exceptional, along with the feedback, therefore naturally we must keep expanding and making these enterprises bigger and better every year.
So, to answer the question, no we do not twiddle our thumbs and wait for Christmas to come back around, nor would we want to. There’s something quite rewarding about seeing something you’ve put all your time and energy into bring smiles to strangers (now loyal customers) faces. And the support keeps on growing, it’s amazing! We look forward to welcoming you back for 2026, and hope you’ll love what we have instore…
