The 28 Day Rule and Pick Your Own Pumpkins: When a Farm Event Needs Planning

Pumpkin season has become one of the busiest weeks of the farming year. Families travel miles to pick their own, and farms that once sold a trailer load at the gate now welcome thousands of visitors. Clarkson's Farm has brought farm shops and new rural businesses to a huge audience, and new platforms such as Only Farmers make it easier for the public to find farm events. As pick your own grows into something bigger, the planning question changes, and the 28 day rule decides how far you can go without a planning application.

Why selling your own pumpkins does not need planning permission

Growing crops is agriculture. Section 336 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 defines agriculture to include horticulture and fruit growing, and using land for agriculture is not development, so a field of pumpkins needs no planning permission. Letting customers pick and pay for produce grown on that land is generally treated as part of the agricultural use, in the same way as a farm shop that sells only its own produce.

The line moves when selling becomes something else. In Williams v Minister of Housing and Local Government (1967), a nursery that began selling imported fruit was found to have made a material change of use. Many councils accept a small proportion of bought in goods, but there are no fixed thresholds and every case turns on its facts. Buy in pumpkins to fill the patch and the character of the use starts to shift.

When the pumpkin patch becomes a festival, the 28 days start counting

Part 4, Class B of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 allows land to be used for any purpose for up to 28 days in total in any calendar year, together with moveable structures for that use. Markets are limited to 14 of those days. The right does not apply to land within the curtilage of a building, and camping is excluded except in connection with a festival.

Pick your own on its own stays agricultural. Add ticketed entry, hay rides, fairground rides, live music, food and drink vans, a bar or a Halloween trail, and the land is being used for a leisure event. Each day that happens counts towards your 28 days, and fields used for event parking can count too. A pumpkin festival running through October half term and the weekends either side can use most of your allowance in one go, leaving little for a Christmas event or a summer open day.

Go beyond 28 days, or put in permanent structures and surfacing, and you need planning permission. Councils can and do take enforcement action when seasonal events outgrow their allowance. Our 28 day rule checklist sets out the wider rules for temporary uses.

Practical steps for pick your own and farm events

Keep a log of every day the land is used for anything other than agriculture. Many councils also look at the days when structures are in place, so record set up and take down days as well.

Keep the pick your own crop home grown, and separate the picking field from the paid attractions so it is clear what is agricultural and what is an event.

Plan your promotion with your day count in mind. Only Farmers, launched in 2026 by Lisa Hogan of Clarkson's Farm with her son Wolfe Bentinck, lets farms promote stays, experiences and events directly to the public, as Farmers Weekly reported. Wider reach means more visitors, so check your 28 days, parking and highway access before ticket sales take off.

If the event has outgrown 28 days, a planning application for a seasonal leisure use can secure your season for the long term, with dates, hours and parking agreed up front. Pick your own is now a fixture of the autumn calendar in counties such as Oxfordshire, and our farm planning consultants in Oxfordshire page covers the local constraints in more detail.

How Foxes Rural Can Help

Our Managing Director, Guy French, ran pick your own pumpkins on his own farm before it became a national craze, so we understand the business as well as the planning. We will tell you what your event can do under the 28 day rule, where it needs permission, and how to secure a permanent consent that protects your season. Call us on 01206 481981 or get in touch through our Contact page.