Blog

This year has most definitely, been the most difficult growing season. The wet spring and early summer, the lack of warmth, the strong winds. The only real winners on the plot were the slugs. Copper rings, planting plugs rather than directly into the ground, broken egg shells – all failed. The only thing that seemed to help was cheap lager. Eventually covering the plants with mesh and constantly topping up the cups, finally got things growing…

The lost battles meant that some veg seeds had to be sown 3 times before they outgrew the pesky molluscs! This led to delays – we probably lost a month this year, being ready with veg boxes by July. It’s a real shame, as on so many other levels, we really had made progress. Lois, Rachael and Jess were able to put in time and organise the plot, and us volunteers. The beds were carefully prepared, Roger’s compost applied, weeding carefully undertaken. We have all learnt a lot.

As two of the new projects for the year, we have started to build some of the lovely, and very durable, recycled plastic raised beds, either side of 8 trained apple trees. We’ve already filled the beds with 30 asparagus crowns – we only need to wait another three years until we can harvest them!

Like so many on Friday night, we were mesmerised by the light display of the Aurora Borealis which resulted from one of the strongest geomagnetic storms for years to hit Earth.

Having my arm twisted to be part of a podcast by Pete Leeson of the Woodland Trust, was a daunting prospect. He visited the site on a wet and windy Autumn day, and recorded our chat. The result was a pleasant surprise and his podcast is really worth a listen if you want to hear about good news stories in nature.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/tree-amble/id1693567978?i=1000650023110

After 30 years working to restore nature in forests and on farms, Pete Leeson takes time out to revisit the people he’s met along the way. Throughout the series, Pete discovers how land managers are adapting and responding to the nature crisis we all face, while navigating the economic challenges within farming today. People are at the heart of this podcast, holding the potential to do some incredible things. We meet farmers, ecologists, rewilders and more to find out how communities are building a future together which respects and supports nature.

April has been sooooooo wet. It’s the wettest we’ve ever known the plot. So bad, in fact, we made the decision to add some drainage. The bridge made from railway sleepers, was pretty rotten, so we decided to lay a pipe to carry the water into the main channel and across the neighbouring fields. We also need to add pipes to the area around the polytunnel that at present, reminds me of walking on a bouncy castle.

Looking on the bright side, there are signs of spring that make us all smile, not least the emergence of the daffodils planted in the autumn.

As part of our ‘Let Nature Thrive’ project, we have been busy making various willow features around the plot – from domes to tunnels. Both mindful and challenging in equal measure. These kept us entertained for some time.

The longstanding compost toilet saga (let’s hope the compost toilet itself, is just as longstanding!), has finally concluded. We are super pleased with our natural solution. Everyone can enjoy their cups of tea, without fearing the consequences.

We were thrilled when so many people from our villages offered to sponsor trees in our growing community orchard. Some were given as Christmas presents, others to remember people, and some just as a family gift. We have about 50 fruit trees on site now, and are really looking forward to the first harvests over the next few years.

As temperatures have plunged over the last week, we couldn’t help but marvel at the plot in winter.

The Pond Area

The Veg Plot

The Orchard

The Woodland

We enjoyed welcoming a new cohort of Craven College students on site this Autumn. Their first task was to measure our ecology. We are looking forward to hearing the results. We feel that since we have opened, we’ve seen a noticeable increase in wildlife on the plot. The wildlife pond has been really active this year and the dead hedge is now more of a living environment. We will be working hard over the next year, to keep supporting nature.