Visited Platgate Community Farm in Somerset who have agreed to collaborate with us to growing some rows of crops.

Following 6 years cultivating around 5 acres of vegetable beds by hand, Plotgate started some new tractor cultivated beds last year. They grew some kale, broccoli and spring greens on part of a field that had previously been used for sheep grazing.

This year they have increased their tractor cultivated area to grow some more vegetables for their box scheme and are happy to work with us growing some staples in this field.

In the photo above you can see the darker ground to right which was cultivated last year and the newly cultivated area which will need some more passes from the tractor in dry weather during the next few weeks to hoe out some more of the grass.

We still have to decide exactly what we’ll be planting. We are likely to try a few different crops to increase diversity and somewhat hedge our bets against variables in growing conditions. Current contenders are peas and beans for drying, lentils, chickpeas and quinoa. We will be growing chemical free.

It will also be good to experiment with combining tractor and manual work. The tractor is doing the cultivation necessary to convert the grassland to beds suitable for seeding. We’ll again be seeding with a push along seeder. Its likely we’ll weed between the rows with the tractor while the plants are small. We’ll also jump in to do some hand weeding within the rows if needed. Finally at the end of the season we’ll be harvesting the crops by hand.

We are also planning to grow some more edible seed pumpkins down on Meadowsweet Meadow as they performed well last year. Along with some more trials beds experimenting with what can cope with the unusual conditions on the levels.

If you would like, you can join our community growing endeavours, help us decide what to grow, how to grow it, how to process the harvest and/or get involved in the field.