Growing Commons

Category: Crops

  • Planting staples 2025

    Planting staples 2025

    Sadly the tractor at Plotgate had serious engine problems and is out of action. We arranged to grow some rows of beans at Bridies Farm in Glastonbury. We planted 9 rows with a push seeder on the new raised beds made from soil and peat dug from new ditches. A lot different to the hard…

  • 2024 staple crops

    2024 staple crops

    Again we planted in tractor prepared beds at Plotgate using the push seeder. This year they were 30 meter rows. We planted 3 rows each of black and white quinoa, 1 rows each of purple queen beans and soy beans and 10 rows of borlotto beans. The soy beans and black quinoa failed to show.…

  • Harvest and processing 2023

    Harvest and processing 2023

    We harvested the crops by hand, for speed the whole bean plants were pulled. Seed heads were cut from all the other crops to avoid contaminating the smaller seed with soil, which would be difficult to separate out. There were so few lentil pods and the weak plants were totally swamped by the weeds which…

  • Growing staple crops

    Growing staple crops

    The soil of the first bed at Plotgate was ready for seeding towards the end of May so we planted out four 100 meter rows. Three quarters of their length was planted with borlotto bush beans, the last quarter with lentils. We also planted a few hundred beans in blocks as backup in case we…

  • Growing staples in 2023

    Growing staples in 2023

    Visited Platgate Community Farm in Somerset who have agreed to collaborate with us to growing some rows of crops. Following 6 years cultivating around 3 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…

  • Pumpkins are go

    Pumpkins are go

    So some annuals seem to do really well on the, often wet, levels. The peat acts as a big sponge and in dry summers leveller farmers benefit. Pumpkins were sown on the 8th June and did well despite the very dry summer and only being watered in the first week. Heavy hay mulching seem to…

  • 2022 second year of quinoa, chickpea and lentil trials

    2022 second year of quinoa, chickpea and lentil trials

    Despite a total failure in our small trial beds in 2021 we decided to have another go at growing quinoa and lentils in 2022. For 2021 we tried repeated sowings over the April and May planting season but there was very little sign of growth. Not sure if that was due to something eating the…