About 40 of us gathered on Saturday 6 April 2013 for the most wonderful day on the field. The sun encouraged us to take off some of our layers, in which we have been living through this bitter winter/early spring, and we got our green gym exercise in the lovely fresh air. We sowed 3 different types of onions: two white onions and a red onion variety, and have our own experiment up and running: some onions were planted under a ground cover, and some just in the open ground. The ground cover is a big sheet of woven black plastic, into which holes were burnt with a blowtorch, and the onions planted through the holes. The plastic was dug in, to prevent it blowing away, and the idea is that it keeps out the light and prevents the weeds from growing.
We spent a fair bit of time last summer weeding the beds, so anything which reduces the amount of weeding we have to do is a bonus! We’ll see how the onions fare, both under the ground cover, and without it.
Our first social of the spring was a fantastic bring & share lunch on the field (amazing that for all our socials on the farm we have had perfect weather!), with all sorts of interesting things to eat, and a barbecue creating appetising aromas as we came off the field. There were lots of youngsters around, enjoying a bit of freedom to run around the field, and then a bit of construction work in the afternoon, as they created an insect hotel. Rachel, one of our ‘workshares’ (she commits to working on the farm every Friday morning) and on our steering group, had been working hard to collect together all sorts of different sized twigs, branches, teasels logs, canes… you name it… all to provide a varied set of homes for our pollinators. Its all very well planting veg, but some of that veg needs pollinating! And so we need to encourage them to live near! The insect hotel was topped off with some nasturtium seeds planted on the top. Come the summer, it will be abuzz!
It was a delightful day, with many folks coming to the farm for the first time, to find out who we are and what we do. We love to have visitors, as we are so excited about the benefits of building a community around something so basic and so crucial as growing our own food. Come and find out for yourself! Saturday mornings between 10am and 1pm are the ideal time to come.
Thanks to Kevin for this video showing the highlights of the day…
