The first growing season

We were fortunate that the farmer ploughed the field before we began, so we had a bare field with a polytunnel frame in one corner. Otherwise it takes a lot of time to rotivate or dig 4400 square metres of land.

Well weeded cabbages





Impressive onions

Our soil was a fairly heavy alluvial clay with flints set above a chalk bedrock close to the river Itchen. The soil drains fairly well and is fertile, but stones up to 6 inches long keep rising to the surface and require constant removal, particularly if root crops like carrots and parsnips are being grown.



Maturing nicely



Potatoes cover the ground quickly



The courgettes grew very quickly

During our first season we grew 10 crops: potatoes, beans, courgettes, squash, sweetcorn, salad crops, parsnips, carrots, leeks and onions. Each team concentrated on one crop. Some teams had a relatively easy time, others had to work much harder. Salad crops grew quickly but required a lot of weeding and watering, and the team was unable to finish off digging and weeding the whole of their prescribed area. Those growing beans found that constructing frames for climbing beans took a lot of time and likewise they were unable to clear all their plot in the first year. The nice thing about growing courgettes and squashes is that the plants quickly cover the ground and hide the weeds, so people feel that they are making progress. However we had a glut of courgettes (or more accurately young marrows) which we couldn't even sell in the local market, greengrocers and delicatessens. Potatoes are another easy win, but everyone loved our potatoes and we soon sold out. Clearly a better balance of crops was needed! ! However we would advise growing easy big bulk fast growing crops like potatoes, courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn in the early stages and novice horticulturalist will feel a tremendous sense of achievement as they make their first harvest. 

And our weed pile grew even faster



Our weed pile

In the first year there was much ground preparation to be done including destoning plots where carrots or parsnips were to be grown, digging heavy soils, followed by weeding the weeds which seemed to grow even faster than the crops. The soil needed to be weeded very regularly for the first couple of years. Taking weeds out when they are small saves a lot of time later when they have grown, so try to keep on top of weeds (difficult in the early years). Mercifully after three years all annual weeds seemed to be under control in the vegetable plots, but persistent weeds like couch grass and bindweed remain in places. Lesson: don't plant perennial crops until an area of ground has been weed free for a year. We have never used herbicides in the vegetable field in order to be as organic as possible. This does mean that there are patches of nettles grow along fence lines and in other parts of the site, which the majority of members are prepared to live with.