Since we started working together last year we have made some changes on the farm. We are currently setting up to launch our veg boxes and flower production summer 2023! We wanted to share with you a little of what we have done so far and what our plans are for this year…
At the beginning of 2022 our field was grassland that had been used for grazing sheep for a number of years (1. Grassland). We started by putting in a rabbit proof fence, to keep the rabbits and the sheep out and protect our crops (2. Rabbit Fence). One of the neighbouring farmers helped us out by ploughing the grassland, which allowed us to put up our caterpillar tunnel and make our beds up by hand (3. Caterpillar Tunnel). We then sowed and planted a number of different flower and vegetable crops to fill our caterpillar tunnel and outdoor plot. We sowed a wild flower meadow, this was beautiful in the summer, visited by many bees and insects, and as we did not clear this away the seeds fed many birds over the winter (4. Wild Flower Meadow). We planted rows of vegetables and flowers outdoors (5. Veg and Flower Beds) and had a successful year with plenty to harvest (6. Harvest).
1. Grassland- March 20222. Rabbit Fence- April 20223. Caterpillar Tunnel- May 20224. Wild Flower Meadow- July 20225. Veg and Flower Beds- August 20226. Harvest- 2022
At the end of the Summer we had the top field ploughed and sowed with a green manure to build fertility in the soil, green manure is a crop grown to be incorporated back into the soil, to improve soil structure and fertility (7. Top Field Ploughed). In the winter we switched our focus to building a processing area, setting up the business, and planning our crop production. We took out the temporary rabbit fence and had a deer and rabbit proof fence installed around the perimeter of the site, allowing us to have more protected growing space (8. Deer Fence, 9. Winter). We had our first tree planting day which turned out to be a snow day, but we did manage to get the trees temporarily planted! (10, 11, 12. Tree Planting).
7. Top Field Ploughed- September 20228. Deer Fence- December 20229. Winter- December 202210. Tree Planting- December 202211. Tree Planting- December 202212. Tree Planting- December 2022
This year we have been busy setting up our infrastructure and working through our plans for 2023. So far we have moved our caterpillar tunnel to a new position (13. Caterpillar Tunnel), we have had a second tree planting day where we planted 800 trees (14, 15, 16. Tree Planting), and built our new polytunnel (17, 18. Polytunnel).
13. Caterpillar Tunnel- January 202314. Tree Planting-February 202315. Tree Planting-February 202316. Tree Planting-February 202317. Polytunnel- February 202318. Polytunnel- March 2023
We have had an exciting and busy year. We would like to thank all of our volunteers who have gifted us their time and hard to work to help get our project going. We are so happy to meet and work with such a great group of people. Thank you! Our volunteers have helped us with building fences, removing fences, removing metal from our woodland, planting trees, and putting the cover on our polytunnel.
This year we will launch our veg boxes and flowers. They will be available from Summer 2023. As we are scaling up our production we will have a shorter season this year. This means we will offer products from June/July to September/October this year. We are a new business and in the process of setting up our infrastructure this is why we will be offering veg and flowers for a shorter period this year, after our first year we will be offering veg and flowers for more months of the year. We are excited to offer Scottish grown seasonal veg and flowers to our local community.
If you want to get your hands on our local produce you can register your interest here.
Our progress so far
Since we started working together last year we have made some changes on the farm. We are currently setting up to launch our veg boxes and flower production summer 2023! We wanted to share with you a little of what we have done so far and what our plans are for this year…
At the beginning of 2022 our field was grassland that had been used for grazing sheep for a number of years (1. Grassland). We started by putting in a rabbit proof fence, to keep the rabbits and the sheep out and protect our crops (2. Rabbit Fence). One of the neighbouring farmers helped us out by ploughing the grassland, which allowed us to put up our caterpillar tunnel and make our beds up by hand (3. Caterpillar Tunnel). We then sowed and planted a number of different flower and vegetable crops to fill our caterpillar tunnel and outdoor plot. We sowed a wild flower meadow, this was beautiful in the summer, visited by many bees and insects, and as we did not clear this away the seeds fed many birds over the winter (4. Wild Flower Meadow). We planted rows of vegetables and flowers outdoors (5. Veg and Flower Beds) and had a successful year with plenty to harvest (6. Harvest).
At the end of the Summer we had the top field ploughed and sowed with a green manure to build fertility in the soil, green manure is a crop grown to be incorporated back into the soil, to improve soil structure and fertility (7. Top Field Ploughed). In the winter we switched our focus to building a processing area, setting up the business, and planning our crop production. We took out the temporary rabbit fence and had a deer and rabbit proof fence installed around the perimeter of the site, allowing us to have more protected growing space (8. Deer Fence, 9. Winter). We had our first tree planting day which turned out to be a snow day, but we did manage to get the trees temporarily planted! (10, 11, 12. Tree Planting).
This year we have been busy setting up our infrastructure and working through our plans for 2023. So far we have moved our caterpillar tunnel to a new position (13. Caterpillar Tunnel), we have had a second tree planting day where we planted 800 trees (14, 15, 16. Tree Planting), and built our new polytunnel (17, 18. Polytunnel).
We have had an exciting and busy year. We would like to thank all of our volunteers who have gifted us their time and hard to work to help get our project going. We are so happy to meet and work with such a great group of people. Thank you! Our volunteers have helped us with building fences, removing fences, removing metal from our woodland, planting trees, and putting the cover on our polytunnel.
This year we will launch our veg boxes and flowers. They will be available from Summer 2023. As we are scaling up our production we will have a shorter season this year. This means we will offer products from June/July to September/October this year. We are a new business and in the process of setting up our infrastructure this is why we will be offering veg and flowers for a shorter period this year, after our first year we will be offering veg and flowers for more months of the year. We are excited to offer Scottish grown seasonal veg and flowers to our local community.
If you want to get your hands on our local produce you can register your interest here.
2 responses to “Our progress so far”
Brilliant work Louise and all!
Thanks Frances!