Tatworth Community Crop Production Project - History in Photos June 2009
June 2009 Photos
Planting and un-turfing, making friends and LOTS of other progress! Monday 1st June 2009 Tying up the wigwam poles
Planting the first of the runner bean plants
Tuesday 2nd June 2009, Andrew's birthday Claire weaving the bamboo poles for the last two wigwams
Tying up the canes
Claire attacks the weeds in the shallot bed
Nick picking stones - again!
Claire armed with the new weapon attacks the thistles specifically
Closeups of the new weapon!
The volunteers Sandra, Andrew, Anne, Nick, me and Claire, gratefully recieving tea at Anne's - with Alexandra and rabbit!
Thursday 4th June 2009 Malcolm digging a new plot
Sloworm escaping the scythe
Our very rare Yellow Flag .....
..... complete with      Bumble Bee!
Latest turf clearing - 25 sq metres - continues apace
The extent of the turf clearing. We cut the vegetation down and leave it to kill off what's underneath. Then it's cutting out the turf - not too deep to avoid losing nutrients - and just loosen the new surface when ready to plant
Sandra and family with Anne planting
Chelsea and Samuel planting tomatoes
Chelsea stayed from 3pm till 6.30pm planting 30 tomato plants herself, watering all the 100-odd tomato plants afterwards and then filling the water butts - before she was ordered to leave!
Anne's Sweet Peas going in
Tent over the Curly Kale Jan Morse planted for the Community - they were flat not curly at the time, but now pointing upwards!
After lots of bonding attempts by Chelsea, a sheep comes to her first!
Jan planting more Curly Kale
Tuesday 9th June 2009 Jan planting home-grown Brussels Sprout plants
Chloe and Ellie moving turf from the boggy patch to the compost heap
Chloe still moving turf, Ellie watering the cabbages and brussels crops
After Ellie went off to Brownies, Chloe murdered more thistles - 359 over the last week. She spent 3 hours working happily today: "I thought gardening was for old people but I love it up here! I'll tell Mr Clements about our website tomorrow."
Claire eliminating Field Thistle from the potato patch
Claire and Andrew using mattocks to unturf more of the boggy patch
Andrew taking out more turf at the side of the patch of Huckleberries Jan grew and planted for the Project - the second crop on the boggy side
Saturday 13th June 2009 The latest version of our anti-Cabbage White protection. Hand sewn-together by Sandra and me! Hazel sticks for the tent-poles, hazel sticks to peg the edges + turf. The model for the other crops!
Flowers - 'Trusses' - on the tomato plants - yeah!
Flowers on the potato plants - yeah!
Our only orchid - 'Early Purple'. She will be closely looked after.
Nick Aston, Chelsea, Stacey and Jack carting off stones to shore up Anne's wall. Took 'em 40 minutes before they wanted to do summat else!
Friday 19th June 2009 Sewing the sheets of netting - donated by Swiss Tulle - together to make more tents to protect the crops
Thinking about staking the tomato plants - they're about 12" high
Miriam doing it!
Lee and Chelsea starting to water the tomato patches .....
..... getting wet!
Chelsea takes a pic of big brother .....
..... and Lee takes a pik of younger sister.
Saturday 20th June 2009 Colin Pike and James arriving with yet another donation - lettuces ready for planting!
This is the first of two pairs of hoops Colin delivered to us which enabled us to build a tent that we could walk upright in while tending to the crops. Colin has done so much to help us get started and continues to think about the Project and offer advice all the time
Miriam, Lee, Chelsea, Ellie, Anne, Andrew, Colin and James, and Sandra .....
...... getting to work
Those lettuces were planted within minutes under one of the big tents created with Colin's hoops .....
...... as you can see, by Lee, Chelsea and Ellie helped by teacher!
Tuesday 23rd June 2009 This is the hand water pump direct from the well. It meant that we could fill watering cans from water butts but it took five cans full just to water the shallots patch. So we are building a "tank farm" on top of the portacabin so as to give pressure at the end of long - recycled- hoses!
The water butt filled by hand pump and then emptied into watering cans - hard labour!
Finishing planting Colin's lettuces
Chelsea learning to sew nets together for our tents
Has raising the height of the water supply to 3.6 metres (12 ft) worked? Yep! There is just enough pressure at the end of the hose to water without using watering cans! Back do the drwaing board, hmmm.
Some views from higher up
The two water butts joined up
The blue 25mm inlet pipe at the top and the three outlets at bottom (only one in use at the moment)
A cheap way to join a pipe that really doesn't need to be water-tight!
The three outlets. Two isolated with recycled valves from other jobs - till we start the irrigation system - probably with recycled 2 litre bottles.
The well (lid!), pump, inlet pipe - blue - donated by Phil Hounsell of Hounsell & Harding, and the two water butts one of which magically appeared and the other by Cheryl and Buster
And the hand pump. £24.00 from Keith at Pump International in Truro. He's selling them to Transition Projects all over Devon and Cornwall and has been an organic grower since 1970. Advice, help and modifications to our particular needs gratefully received! It takes 45 minutes to fill the two water butts with 450 litres (90 gallons) of water but it is so easy, and noone needs to lug watering cans about
Beautiful isn't it!
A visit from Malcolm Denslow, Vice-Chair of the Parish Council. The last time he saw the Project was on 30th January. He was astonished to see what we have done. The plan for the first planting on Good Friday was that we'd get a crop of potatoes going and that would probably be it for the rest of 2009. The fact that we've got so many crops in, water supplies sorted out and tents over the vulnerable plants was very impressive, he thought. Thanks for the encouragement Malcolm.
They're discussing the local green waste composting area with Bob Aston alongside. It's amazing how interesting compost can be, is'nt it !!!
Saturday 27th June 2009 Another denizen of the Project, this time a Mullein moth caterpillar on the Common Figwort plant .....
..... and a Vapourer moth caterpillar feeding on the Apple Tree leaves
Chelsea and Ellie rescued a Mole from Anne's living room brought in by Garfield the cat .....
..... and then took it in the basket up to the hedgerow on the Project and let it go!
Monday 29th June 2009 Andrew and I clearing the turf from the wide end of the boggy patch with a vengeance - nearly finished and cabbages to plant!