Churchstanton 2030 -                         Food Community

Community food gardens play a crucial role in our current landscape, providing an opportunity to grow nutritious food, engage in physical activity, meet and spend time with people, enhance mental well-being, foster a closer bond with nature and instills a profound sense of optimism.
Our Churchstanton 2030 Food Group:
Churchstanton Parish Council and the OSMG have kindly offered dedicated areas at the quarry and in the heart of the village to our Community Food Group who plan to grow a selection of fruit and vegetables to support the local community shop and the community food larder.  All are welcome to come and spend time and contribute.  The growing areas will foster biodiversity and also support conservation through sustainable gardening methods.

Preparing for tree planting at the quarry involved clearing some undergrowth in and around the selected areas. Holes were dug, a touch of compost was added to aid the bare-rooted trees, location posts with supportive bands were installed and crafted cactus cages around each tree were constructed, bolstered by extra posts for added stability. Followed by a good watering!  The results speak for themselves – all the trees are thriving, with budding leaves and flowers in abundance.  18 different varieties of eating, dessert and cooking apples were planted across the 2 green spaces at the entrance of the quarry.  We hope to add nut trees in the near future, creating a food forest.

The allotment area was covered in long grass, opting for a no-dig approach, we chose to cover the area first with cardboard and then with a sheet over Winter. This method enabled the grass, along with its nitrogen content, to decompose and enrich the soil. In Spring, we've now planted raspberry canes, strawberry plants, and more recently, potatoes. 
 
Clearing undergrowth at the quarry
Planting apple trees at the quarry
Protecting fruit trees from deer with cactus cages
Long grass covering our allotment patch
Preparing for food growing, clearing over Winter
Planting strawberries, raspberries and potatoes

Come and join us!

Everyone welcome!  Come and join in us in our growing or spend some time in nature.  Get some fresh air, gentle exercise and grow healthy food for our community!

 

 

 

Intro to biochar 

We're using biochar to support healthy living soils, increase microbial networks, aeration and retention of water and nutrients for healthy, more resilient plants

 Starting a veg garden

5 key elements of what you need to know in order to get the BEST RESULTS when starting any new garden. 

Easy composting

Effective composting method for small spaces! An experiment run over a few months which works very well and offers a huge amount of cost-saving for growers with limited gardening area. 

 

We need your consent to load the translations

We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.