Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Sowing...Time to pop some broad bean seeds in the ground making sure that all the old plant leaves and stems are removed to minimise slugs and other pests - as mentioned in October the slugs love to hide in the dark and damp under fallen leaves!!

Harvesting... Our carrots are still doing well and it really was a good decision to keep the potatoes in the ground. The dry polytunnel beds are an ideal place to store root crops as they can 'breath', minimising rot and fungus growing on the tubers - last year we 'bagged up' all our potatoes and by early spring we had to throw away quite a few which had gone rotten. The final crop of cucumbers has now been harvested, these are a little big for pickling but nevertheless we have some large jars ready for them. A treat for us during the winter months!

Jobs... We can dig really deep in the beds in the polytunnel that are now clear of crops, and we need to for weeds such as docks. The roots on the dock below were around 20cm long - if one pulls the dock and the root breaks off this plant will only grow again, so we try and get as far down as possible to remove ALL of the roots too.

Comments... The polytunnel is an ideal place to be on a cold wet November day! It does get very warm when we are digging, and of course we stay dry no matter how much it rains outside! And talking of water, we take care at this time of the year to water only when necessary and only onto the soil in the beds making sure we avoid the leaves of the plants. As the days are quite cool any water on the leaves may stay there overnight and encourage fungus and disease - so it's best to water in the morning leaving the whole day for the leaves to dry off before night-time.

November docks have very long roots which need digging out
Relaxed Farming

Our November carrots are delicious
Relaxed Farming

Cucumbers ready for pickling
Relaxed Farming