Camel CSA growers get a taste for lasagne gardening

The ground inside our new polytunnel is rock hard as a result of the prolonged dry spell in Cornwall. So it’s proved too difficult to dig deeply by hand to prepare for planting the tomatoes and peppers.

That’s why we’re experimenting with a no-dig method known in the United States as lasagne gardening.

This permaculture approach involves placing cardboard on the ground to suppress the weeds, watering it thoroughly and then covering it with newspaper and thick layers of compost or other organic material.

We’re planting the tomatoes and peppers directly into the compost and a hole is being pierced through the cardboard so the plants’ roots get access to the earth underneath.

All being well, there will be lovely friable soil once the cardboard has rotted down at the end of the season.

So watch this space!

• Special thanks to Joe and Laura Brown at St Mabyn PO & Stores for all their recycled cardboard

Farming for the future

Mark Norman, one of Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s  three expert growers, recommends that we all catch up on the BBC2 documentary A Farm for the Future  if we haven’t watched it already.

It tells the story of a small South Devon farm that has been in the same family for seven generations.  The film was made by Rebecca Hosking, an environmentalist and wildlife film-maker, who grew up on the farm. 

Rebecca explains what made her decide to return and transform it into a low energy farm for the future.  She discovered that the key lay in nature and the principles of permaculture.

Rebecca Hosking’s  film should be an inspiration to those of us who have chosen to get together to grow our own food. 

Watch this video clip when she investigates how much fossil fuel is used in the making of a sandwich bought from a garage.

Watch the full programme on YouTube