For two days (14th and 21st March) Land Army volunteers were helping out the lovely people Adam and Charlotte at Glebeland City Growers in Sale.
On the first day we were 4 volunteers and Helen from Kindling. We got immediately stuck in with the first job; sorting out an area in front of the polytunnel which was in much need of some loving care! We first moved the stacks of boxes and dismantled some pallet fencing so we could get to what was underneath. You couldn’t tell by looking, but under the grass and weeds was a layer of mypex membrane, put there 13 years previously, that needed replacing. We learnt that mypex is used over a layer of plastic compost bags to prevent the weeds underneath growing and spreading. Also, by having an area in front of the polytunnel free from plants the slugs wouldn’t get in. Pulling up the mypex was very hard work, it seemed to have grown into the ground! Once it was all up, we levelled the ground and a couple of people laid down fresh new membrane.
The rest of us started on the next task; clearing an overgrown area to make a border to grow fruit bushes and allotment space to test new plants, with a path between. We made a good start on the border, clearing it and pulling up the massive dock and nettle roots.
We continued the next week, but this time with 10 volunteers so we made fast progress, working on the growing space and border. The growing area was going to be rotavated, so we only needed to pull out the big weeds and clumps of grass - however once you start it’s hard not to just take everything out! Once the border was finished we dug some compost into it so it is ready to be planted up.
We had some lovely lentil and veg soup for lunch both days in one of the green houses, which was a great chance to sit down and get to know the other volunteers more.
In the last hour we moved to a different part of the site to take down the mesh and irrigation tubes that covered 4 rows of crops. Unfortunately these had been damaged by the recent frost so were no good to harvest. Rolling in the long lengths of mesh was challenging, especially when the wind got up! But we soon developed a good system with team work. At the end of the day Adam said we could all take home some kale which we picked ourselves - can’t get much fresher than that!
The experience with the Land Army was very enjoyable. It was satisfying to see how much we had achieved in the two days and how we had transformed an area on the farm. The growers there were very grateful, and it was inspiring to see the hard work they do every day, and how this fits into the wider network which is providing local and sustainable food for Manchester.