That is the plan anyway. How did it come about?

Many years ago a previous community garden group grew wheat and managed to bake one loaf of bread from it. So why not try it again?

Inspired by one of our members who was asking for a source of getting wheat for her garden we also got ourselves some seeds. We tend to grow low maintenance crop in the garden as we don’t have the resource to tend to delicate plants. We also found in recent years weather volatility is driving us towards the hardier end of plants that tolerate draught and rain. So the wheat seemed a good idea.

We got in touch with the Brockwell Bake Association https://www.brockwell-bake.org.uk/ who offer ‘April Bearded’, a grain last commonly cultivated during the 19^th century. Their seed stock of this was grown and harvested by Kent farmer Andrew Lingham at Court Farm, Halling. Heritage wheats are generally more suitable for non-farm and organic farm sowing as they do not require the chemical fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and growth regulator typically used in conventional wheat farming for success with modern wheat lines.

We prepared an area that we had to clear to give our apple tree a bit more space and sowed our 2m2 of wheat in rows. Watered it twice to allow germination and now wait and see.

Below are photos from the first 3 weeks of the wheat project. We will provide regular updates on our Community Garden Instagram.

But do come by on a Saturday 11.00 till 13.00 (and often until much later – because once you are in the garden it’s hard to leave) and join us in sowing and planting for the next season.

Find out more about the garden here.