The relative success of our first full year of growing our own encouraged us to expand so in 2019 we set up more beds. We layed out two bed in what we previously called the orchard. Unfortunately half the saplings we had planted died when the ground became waterlogged following a very wet winter and the council's changes to drains which resulted in surface water from the road pouring through onto the adjacent field. Extra field drains and many years later the old orchard is no longer so vulnerable and provided an ideal space.

First we needed to clear the grass and a few old carpets came in useful. We weren't very familiar with no-dig at the time but mowing and then using carpets was just the easiest option.

Setting out the beds - June 2018. As with the original beds we edged them with wooden boards, covered the remaining grass with cardboard and topped off with home made compost. 

The compost came from what we called our soil mine. It was originally on old muck heap from the time of a riding school but twenty years on it had become ideal compost.

By October the two new beds were planted. One with onion and garlic sets and the other with winter and spring brassicas which we had bought in as plants. 

In Spring 2019 we decided we'd try to grow potatoes but were reluctant to use any of our existing spaces so we build a third new bed at the bottom of the original terrace. The ground fell away steeply so we had to build it up along one side and fill it with soil in the manner of a raised bed. As we were growing potatoes we partially filled it and then topped it up as we banked up the potatoes. It seemed an ideal spot for another veg bed when we started building it but we made a basic error and forgot to take the nearby trees into account. During the summer months it is shaded almost all day, so crops we can grow in it are limited, but usually root crops, particularly beetroot and swedes as well as celery seem to do well enough.

We started in 2018 with three beds plus one with old raspberry canes and a black current bush we now think is in the wrong place and by end of Spring 2019 we had doubled our capacity and expanded our variety of crops.