The Veg Garden

The aim of the growing is to produce a secure, sustainable, healthy (and delicious) food supply for our members and the wider community.

In 2022 we managed to construct some low-budget (no budget!) beds out of pallets, fill them with soil and plant them up with beans, squash, courgettes, sunflowers, carrots, tomatoes, onions and potatoes.

It was an experiment to see what would grow and whether they’d get munched by creatures. Pretty much everything survived and produced a small harvest.  In 2023 we expanded to make some new, larger beds and try out other veg such as spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, peas, as well as repeating our successes of last year.

We were also deeply grateful to be gifted two raised beds from British Recycled Plastic, which we used to grow potatoes and chard. With love and care, we’re now working on a four-year crop rotation plan for 2025, where we hope to grow a variety of vegetables, including carrots, peas, potatoes, chard, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, garlic, onions, pumpkins, courgettes, and tomatoes, across our 10 beds. It’s a thoughtful journey we’re embarking on, one step at a time, as we nurture the land and its bounties.

We are putting out an invitation to people living in and around Thornhill who’d like to get involved in co-operative growing to join us this year, and help us plan for next year. The idea is to expand the growing each year to feed the growers and their families and eventually produce a surplus to trade in the local community.