Activity Log - 2017

January 2017 – Carpeting the wooded area to suppress perennial weeds. Site maintenance with regular weekly support from Alderbrook Day Opportunities and helping hands from YMCA and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.

February 2017 – Sowing for new season;  produce of old season.

March 2017 – Spring Gathering, wet and windy; herb sowing for herbal teas in partnership with Buxton & Leek College. Weekly salad box sales to the Green Pavilion.

April 2017 – Early seedlings.  Square footer scheme launched. Visit to Eden Project

May 2017 – Potting up. More raised beds and ton bags. Three truck loads of organic topsoil, two loads of compost, one load of sand.

June 2017 – Joined Buxton Garden Trail Weekend – two hundred visitors, and suggestion of Farmgate sales launch. Compost Toilet – a premium facility – completed.

July 2017 – Great Big Walk – lunch-time celebration with Eden Project walkers taking break between Batley and Cornwall. Early notice of HPBC’s intention to apply for planning permission.

August 2017 – Land search for alternative sites for community farm / market garden in Buxton. Crop harvest and Farmgate sales: beans, courgettes, herbs, broccoli. Seed – Serpentine specials and heritage varieties – collection and cataloguing in preparation for Seed Swap event in New Year.

September 2017 – Serpentine Seedy Sunday – workshop.Herbal infusion range produced and packaged.  Stocked by Hargreaves of Buxton and available for sale at the Farm. Crop harvest and Farmgate sales: varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic. Terrace of composting bays under construction.

October 2017- Apple Day – 80 adults, 40 children, several dogs.  £100 in donations.  AGM. Launch of campaign to secure SCF’s future in Serpentine Walks. Tomatoes still cropping.  Sales of dried flowers. (Added value in growing flowers to attract pollinators.)

November 2017 – online petition to secure the future gathers 1,500 signatures.

December 2017 – Winter Gathering. Ruth George launches petition to save the Farm