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A misnomer - of course - because it's half ancient English woodland with oak (one about 500 years old), hornbeam, ash, beech, silver birch, lime, hazel, elm, plus of course, holly, elder and hawthorn. Markers of its ancientness - 'lords and ladies' and 'dog's mercury', undergrowth evident in spring. Also, sweet chestnut and cherry laurel.

There is also the remnants of an old orchard with (as yet) unidentified apples (maybe 'Garnet' 1936 and one other very old, nearly dead biannual) and a very delicious mirabelle plum. We believe it used to be part of the orchard for the once-famous Elsenham Jam Factory.

2009's new additions to the orchard include: Buerre Hardy, Egremont Russet and Lord Lambourne on M106. Winter 2010 saw the addition of Warner's King, Topaz, Discovery, Brownlees Russet, Lady Henniker, Laxton's Superb, Honey Pippin, D'Arcy Spice apple varieties and Conference, Magnate, St Luke and Suffolk Thorn pear varieties from EEAOP (east of england apple and pear orchards project). All of these are half standards and we plan to plant some standards in the next years. We also planted Louise Bonne of Jersey pear and the plum Czar from organic stock - xmas gifts! In the future winters we'll also plant varieties of cherry and plums/damsons all from the East of England. The orchard will be planted and maintained both for its habitat value and for the fruit - half for taste, half for heritage - as you might see from the somewhat eclectic/random varieties chosen so far.

Originally we were planning that Field 1 has the main growing areas (allotments) and orchard, while Field 3 will have a nuttery planted with walnut, hazel and sweet chestnut and with permaculture's forest gardening somewhat as a guiding principle but relying more on traditional, or well-entrenched and friendly, species and cultivars. We have planted hazel and sweet chestnut in Field 3, as well as hazel on some of the boundaries, but we're still thinking about whether to coppice these or grow/prune them for nuts. We may end up putting our small nuttery at the southern most end of field 1. Field 3 also now has wild garlic and some other wild flower introductions to add to the grasses and herbs.

In Winter 2009 we have collected a lot of rubbish from Fields 1-4, though not all of Field 4 because we ran out of time and energy, plus the adjacent woodland. We collected yet more rubbish this Winter, picking up what was thrown this year and some of what we missed last time.

The 6 x-shaped allotments and 6 smaller, 6ft x 6ft squares are laid out. Some of the x-shapes are irregular as the new fence line cuts into them but not too drastically. Growing areas for cultivation also extend beyond fencing but so far there is little evidence of success for anything planted there. This year we are experimenting with 2 dwarf morello cherries, some white currents and some black currents, protected from rabbits. We'll see...

It's been an amazing first year for the allotment areas. Each of us successfully grew at least something and together, communally, there was a huge variety of things grown! Next year we get ambitious! In fact we also have erected a 6 x 6ft greenhouse and have another one waiting until the spring to be erected so there is a place even for our more exotic ambitions.

An 80 x 96ft fence is erected around the main human food-growing area. There are 2 squares and 1 x-shape outside that area and we're thinking about extending the pattern even further with both greenhouses, ponds and more shapes.

Just discovered there are Roe Deer - though they might be misidentified Fallow deer as well.

Areas of black polythene were laid down to gently kill off the huge areas of nettles, and hopefully allow all that nutrition to go back into the soil. After at least one season, maybe one year, these areas will be planted with bee-attracting wildflowers.

This was a good, though devastating plan. Everything dies under the black plastic, though apparently not dock nor thistles. Still, we will attempt to seed with bee and butterfly attracting flowers in spring and hope the competition with other things is lessened through our black-plastic strategy.

So far the black polythene experiment is of mixed success. It does obliterate all life (not the gentle answer I had envisaged), though thistles seem resilient despite being nearly a year without light. They are the first to grow once exposed. Also I suspect the black plastic makes a good home for slugs. It really seems to depend on when the soil is re-exposed. Early seems good for self-heal to find a new home and potentially out-compete the various sown seeds, later it was dock and deadly nightshade and at the end of summer it seems that the exposed ground was a great seedbed for yet more nettles and thistles!

Please keep in mind that we are trying to work with nature in this project, not against it. So the only 'pesticides' we think can be used on the field would be: Savona, which is like liquid soap but low in nitrogen (use with rainwater), fruit tree grease / grease bands + corrugated cardboard, and Maxicrop (which is a seaweed extract and growth stimulant though can be used as a wetting agent which helps against red spider mite, aphids and greenfly). See Garden Organic for more. We are members of this, so if you need further information or would like to buy seeds or other things from them, we can give you membership details. Nearly all the plants and seeds we buy for food come from them. Though fruit trees also come from other growers and all the conservation plants come from BTCV.

terra incognita's The Field project is a member of BTCV - British Trust of Conservation Volunteers. See BTCV
There is a huge amount of information on their website that is useful particularly for Fields 2, 3 and 4 - which is where the conservation action will take place. But it also has information about fencing.

We are also members of the East of England Apples and Orchards Project EEAOP