Cransley School Farm Project
The Junior School
Aim:
Develop a sustainable arable farm that provides:
Daily, immersive cross-curricular learning opportunities for all pupils in the Junior School;
Wider opportunities for Senior School pupils to develop practical and social skills;
Seasonal produce for the School kitchen to use;
A social focal point for families to engage with;
Enable opportunities for urban schools to access outdoor education.
Outdoor Classroom
Essential to the project is an outdoor classroom space within immediate proximity to the cultivated land. This will be a temporary, 3.5m x 10m wooden structure with a storage shed enclosed.
This part-walled classroom will provide sheltered, enclosed space for children to participate in teaching and learning activities; cultivating and potting crops/flowers etc. This outdoor space will provide an excellent base for learning and will be removed enough from the main Junior School buildings to host external school and college visitors invited on site to use the facility with minimal disruption to the Junior School. The shelter will also form the focal point for farm-related community events and volunteer groups.
Charitable Opportunities
As the farm project develops, it will enable Cransley to reach out and positively impact on the lives of disadvantaged children from urban areas. Regular rural agriculture/horticulture workshops can offer a wealth of benefits for children from urban schools.
The Key Principles
The key principles that will be practised at the Cransley Farm result from a wider concept of permaculture:
Polyculture: Growing a diverse range of crops, trees, and plants in harmony with each other to mimic natural ecosystems and maximise productivity. See the list below of companion planting suggestions.
Agroforestry: Integrating trees and shrubs into the landscape (such as we intend with Alley farming) to provide multiple benefits such as mycorrhizal growth enhancement, shade to prevent crop scorching and drought, windbreaks which also reduce disease such as blight, habitat for wildlife, and food production. Given how hard it is to produce food at scale, it may well be that these trees end up being more productive than the crop areas!
Soil Conservation: Employing practices to improve soil health and fertility, such as mulching, composting, cover cropping, and minimal tillage, to enhance plant growth and ecosystem resilience.
Herb Garden: Of great value to an onsite chef and kitchen. Generally best fresh, usually high value and lots of packaging when purchased. Very small area required, very low maintenance as perennial plants, well suited to lining paths for great aesthetic effect with valuable sources for pollinators .
There are a number of aspects that are working well for this design thus far such as:
Land parcel orientation, shape and starting condition:
The side has its length on a near East/West orientation which suits maximising the number of Alleys we can install. The shape of the land parcel also suits having a slight angle added to the Alleys which should make for a nice aesthetic.
Existing Willow: - The willow planted along the Northern border is a fantastic crop to have already in situ. This should be kept to a hedge but will produce a large quantity of craft material for basket weaving and hurdle making which will produce perfect material for building your garden. As such we have included hurdles in the plan for composters and forming the alley borders.
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