A land based design for Summerhouse Community Farm in Lancaster is now available to view online HERE.
This has been shaped by a community consultation process that has taken place over the past seven months.
Over the summer, LESS shared a farm survey, leafleted surrounding neighbourhoods and coordinated events to invite further visions for the site.
They also welcomed visitors for the first time, and developed basemaps to start co-creating a permaculture design.
Some of the organisations that responded to the survey included Scotforth St Pauls Primary School, Lune Valley Beekeepers, The Plot, LDCVS, Harmony With Nature, Food Rise, Good Things Collective, Lancaster City Council, Lancaster District Green Spaces and the FoodFutures partnership.
The farm’s design seeks to generate renewable energy, build soil health and retain water in the soil.
It will do this by working with the natural contours of the site to create perennial strips or swales higher up on the slope to reduce the risk of soil erosion and encourage water to soak into the land where land is cultivated. Paths will also follow these contour lines.
Rainwater will be harvested from the site’s barn and a holding pond and gravity fed irrigation systems will be created to help retain water in times of surplus in order to water key areas during dry spots.
Solar panels will also be installed on the barn roof.
Part of the plan includes relocating The Plot – a one acre organic market garden and FarmStart training programme currently located at Old Holly Farm near Garstang – to Summerhouse Community Farm.
Areas have also been identified for other groups to take on.
These could include space for youth groups or a food club to grow food, use as organic allotments, or honey bees if the right beekeeper should come along.
In the longer term the large L-shaped barn on the site will include an agricultural classroom, a compost toilet block, a workshop space for compost bay building and biofertiliser making, a food storage and packing area, a farm kitchen for cooking and processing produce grown on site, a seed drying and storage area and an office space for the site’s users.
LESS and FoodFutures will also be shaping up proposals for the site’s governance and regenerative organisation design over the next few months.
