Planting a Medieval Vegetable Garden Using the Historic Three Field System

From Gesiþas Gewissa | Anglo-Saxon Heritage

This is the third year of our vegetable garden, and the first time that our full three-field system is completely in place. We are planning to grow root vegetables, beans, and save seeds in the fallow bed on a three year rotation in each bed, so that the full garden rotates each year. We started by preparing the root vegetable beds. These had been mulched heavily with hay over winter, so we pulled the mulch back to reveal beautifully rich, weed-free soil. After a light till, we sowed directly into the beds, covering the seeds with a thin layer of compost. We sowed parsnip, yellow-white carrot and white beetroot; all historical varieties and saved from last year's seed. We had so much seed from last year we decided to sow quite thickly, in case the slugs were bad this year. Once the seeds were sown and watered in, we had a dry, windy spell. So I decided to make a very early hay cut. The meadow is extremely fertile, and I am in the process of regenerating it back into a workable hay meadow. If I can get three cuts this year, I hope this will help to weaken the dominant grasses and tussocks, and allow more diversity in the form of wildflowers and light grasses, which would make cutting much easier and more efficient. My scythe blade is new, and I attached it to a straight snath, as per Early Medieval examples such as the depictions in the Utrecht Psalter. The blade is attached to the snath with an iron ring and fixed in place with wedges. The straight snath takes some getting used to, but I like the feel of it. I am looking forward to peening the blade so I get a sharper edge and better cut. At the moment, I am having to cut quite high to avoid burying the blade in the tussocks, but I hope that these tussocks will reduce over time and as I increase my blade's sharpness and scythe efficiency and skill, the meadow will reflect the improvement! The cats enjoyed the freshly cut grass as they were able to explore fresh new hunting grounds, and Romulus has followed Remus' example, becoming a hunter too! Romulus and Remus had also taken the vegetable patch as their territory, enjoying the hay mulch and the sun. I was pleased at first as I hoped this would keep any mice away. However their constant wrestling and latrine scratching now threatened to scrape up all my freshly planted seed. It felt like out of the frying pan into the fire; with the cats offering protection against mice, but inevitably destroying my seedlings before they even came up! I covered each bed with blackthorn brash from the freshly laid hedge. This worked extremely well as a historical form of 'cat netting', serving to keep them from fighting and scratching over the beds and protecting my seedlings. Although it didn't stop the little savages from throwing each other into the thorns like greek wrestlers! I resowed some of the beetroot and parsnips, simply broadcasting over the top of the bed, in case my originally planted seed had been too disturbed. I was glad of our huge seed surplus. I also transplanted a few parsnips and carrots that had self seeded in the field bean bed, which had previously been fallow with root vegetables left to seed. Sina and I turned the hay regularly over a couple of days until it was nicely dry, then gathered it up to be used as mulch on the beds. We would like to get some livestock very soon, at which point the hay will of course be used for feed, and the dung used to fertilize the beds. But for now, the excess and spent hay makes excellent mulch, and no doubt historical peoples would have done the same with their waste hay and straw. After a very dry start to the spring, the April rain finally came, and was welcome! I am praying for enough rain to keep the well and stream running this summer. After a heavy rainstorm, I took advantage of the soaked ground to mulch the seedlings, now that they were large enough. Ironically, both my originally sown seed and the secondary broadcasted seed came up, so my beds were now full of seedlings. I took this opportunity to transplant some of the beetroot into a new bed, to make the most of this extra food potential. I weeded and thinned the seedlings in each bed, before a thorough watering and mulching thickly with hay. Mulching is very important to help the soil retain water and provide steady fertilization as the mulch breaks down. Protecting the soil from drying out too much also helps to retain the fertility and soil structure. The winter beans I sowed have done very well, and as they reach hip-height I pinch out the heads, to avoid black-fly, collapse and so the plants can focus on bean production.