Bake Your Lawn

Join schools and community groups to ‘Bake your Lawn’!

Grow it, Mill it, Bake it, Eat it, Celebrate it!

What do I need to do?

Allow at least 1m² of your garden for the next year to grow your wheat – yes it will take pretty much a year to grow!

Contact hello@sharingskills.co.uk to receive your wheat and get growing!

If you are growing a winter wheat, sow between September and November.

If you are growing spring wheat, follow the same methods for sowing, but sow in April.

The windmill at Windmill Hill in Herstmonceux is running a seed to loaf project where they are sharing wheat seed for planting. They will hold a celebration at the windmill in October 2026. Find out more on their website.

What will I need?

  • A 1m² plot – this will hopefully produce enough wheat to make one loaf of bread!
  • Spade
  • Trowel
  • Rake
  • Hoe
  • Tape measure
  • Long sticks or string
  • Wheat seed – 30g per m²
  • Watering can

Prepare your soil

  • Dig out any weeds and large stones. Break up any large clumps of soil with a spade.
  • If your soil is very poor, you can dig in some peat-free compost.
  • Rake over the soil to make level.

Prepare for sowing your seed

  • Mark your first row 20cm from one edge. Place a stick down to mark the row or a piece of string.
  • Measure 20cm along from the first row and place another stick or a piece of string. Continue to do this along the bed so you have sticks every 20cm along the bed.
  • Use a hoe or a spade to make a channel 5cm deep alongside each stick.

Sow your seed

  • Sprinkle the seed into the channels all the way alongside each stick.
  • Once all the channels are filled with seed, brush over the soil to cover the seed.
  • Water the soil. Only water again if the weather is dry for a long time.

Wait for your wheat to grow

  • Remove any weeds as they grow.
  • The wheat will look like grass growing for a long time then will suddenly grow longer spikes which will turn into wheat.
  • Harvest from late July to early September. We’ll add further instructions nearer the time.


Thank you to the students of Seahaven Academy for the demonstration photos.

Harvesting

If you’ve signed up to join in, we’ll be in touch in July 2025 with plans to come together in September time to mill the wheat into flour, make bread and share it in a Harvest celebration.

If you’re growing your own wheat and would like to join in our harvest celebration in September 2025, please get in touch at hello@sharingskills.co.uk

This project began in 2011 by the Real Bread Campaign – a campaign by Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming. Taking children and young people on the Real Bread journey from seed to sandwich.

The project helps teachers, and people working in community youth groups, to guide children on taking a handful of organic wheat and grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it.

Sharing Skills is joining with The Lewes District Food Partnership and Fermento bakery to support schools and people of any age in the community to join in.

Contact hello@sharingskills.co.uk to receive your wheat and get growing!

To read case studies from groups who have ‘Baked their lawn’ and find out more about the Real Bread Campaign, visit their website.

 

Thank you to Fermento bakery for allowing us to share photos of their bakery, Seahaven Academy students for the photos of their wheat planting and Melissa Askew  and Georg Eiermann for the use of their wheat photo from Unsplash.