A SPAUNTON farmer has become one of the country's first organic farmers on unfenced common land thanks to a tool he developed for tackling weeds.

This year was Philip and Nellie Trevelyan's first year as a fully organic farm. At Hill Top Farm, they have Swaledales and mules and also, in normal circumstances, fat lambs. They have their own land and also keep some sheep on Spaunton moor.

When farmers go organic they are not able to use the range of chemicals ordinary farmers use. Instead they have to clear weeds by hand and prove the land has not been in contact with chemicals.

Thanks to a tool developed by Philip specially for getting up difficult weeds, Hill Top Farm has managed to maintain their part of the common land with hand weeding.

It was a great achievement to establish themselves as organic farmers on unfenced common land. "It was a triumph," said Philip Trevelyan.

"Now we are looking to have this method of weed control taken up as a countryside skill like hedging and stonewalling."

Said Nellie: "Using common land was quite a hiccup for the Soil Association. But we managed to make an agreement with the Lord of the Manor George Wynn-Darley and the other commoners to manage that part of the moor we graze organically."

Philip's inventiveness started with a tool he called the Lazydog. It was developed from an old, heavy implement he saw in the Ryedale Folk Museum.

"I thought that a direct result of going organic would be that we would be overrun with thistles and nettles," said Nellie. "I wondered what people used to do. People used to go out thistleing and perhaps take a kitchen knife for the deep tap roots. I thought keeping the land clear would take forever."

Philip decided to make tools, based on the old blacksmith-made sort in the museum but using modern welding and ergonomic design. "This one uses leverage, so we don't have to use our backs at all."

The Trevelyans find the tool means they can get up the deep tap roots of docks and thistles and also ragwort really quickly.

"It's the Rumplestiltskin effect. You think you can't possibly do it all, but you start in one corner and before you know it, it's finished."

Next, Philip Trevelyan looked for a solution to creeping thistle and made a very sharp, light implement to cut the creeping thistle just below the point where it tillers.

"We were astonished at how much it reduced the creeping thistle and kept the land grazeable all the time," added Nellie.

"The Trevelyans are great supporters of the idea of gang labour. This past summer the Trevelyans hired out their own gang for ragwort clearing.

"They were able to do a vast acreage of ragwort, 120 acres, for half the price of the chemical spray. And they cleared up afterwards. We also did the docks for Jonathan Dimbleby, president of the Soil Association, and a horse racing course. We would very much like to see handwork taken on again."

The Trevelyans went organic after they took a look at farming and wondered where it was going.

"The more we've got into it, the more we think it's the right way to be going. It's sustainable."

For more information telephone Hill Top Farm on (01751) 417351.

Updated: 11:11 Thursday, December 06, 2001