On the 27th July, the flax was harvested from the Landport Community Garden with support from Portsmouth Action Asylum, the garden team and volunteers.

When harvesting the flax the whole plant is pulled from the soil including the root, and gathered together to dry before retting with water or dew. Retting, like rotting, is a natural process of breaking down the pectins by microorganisms and moisture to help separate the linen fibres that have grown in the plant stem. Scutching is a scraping action which removes

The landport flax was dew retted and open to the elements where it was left resting on the raised bed where it grew. This process took a few weeks, rotating the flax so it was evenly retted. After retting, the fibre is processed through breaking, scutching and hackling to expose and brush the fibres for spinning. Breaking can be done using hand tools or a breaking unit which I used. The process of flax into fibre can be done using no electricity.

The flax grew the tallest here out of all the spaces, with some stems at 1.5 metres. I think this was the most successful harvest because the space had direct sunlight all throughout the day and the plants were watered daily. The raised bed also had a protective net to stop foxes, cats and other animals from damaging it. When it was processed the linen fibre was a warm golden colour compared to Southsea Green where it was silver.

To read more in depth about the processing of flax follow the link below.

Flax Land Processing

Harvesting Flax with Landport Community Garden Team, Portsmouth Action Asylum and City of Sanctuary at Landport Garden.

Photographs by Karl Bailey