The GVCG met at Abbey Farm, Flitcham, then walked to one of the hillsides. Here Edward the farmer, said that after the site which had a chalky, thin soil had been treated with glyphosate to destroy the existing vegetation, wild grass and flowering plant seed collected from a number of chalky sites in the country were sown on the hillside. Subsequently seeds that had been produced on the plants of the first sowing were collected by hand and sown on a neighbouring area of the hillside. This seed was used on the assumption that only those plants adapted to the local conditions would survive and set seed. Disturbing the soil during second sowing released the innate dormancy of the ragwort seeds in the soil which then sprung up within the wild sward. Because of the toxic nature of the ragwort, these were uprooted individually by the GVCG and piled up to one side of the field when they would be collected and destroyed.
