AN ARABLE farmer is hedging his bets on recycled garden waste and is keeping his fingers crossed for a bumper onion crop.

Onions have not grown on Albert Vinson Farm, in London Road, Bromley, for more than 10 years because the soil is contaminated with white rot fungus.

The farm is holding trials to see whether onions will grow using compost made from Bromley residents' grass cuttings and hedge trimmings.

Farm manager Nick Ottewell, 31, who has overseen the farm since November said: "During the last 30 years, there has been a lot taken from farms in Kent and very little given back.

"Soil on the farm has become almost like sand.

"You could practically camp out on it and make sandcastles."

The compost, provided by TJ Composting, is known to sterilise the white rot fungus and various levels are being applied to the fields to evaluate its effects.

Garden waste is collected from residents' households by waste contractors Onyx before being off-loaded at a composting site on the farm.

The compost will also be used to help grow the farm's current crops of French dwarf beans, courgettes and wheat.

TJ Composting which produces the compost, expects to produce 3,000 tonnes of it on the farm in the first year, but hopes, eventually, to increase this to 20,000 tonnes a year.