Everything you need to know to get started in growing your own healthy, fresh, delicious, local food and general garden management

WOMEN AND MEN WELCOME - OVER 18'S PLEASE

BEGINNERS: This course is for people with little or no gardening experience who would like to get started but don't know where to begin. It will give you lot of the basic nuts and bolts of how to do stuff and also an insight into the fascinating natural world going on all around us - how to make life easier, more planet and people friendly, and have fun!

FOR THE MORE EXPERIENCED TOO: People who've made a start in their gardening adventures will also get a lot out of the day. We've developed lots of ways to make everything as easy and productive at the farm as we can - there's many different areas, not just fruit and veg, also the early stages of a forest garden, meadow and pond, and an area we've left quite wild on purpose, all for wildlife diversity along with a whole range of yields.

We pack a lot into this class...

How to sow seeds and pot up seedlings, other ways to propagate plants

About annual and perennial plants and a bit more general detail about some of the key food crops: salads, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes etc

About the different groups of plants - roots, brassicas and so on - and about crop rotation.

COMPOSTING: how you can reduce your landfill waste and get a valuable yield.

How to use your own-grown plants as a natural, free fertiliser.

POLYTUNNELS: about things you can grow outside and things for which you really need a polytunnel or greenhouse. We now also have a shade tunnel for you to see.

About some of the common pests and problems, and we'll mention some helpful techniques and ideas: eg companion planting and sq ft gardening.

And include some very basic ideas about the importance of woodland, forest gardening, orchard management.

And also, time permitting, go into some of the less well known but very helpful ideas out there: eg the permaculture principles, biodynamics.

Bring sketches and photos of your own garden and we can chat together in the group about possible layouts and how to get the most out of your garden space.

TAKE SOMETHING HOME you'll be able to take home some of the seeds you've sown and plants you've propagated for your continuing gardening adventures.

FARM TOUR we have a wide variety of crops and ways of growing them for you to see in action. We'll look at "no-dig" beds and ways of using ground cover and mulches. Also, we don't use chemical weedkillers so have been experimenting with an easy way of controlling weeds using mulches and cover crops, you can see the promising results of this and much more...

MAX EIGHT PLACES on this course, so plenty of individual attention. Please bring a packed lunch, plenty layers of clothing , gardening gloves and boots or stout shoes.

COURSE TUTOR: Ian Watt

Description supplied by the event organiser.