You already have a space for growing food, and you would like help designing it!

Food systems, crop plans, sowing plans & more

This is a course at our demonstration Market Garden in Berkshire - public transport options are limited.

Please note, as a small non-profit organisation, it's not sustainable to offer refunds.If you need to cancel your place up to one month of the course, you will be offered a credit towards another workshop.After that time, we can only offer a credit if we have been able to re-sell your place on the course.

We will be taking a tour of the market garden, with an opportunity to ask questions as we go round.

Please wear sturdy footwear and dress for all weathers!

60% of this course is outside, and the ground is uneven. We will spend some time indoors with slides, books and discussions.

Refreshments provided - please bring lunch

The venue is rural and the nearest shop is a 10 minute drive away (Lambourn).

The nearest train station is Didcot or Hungerford. It is very difficult to reach this venue on public transport.

Accommodation is available on site - Stay With Us - Sheepdrove

https://sheepdrove.com/stay-with-us/

This course is for you if you have a professional kitchen garden, market garden or community garden which is run for food growing and some commercial success.

We would expect you have food growing experience or have completed our FARMstart program.

A well-designed plot can make growing more fun and efficient, as well as more beautiful.

If you are starting out on your food growing journey, this course will help you in the design of your plot for crop success.

Topics include:

Food systems for commercial crops, including Orchard design, Forest Garden design, livestock integration, urban food production systems, hedgerows & trees

Space needed for various systems

Site design for climate and landscape

Drawing your design to scale

How to design your site spatially

Crop options

Polycultures in soil

Crop planning

Sowing schedules

Suitable for:

Anyone who would like to grow food professionally or as an income

About the event (including practical elements):

We will undertake a walk around, taste and look at crops, discussing the most beneficial crops to grow, we will practice the art of designing a site to scale and forming your own site design, crop plan and sowing schedule

Next steps:

We offer training and support on site, as well site design and mentoring support for food growing

*Booking onto one of our events adds you to our mailing list, you can opt out at any time, or email us to request you're not added. We don't share your details externally, and only use them for our own newsletter.*

Testimonials:

Lovely course, thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend :)

Lyndsey, Berks

I would recommend edge (formerly incredible edible) to anyone. I have never been a very confident gardener but the courses I have done have provided me with such a wealth of information and expertise that I now feel encouraged to give things a go.

Lorna, Wantage

"Very interesting and supportive. It has given me the confidence to research and try things I hadn't thought about before. Thank you Rachael"

Sarah, Berkshire

"Urban Design OBU benefited greatly from a workshop on urban food production using the UFP toolkit by Rachel Hammond of Edge landscaping. The students managed to develop a masterplan for a global city site measuring the productivity of their designs, management issues as well as understanding the social and environmental benefits of UFP. The workshops are compelling and effective for valuing UFP."

Regina L. Oxford Brookes University

About the Tutors

Rachel is a Landscape Architect & Urban Designer specialising in regenerative food production. She designs spaces for food, soil health and wildlife and biodiversity, as well as maximising harvests and reducing the work needed to achieve it.

She learnt to grow food from her Grandparents in Jersey who grew much of their own produce on their acre - including Jersey Royal Potatoes! Rachel still loves potatoes.

Growing food all her life, and commercially for the last 10 years, Rachel has worked with CSA, farms, market gardens, urban farms, community gardens and corporate businesses to increase food production and efficiency, whilst reducing labour and costs.

Rachel founded edge, a non-profit design agency, with the main aims of designing urban food production systems, growing food within whole ecosystems and educating others on food production systems and ecological farming practices.

Georgina is an education expert who runs our school and family sessions as well as building our ponds and bog gardens for us. She is a specialist in song birds and wild mushrooms.

Description supplied by the event organiser.