Growing your own
Are you new to vegetable growing? Perhaps you want to take on a allotment, start growing new crops or take your skills to another level. these courses focus on the core principles of designing a growing space, preparing the site, crop selection, sowing seeds, propagation and pest avoidance. Jez, our market gardener, continual anecdotal tips will save hours of hard work; instead you will enjoy a bounty of crops on a shoe string. Every course participant receives course notes and a tray of plant plugs.
Monthly themes
February: Essential preparations for the year ahead; moving and siting perennial herbs, fruit and vegetables; early sowings: lettuce, salad brassicas, rocket and radish; crop protection techniques; and tool care.
March: Planning a rotation and sowing schedule for successful propagation; suggestions for makeshift propagators for starting off
plants and techniques for this month’s focus crops: parsnips, potatoes, onions, celeriac and salad brassicas.
April: A guide to growing organically in small spaces and containers; best techniques for this month’s focus crops: peas, lettuce, spring onions, turnips, beetroot and other baby vegetables.
May: Learn how to plant up the summer season glasshouse for maximum productivity and build climbing structures for peas, beans and squash. Learn best techniques for this month’s key crops: cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, chard and beans.
June: This course covers managing your established crops, weeding strategies and mulching, making your own liquid feed and other organic cure alls. The course will introduce the best techniques for this month’s focus crops: squash, sweetcorn, basil, summer salad curios and edible flowers.
July: Discover how to fill that extra space to ensure crops through the winter and make the most of perennial herbs. The course will introduce the best techniques for this month’s focus crops: winter brassicas, leeks, chicory, radicchio and strawberries.
August: A class on late sowing and double cropping to maximise your yield, storing potatoes, and garlic and onion roping. Learn best techniques for this month’s focus crops: winter radish, salad turnips and currants.
September: This course investigates winter salads, greenhouse herbs and leaf vegetables to last the 6 months of winter. Receive guidance on maintaining soil fertility with green manures and learn best techniques for this month’s key crops: winter spinach, salad brassicas and coriander.
October: How to prepare for winter with a winter glasshouse plan, storing squash and other glut vegetables and a few harvesting tips. Learn best techniques for borlotti beans, pumpkin and peashoots.
November: Find out which fruit trees and bushes to choose for the garden, and how to prune to simple cordons and regenerative pruning of old fruit trees. Learn best techniques for this month’s focus crop, garlic, and anecdotal tips for the essential forthcoming winter activities in the garden.
Introduction to autumn foraging
Come for a walk on the Daylesford Farm and learn basic foraging tips before enjoying nature’s bounty from the hedgerow, field and stream. Pick a few delicious ingredients and see a demonstration on how to cook them.
Game preparation and butchery
Join our experts and learn essential skills to make the most of the season’s game. Bone out and stuff a bird, and see a demonstration on how to break down and portion a larger carcass. Discuss culinary tips with Cookery School chef Vladimir Niza before taking home the fruits of your labour – an oven-ready stuffed game bird.
Hedgelaying
John Savings, national champion and widely respected teacher of hedgelaying, will pass on his expertise during this one day course. By the end of the day you will be able to admire your own section of laid hedge, completed using the age old techniques and hand tools. Includes warm winter refreshments and a hearty lunch.
Introduction to small holding
A course on setting up and managing your own smallholding. The course will provide an overview and look at livestock breeds, practical requirements and a few organic anecdotes to make sure you get the most from a small plot of land. Includes something for supper from our butchers.
Hen keeping
Learn what you need to know about keeping hens in your garden; from choosing the right breed, housing, sighting your run, feeding, through to augmenting your flock. Find out tips on gardening alongside your free-range hens! Includes a complimentary box of eggs.
How to get started in beekeeping
Local apiarist Tanya Hawkes will guide you through the theory, equipment and bee handling skills necessary to manage your own colony of bees. This course will provide enough of an overview and the confidence to make your own first steps in beekeeping.
Cider and juice making
Join our artisan cider maker Jez Taylor, to learn the principles of apple juice and cider making with tastings of dessert, culinary and cider fruit juices. We shall be collecting, picking and pressing, and at the end of the day participants will leave with a 25 litre barrel of juice to ferment and make delicious home made cider. The course will include a theory session, refreshments, lunch from the Daylesford Organic farmshop and a barrel of apple juice to enjoy at home.
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