Descriptions of courses

Planning your plot – 15th February 2022

Planning what to grow, when to grow it, and how to arrange it all often seems like the most bewildering choice both for new growers and even those with more experience.

Successful organic growing, in particular, is all about good planning. In this course you will learn how to plan your plot organically, with a focus on crop rotation, preventing pests and diseases, maximising harvests and planning for the year ahead.

We will guide you through the steps, giving you a fundamental understanding of the planning process so that you have the confidence to make your own personal plan.

Session will cover:

• How to assess and plan your growing space
• How to design a rotation
• Choosing a range of crops that suits you
• Designing a cropping calendar so you know what to do when
• Making an action plan

Healthy Soil, healthy plants – 22nd March 2022

Healthy soils are the basis for healthy plants and the building block for any organic garden.   This course will examine what makes a healthy soil and consider methods for testing it in your own gardens or growing spaces.  We will also discuss the practical steps you can take to improve your soil using organic methods such as composts, green manures and no dig methods.

Session will cover:

• An introduction to the importance of soil health, soil life and the components which determine a ‘healthy soil’.
• Discovering the properties of your soil; how to test the health of your soil.
• How to manage your soils organically, including an overview of no dig methods.
• The function of plant nutrients and how to recognise deficiencies

Wildlife gardening – 24th May 2022

The importance of gardens as wildlife refuges for all sorts of life, not just beneficial insects is becoming widely recognised, and we’re all being encouraged to be more wildlife friendly in our gardening practices. But how does this translate into reality in a small urban garden? 

Can you really have a wildflower meadow co-existing with football-mad children, for example? And won’t that big brushwood heap become a home for less welcome wildlife such as rats? Find out how to really make your garden work for wildlife – and you!

Session will cover: 

• Wildlife corridors, man-made habitats & sympathetic management
• What wildlife will there be likely to see in summer in urban settings? and hence what is worth trying to encourage
• Plants, trees and practices which will help wildlife thrive
• Common-sense water in the garden
• Do’s and don’ts

Pests and diseases – 19th July 2022

As a new vegetable grower, you may feel everything is out to get you as you watch one row of seedlings after another succumb to some nameless grot, or be munched by unseen foes. 

Feel you have to reach for a spray but don’t want use toxic chemicals on your food? You don’t have to. Learn about the insects out there who are on your side, as well as methods of control for almost every garden problem. We’ll help you identify what you can do in the way of prevention, cures and controls, as well as methods for minimizing the most common pest and disease problems. 

The session will cover

• Physiological problems: dealing with weather extremes – what you can plan for and what you can’t. The importance of soil health and composting in disease control, including what dead plants can you safely compost?
• Identifying common pests and diseases
• Barriers, traps & deterrents
• Natural predators
• Permitted Organic applications as last resort
• Planning for resistance and diversity

Seed saving – 20th September 2022

Seed saving might seem like a dark art but once you get into it you realise how satisfying it can be to take one step further towards self-sufficiency in your growing. This course will introduce you to the rationale behind seed saving and give plenty of practical examples of the process. We will also introduce you to some of the fascinating varieties within Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library.

Session will cover:

• Reasons for saving seed saving
• Extracting seed from key crops
• How to improve the purity of your seed
• Storing seed

Successful composting – 22nd November 2022

Home composting has always been a no brainer. With each compost bin, you are saving 125 kg of waste having to be taken away from home, and instead turning it into a great product that will benefit your soil, your garden and everything you grow.

However, there is a bit more to it than just throwing it all on a heap and hoping it will make lovely compost. This course will help you to fine tune that process, so that you have a better idea of how it all works. It will give you an understanding of the basic requirements for composting to take place and the various influencing factors giving you a much better degree of control and confidence.

Session will cover:

• Successful composting including what and how to compost
• Recognising the biological life involved in producing compost in your bin
• How to deal with problem compost heaps
• A basic knowledge of how to use compost in the garden

Trainers

Anton Rosenfeld has been with Garden Organic for 18 years. His work has ranged from projects with commercial field-scale growers to small-scale community gardens and allotments. He has worked as a grower, runs many training courses and regularly writes for Grow Your Own and Kitchen Garden magazine. He has a passion for soils, composting and growing veg from a wide range of cultures and horizons.

Sally Cunningham has spent a lifetime as a professional gardener, and has always been fascinated by creatures that she finds in the garden: what they are, what they eat and how they live. She has worked with Garden Organic for over 20 years and has encountered almost every horticultural problem. Sally reckons a well-adjusted garden should wriggle, crawl and squirm as well as sing…

About Garden Organic

Garden Organic is the national charity for organic growing. We have been around since 1958 and have over 20 000 members. Our goal is simple – to get people growing organically. We do this in lots of ways:
• Working with communities providing them with support in their growing
• Providing horticultural advice to gardeners
• Campaigning on topical issues such as the use of peat or pesticides
• Preserving traditional and heirloom varieties in our Heritage Seed Library
• Researching into organic gardening techniques

We also have an organic demonstration garden at Ryton on Dunsmore just outside Coventry, where you can book onto to tours and workshops. For further information visit: www.gardenorganic.org.uk

The course is a part of our Garden for All project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

To book a place, please e-mail us on caldmoregarden@gmail.com.