The English Garden – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 95

IMAGES

EMMA GUSCOTT; GAP/HEATHER EDWARDS

Above In Devon, try ‘Get

Growing’, River Cottage’s

introduction to growing

organic organic crops.

Top right Mark Diacono’s

one-day course, The

Ultimate Kitchen Garden,

takes place at the Yeo

Valley dairy in Somerset.

Above right Charles

Dowding’s No Dig

Weekends are run from

his Shepton Mallet home.

At Green and Gorgeous, Rachel Siegfried can

help you put your cut flower growing on a more

professional footing with her One 2 One classes

on flower farming and cultivation, arranging and

styling. £400, greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk. And

for anyone interested in floristry, the Tallulah Rose

Flower School oers three-day Introduction to

Floristry courses at Levens Hall in Kendal.

27-29 November, £550, tallulahroseflowers.com

For fruit and vegetable growers

There’s plenty of help out there on the basics of

growing your own crops. Try River Cottage’s

Get Growing course in Devon for a good grounding

in organic, seasonal vegetables. 24 Janu ar y,

15 February, 21 February, £145, rivercottage.net

Or tap into Charles Dowding’s knowledge with

an intensive No Dig Weekend held at his home in

Shepton Mallet, Somerset. It’s described as ‘full on’,

and is for both small- and larger-scale growers, but

you’ll leave with lots of time-saving tips, knowing

what to grow and how to make compost and sow

seeds. 2-3 November, £330, charlesdowding.co.uk.

If you can’t make it to Somerset, Charles also oers

an online course on No Dig Gardening for £150.

At Stillingfleet Lodge near York, Growing More

and Better Vegetables with Tony Chalcraft will

help improving or experienced vegetable growers

by covering particular crops in detail, as well as

succession planting and weed and pest control.

4 September, £35, stillingfleetlodgenurseries.co.uk

Learn how to grow unusual vegetable crops with

Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz, who run The

Ultimate Kitchen Garden, a one-day masterclass at

the Yeo Valley dairy in Somerset, covering the finest

forgotten flavours. 25 September, £140, yeovalley.

co.uk. At Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill Farm in Kent,

you could sign up for Edimentals with Chris

Smith from Pennard Plants. The focus is on edible

ornamentals to make your garden and containers

look good while producing unusual and delicious

things to eat. 6 September, £185, sarahraven.com

Anyone wanting to plant their own fruit trees

or orchard would benefit from Growing Apples,

Pears, Plums and Cherries at West Dean College.

This day course is taught by John Nash, who is a

professional fruit grower with more than 50 years’

experience. 16 November, £128, westdean.org.uk

For gardener cooks

In need of inspirational ways to use up a glut of

home-grown fruit or veg? Head to the National

Botanic Garden of Wales for its one-day Home

Preserves: Making the Most of Your Produce.

It covers jam and chutney making, pickling and

bottling, dehydration and lactic fermentation.

22 September, £32.50, botanicgarden.wales

If you’re expecting a bumper apple harvest,

Cider Making at Daylesford in Gloucestershire will

show you what to do with it. 15 November, £110,

daylesford.com. At Brogdale in Kent, home of

the National Fruit Collection, you can learn how