Our "homestead" garden started on a rooftop in Windsor. I always had a big garden growing up, hauling asparagus and tomatoes by the bucketful out of my mother's gardens. It wasn't until years later when we were in a small flat in a busy town that I felt that tug to grow our own food.
I began hunting all of the pots and tools I could second hand. Scouring Freecycle ads, I came across a woman giving away an old butler sink. It seemed like the ideal pot for growing salads on my small deck. Well, I had no idea how heavy those things are, but I was determined to grow something, anything and we ended up hauling it through Windsor town centre in a shopping trolley...on the day before the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla. We pushed that beast of a planter through the crowds, listened to the endless comments of the assembled press and Royal fans, dragged it up 3 flights of steps and proceeded to grow many crops of salads and spinach for our daily suppers.
Our garden has expanded considerably in the last 15 years, but that determination to grow something for our table has stayed. That sink travelled with us around the country as we moved, growing crop after crop of food for the kitchen. Now, we have roughly half an acre of kitchen garden, feeding our family for most of the year.
We have grown food in all settings - from rooftop pots to in amongst the established perennial flower beds in a rented house to the front garden of a tiny mining cottage to our current 1/2 acre of market style gardens. We have become essentially self-sufficient most of the year, but have also failed many many times and learned as much from those failures as the successes.
Like everything we do here at Gartur, our aim with this course is to give you skills that actually fit with modern, busy lives. Our "method" centres around regenerative gardening techniques that put soil health, chemical free growing and no-dig systems at the forefront.
- Starting with the Soil
- Planning Your Space - Big or Small
- What to Grow
- Sowing and Harvesting Schedules
- Starting Seeds
- Growing Under Cover
- Successional Plantings
- Weed Management (or who has time for weeding?!?)
This course takes a UK focus in its seasonality and weather.
Course Format
This course is hosted on Mighty Networks - a comprehensive platform that allows us to host the community, live sessions and online courses all in one space.
Once your purchase is completed, you will receive an email with the details you need to join the network, or add this course to your profile if you are already a member.
Buying this course as a gift?
Our pdf gift voucher is available at no extra cost. On completion of your purchase, you will receive an email from our automated system. The attached pdf can be printed out and included in your gift.
I'm already a member of Gartur Stitch Farm School, how can I purchase the course?
For instant access to this course, simply log in to your Gartur Stitch Farm School account on a browser, rather than the app, then click on Courses in the left hand menu. From there you can purchase the course within the school and have access as soon as your payment completes.
