Careers in Horticulture - Six Session Course

The course will ideally be delivered at working horticulture sites with an emphasis on gaining practical insights. Each session will consist of a day’s training.   

ALL SESSIONS FREE (PLEASE BOOK)

SESSION 1 - Propagation

- Propagation bench practical skills: sowing, pricking out, watering, temperature control. Modules, blocks, seedbeds. Propagation equipment and tools. Composts. The theory: conditions of germination.

SESSION 2 - Protected Cropping

- Crop covers for micro-climate and pest control, greenhouses, polytunnels, cloches and cold frames. Passive solar greenhouses. Creating microclimates. Temporary and permanent windbreaks. Principles of season extension. 

SESSION 3 - Planning the Growing Year

- What to grow and when to start. Successional sowing for continuous supply. Seasonal specialities and rotations. Planning garden operations: weeding, watering, soil amendments, harvesting. 

SESSION 4 - Working the Land

- Choices of tools and machinery appropriate to scale and crops. Cultivation choices: dig or no-dig.

SESSION 5 - Soil Health

- The soil as a living system. Feeding the soil not the plants. Systems that build soil and sequester CO2. Carbon negative growing. 

SESSION 6 - Harvesting Storage & Marketing

- Picking and packing. The life of produce after picking. Cooling and washing according to scale. Routes to market, the CSA model. 

These sessions will provide an intensive introduction to edible horticulture and agroecology for people interested in discovering routes into employment in the sector. 

Dates to be confirmed.

Please email Paul@environmentcentre.org.uk to express your interest.