May-October
Delivered Online
Learn all the skills you need to design, create and manage a forest garden by taking part in our accredited online course! It features the videos of Martin Crawford, author of several books on forest gardening and director of the Agroforestry Research Trust. The course is structured with weekly videos, handouts and online assessments, plus fortnightly group tutorials, leading to a Level 2 Award in Forest Gardening, equivalent to a level 5 in Scotland.
The Orchard Project developed the course in collaboration with Martin Crawford, and it is accredited by Crossfields Institute.
Guest speakers from our previous courses have included;
Alys Fowler horticulturalist and journalist with an expertise in harvesting and preserving. As reflected in her best selling book, Abundance.
Jo Homan, The Orchard Project’s own expert forest gardener and orchardist and a director and founder of forest gardening project Edible Landscapes London
Witchhazel Wildwood, one of The Orchard Project’s new Welsh team, an experienced permaculture designer and educator and founder of Coeden Fach Community Tree Nursery.
Lewis McNeill, The Orchard Project’s most longstanding orchardist and permaculturist. He has a passion for ecology and will be teaching about soil.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The course runs from May until September 2022, with an extended break over the the summer. It requires around 6-8 hours of your time per fortnight. (This includes watching the videos, reading the handouts, attending the tutorials and doing the weekly homework.)
You will have access to 18 videos, various quizzes and informative handouts. We will discuss the content of the videos at online group tutorials every two or three weeks. Your progress will be assessed via homework, which you will have a fortnight to complete. You will also have an assignment to design a forest garden based on a real life case study, which our staff in The Orchard Project will assess.
The tutorials will take place every two or three weeks on 8 Tuesdays: 19.00 – 20.30. Proposed dates for tutorials are:
– May: 24th
– June: 7th,21st.
– July: 5th, 19th
– August: 2nd
– September: 6th, 27th
There will be three opportunities to visit forest gardens in London on some face-to-face visits. While these are not part of the assessment for this course we advise that you aim to come to as many of these as possible. The dates for these visits will be confirmed ASAP but they will be on Tuesdays or Saturdays.
COURSE CONTENT
This course will teach you everything you need to know about designing, planting and maintaining a forest garden, including:
• The characteristics of a forest garden • Useful trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants • Creating windbreaks and shelter • Managing different soils • Maintaining fertility • The role of mycorrhizal fungi • Carrying out a site survey • Propagating plants and edible fungi • Designing the different layers of a forest garden • Maintaining a forest garden
If you would prefer to do the course without having to complete homework for assessment then we offer the option of attending the course without the accreditation at a reduced rate (see below). You would have access to all online materials and still attend the tutorials.
COST
- Full fee – £550
- Concessionary – £450 (In receipt of unemployment benefit or any of the benefits listed below*, enrolled as a full time student, or on low income; less than annual £19K. Note to enable the course to cover costs, there are limited places at the concessional rate.)
- Full fee for non-accredited course – £425
- Concessionary fee for non-accredited course (criteria as above) – £350
- FREE PLACES funded by the Mayor of London are available for this course if you are a resident of Tower Hamlets of Hackney based on the below criteria (you must be able to say yes to number 1 and one other). We hope that in exchange for your free place you will volunteer for a few days with a local community orchard or garden. You must be;
- A resident of Tower Hamlets or Hackney and;
- Without a job but would like to get into work. You must be registered with a government agency such as the DWP or the job centre or;
- From a minority ethnic background and on low income: Low income means your individual pay is less than £1600 per month before tax (£19k per year) or;
- Economically Inactive: Economic inactivity means you are not earning. It includes people who want a job but have not been seeking work. Some reasons why you might be economically inactive are: you look after children, you’re a lone parent, you are long-term sick
- *Or you claim one of these benefits or payments: Universal Credit, Working Tax Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independence Payment (Disability allowance), Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Pension Credit, Council Tax Reduction.
Why do we have the selection criteria for the free places? We’re very pleased to be receiving funding from the Mayor of London to help fund this training which we hope will ultimately support people to find ways into related work or into more advanced training. We aim to benefit those who have been most negatively affected by the COVID pandemic over the past two years.
EXTRA INFO
You can cancel your ticket up to 14 days before the start of the course. You will get a full refund for the cost of the ticket, minus the booking fee which Eventbrite charges.
For more course info contact sarah@theorchardproject.org.uk
For more environmental jobs and courses please see environmentjob.co.uk.
