The Farmer’s Arms Gardening School 2026

Need to get on top of your garden, but not sure where to start? Our ever popular gardening school is here to give you all the know-how!

Monthly  sessions across the year will guide you to plan and grow a garden full of food, flowers, mindfulness and fun. Winter sessions (or if we are occasionally rained indoors!) offer illustrated talks and workshops in botanical studies, drawing & design, planning & seed ordering and garden-related crafts in our cosy workshop. In spring and summer course tutor Karen Guthrie shares tried and tested ways to grow fruit, vegetables, trees and flowers that thrive in our local climate and conditions. We’ll design, plant and maintain beautiful, wildlife friendly borders and vegetable beds, producing fresh produce and flowers for The Farmer’s Arms kitchens, with plenty to nibble on as we work too! You’ll also learn about harvesting and pruning fruit, how to propagate all kinds of plants, and how to cope with common problems from weeds to slugs to gluts. We will make our own compost and natural plant feeds, and learn how to choose, use and maintain tools.

The sessions will give you the confidence to plan and tackle your own garden projects big and small, as we focus on seasonal activities and environmentally-aware, real-world solutions to the challenges we face in our unpredictable local climate. You’ll learn in a small, mixed ability group of a maximum of 12, and there will be chances in every session to get answers to your gardening questions. We always do a range of tasks to suit all abilities and energy levels.

Each session includes a lunch break (bring your own or use our lively onsite cafe)  and ends with a free hot drink and home-baking.

Course fee £450 for all 10 sessions (subsidised places are available – see booking panel)

Already been attending our Gardening School?

You’re welcome to come to the School for two years. After that you may like to know that we’re putting together a new Gardening Club for school graduates – please get in touch or contact Karen directly if that interests you to join.

Course Summary

March
Preparing No-Dig  Beds / Early Seed Sowing  / Signs of Life / Choose Your Battles

April
Hardworking Herbaceous Plants / Sowing & Planting Veg 

May
Watering How & When / Container Gardening / Annuals vs Perennials

June
Low-Maintenance Tricks / Pests & Disease Prevention / Compost Know-How 

July
Biodiversity in the Garden / Late Summer Sowing / Holiday-Proof Your Garden

August
Harvesting & Picking Know-how / Keep the Colour Coming / Pests & Diseases / Action for Winter Veg

September
Preserving Your Edibles / Reviewing & Rearranging / Autumnal Colour

October
Harvesting & Storage / Getting Ahead for Next Year / Bulb Planting

November
Fruit Pruning / Prepping Next Season / Winter-proof your Garden

December
Review Your Growing Successes & Failures / Make Natural Festive Decorations / End of Year Quiz

2026 DATES are Saturdays March 14, April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, Aug 8, Sept 12, Oct 10, Nov 14, December 12
School sessions run from 10am – 3pm, with a 45min lunch break and tea /  coffee from 3.00-3.30pm

What’s Included?

• Tuition
• End of session refreshments
• Tools & materials
• Parking & W.C facilities
• (Optional) Access to our School WhatsApp for support & advice between sessions
• Monthly Newsletter full of Tips & Advice
• Spare Plants & Swaps
  

If you have accessibility needs or concerns, please contact us in confidence to discuss how we can make the school work for you.

Fees support The Farmer’s Arms’ ongoing redevelopment and public programmes.

NB Missed sessions are non-refundable, but you are always welcome to send along a friend or family member to take your place if you need to miss a session !

About the Course Tutor:

The course is devised and taught by Karen Guthrie, who has led the transformation of nearby Lawson Park from fellside to a productive and beautiful garden of over 4 acres over the last two decades. A teacher with over 25 years of experience and an advocate of chemical-free, sustainable gardening, Karen’s philosophy is to promote ‘ambitious gardening for busy people’. She is especially keen on fruit growing, old roses, and the beautiful Lake District moss. 

Karen began gardening when growing up in coastal Ayrshire, winning prizes at the local flower show and redesigning and replanting the garden at her family home as a teenager. Karen is a committed plant-based cook and fermentation enthusiast as well as an artist and film-maker. She co-designed the award-winning Abbey Gardens in East London and has advised the Whitworth Museum (Manchester) and Squash (Liverpool) on their community gardens. She has also made gardens in Scotland, France and Japan.

Earliest garden memory? “Pushing an apple pip into the ground in the garden of my family home when I was about 6. The resulting tree was still there twenty odd years later, and hopefully still is.”

Favourite garden job? “Pruning apple trees on a still, clear Sunday in February. I love studying the buds that will become the summer’s apples, thinking about the season to come, and listening to the distant re-awakening of nature around me.”

Proudest gardening achievement? “It’s not really gardening, but I did win a Blue Peter badge in the 1980’s in a competition to design a theme park. At Lawson Park I have 4 metre high trees I’ve grown from seed and a rare peony I sowed in 2008 that flowered for the first time last year.”