SOLD OUT: The Farmer’s Arms Gardening School

This event has sold out, but to join the waiting list for this course, please email karen@grizedale.org

Looking to improve your gardening skills and confidence? Look no further than our monthly gardening school taking place in the beautiful garden and fields around our pub!

Gardening is entry-level creativity, and there has never been a better time to start. Whether you have your own space or not, The Farmer’s Arms Gardening School is an opportunity to enjoy being in nature, learning tried and tested ways to grow fruit, vegetables, trees and flowers that will thrive in our local climate and conditions. Maybe you’ve got young kids and want to make a safe, nature-friendly outdoor space for them? Or perhaps you fancy growing your own herbs and salads for summer barbecues? Or there’s a family wedding coming up and you’d like to grow the bouquets yourself? Whatever the reason, our School is a fantastic place to start on a wonderful lifelong journey.

Beginning on Saturday March 4th, nine monthly Saturday sessions across the year cover a whole calendar of seasonal activities as we garden for food and for fun in this hands-on, practical course, gardening alongside each other and learning as we go. These in-depth sessions (just under 50 hours tuition in all) will give you the confidence to plan and tackle your own growing projects big and small.
And because the School isn’t a ‘crash course’, we see the results of our activities across time, learning what has worked and why, from early spring to autumn in a real life garden.

Fees from the school support The Farmer’s Arms refurbishment and education programmes and we also supply fresh produce from the School to the pub kitchen, and cut flowers too. We also hope to learn about dye plants this coming season, with the aim of running some workshops where we can share that knowledge. The development of growing on the 6 acres of former farmland around the pub is just beginning, so it’s an exciting time to be involved!

The course is hands-on, responding to seasonal changes and challenges as they occur.  There’s a lot of laughter, a few heated debates and quite a lot of cake too.

Included in the School are sessions on how to:

• Design & plant beautiful, wildlife friendly borders
• Create & harvest productive vegetable beds
• Reduce garden maintenance in savvy and achievable ways
• Save your own seed & learn to make more plants for free
• Prune & harvest fruit trees & bushes
• Address common challenges from weeds to slugs
• Share recipes & ideas for using & storing fresh produce to enjoy year-round
• Start composting your household waste
• Grow plants for cut flowers, dyeing & medicinal use
• Identify garden microclimates & plant them to advantage

You’ll learn in a small group of up to 12, and there will be chances in every session to discuss and seek advice on your own gardening questions. At the end of the year, participants will receive a completion certificate  – and we hold a gardening quiz at the pub, the prize being 2 hours of advice in their own garden or a garden of their choice, from Karen the school tutor.

All sessions run on the first Saturday of the month from March until November, 10.30am – 4pm (or 3.30pm if you want to skip our free end-of-session refreshments!). We take a 45 minute lunch break (bring your own or eat in our pub cafe) so friends and family can drop by to say hello during the day, or you can explore or even nap for a bit! 2023 sees an extra early spring session on top of our usual eight – we’ll spend this introductory session partly indoors (you’ll be glad to hear) – kicking off with an illustrated presentation by Karen in the cosy pub dining rooms.

Included in the Fees are:

• 50 hours tuition in 9 sessions
• 20% discount on food & non-alcoholic drinks at The Farmer’s Arms on School days
• Use of large tools & wheelbarrows provided during School
• Free use of Parking & W.C facilities of The Farmer’s Arms
• Occasional spare plants and free seeds
• Exclusive monthly email newsletter from Karen between sessions, reminding you of seasonal tasks and flagging up interesting gardening bits and bobs
• Access to School WhatsApp group where we share gardening advice, ask questions and show off our plants and pets
• A chance to win 2 hrs personal garden advice from Karen in our end-of-year quiz

About our tutor:
The course is devised and taught by artist / film-maker and our Head Gardener Karen Guthrie. Karen is a lifelong gardener who has led the transformation of nearby Lawson Park from fell-side to productive garden over the last two decades, working there with many volunteers and beginners, and opening for the prestigious National Garden Scheme for several years. At the garden’s relaunch in 2009, former BBC Gardener’s Question Time host Eric Robson called Lawson Park ‘a triumph‘. In 2021 the garden was visited by internationally acclaimed plantsman Piet Oudolf, and in 2023 Karen and the garden will feature on BBC Gardener’s World.

Karen is an experienced teacher and a keen advocate of chemical-free, sustainable, no-dig gardening. She contributed a monthly column to The Northern Garden magazine in the mid-2000’s and edited ‘The New Mechanics Cook Book’ (Grizedale Arts, 2019). She’s a committed plant-based cook and fermentation enthusiast. She also 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 also designs, advises and makes gardens for private clients.

Location:
After two successful years at the beautiful Nibthwaite Grange Farm, The Farmer’s Arms Gardening School is moving to The Farmer’s Arms pub for 2023. A number of small gardens around the pub provide ample space and varied plants and environments in which to learn, and on The Farmer’s Field (by the car park) we will begin a brand new no-dig vegetable, dye and cut flower garden for 2023 on a large scale.
Participants will be welcome to take advantage of the pub’s facilities and to spend time in our cafe, bar and gardens before and after the School sessions.
Each session includes refreshments (baking & a drink) served from the cafe at 3.30pm.

If you have any further questions about the 2023 School, please contact karen ‘at’ grizedale.org.