Courses: Gardening
Vegetable Gardening for Beginners
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Don’t miss this unique chance to learn from a specialist gardener in the stunning surroundings of Georgian manor house, Tresillian House, near Newquay in Cornwall.
The day-long, fully catered workshop will enable you to learn directly from John Harris, head gardener at Tresillian House, widely known as one of Britain’s leading moon gardening experts. John Harris and the walled garden featured recently on Alan’s Garden Secrets on BBC2.
The workshop takes place in Tresillian’s large walled garden, considered one of the finest in the country, where John has practised his specialist organic and moon gardening techniques for more than 20 years to produce better, cheaper and less labour-intensive crops.
John will take you through every stage of the gardening cycle, including help with deciding what to grow, when and where. There will be a mixture of theory sessions held indoors and practical sessions outside. John will cover the basics of soil management, propogation, sowing, planting and pruning as well as watering, feeding and pest control. He will also cover how to prepare the garden for winter. You will see how different fruits, vegetables and herbs are planted and get advice on what and how to grow to achieve the most productive, long-season crops.
Whether your gardening space is large or small, this course will give you the confidence and tools you need to make the most of your cultivation. We hope you’ll be ‘moonstruck’ but most of all we hope that John’s enthusiasm and expertise will inspire you to grow your own.
The workshop runs from 9.30 am to 4 pm. There will be breaks for tea and coffee as well as lunch prepared with produce from the gardens.
How to Book
All workshops are priced at £65 with a discount for two or more places/workshops booked (£120 for two and £165 for three). Each workshop includes:
Please send a cheque in advance for the total amount to secure a place on each course.
Parking is available at Tresillian House.
For enquiries, contact us by phone on 077485 92225 or click here to email us.
What our Students Say
This is a selection of comments from our anonymous feedback forms from the Summer 2010 Vegetable Gardening for Beginners workshop:
“I really enjoyed the day. It was an excellent venue in a beautiful setting and I was particularly interested to hear the history of how the garden, woodland and walled garden all evolved. Most important was John’s passion and excellent knowledge”.
“The whole day was fabulous. There was a great atmosphere and it was good to work in a small group in such a wonderful location”.
“The practical sessions and going to the walled garden were the best aspects of a brilliant day”.
Pam Corbin
Some Twenty years ago Pam and her husband bought a small jam making business called Thursday Cottage. Relocating the business to East Devon, they spent many years making a profusion of different award winning preserves. Having hung up her professional wooden spoon Pam, now teaches at River Cottage. In 2008 her first book Preserves was published as part of the River Cottage handbook series.
Liz Neville
Liz Neville started preserve making professionally some 10 years ago. Her company, Parrett Preserves, was formed when Farmers Markets began and there were a shortage of producers. More recently, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, founder of River Cottage, approachd her to produce "own label" products and during the past 3 years Liz has been co-presenting preserving courses at River Cottage together with Pam Corbin. You can meet Liz at local Farmers Markets or at farm shops where she does 'meet the producer days'. She still personally makes all the preserves at home either using their own organically grown fruit and veg. or locally sourced when necessary.
John Harris
John Harris is the Head Gardener of the Tresillian Estate which includes one of the last remaining working Victorian walled kitchen garden in the South West. He gardens in accordance with the phases of the moon, organic principles and the ancient principles of compatible planting. John is an author, speaker and broadcaster. He has written R J Harris’s Moon Gardening, now in its second edition and is a national horticultural speaker, garden consultant and designer. He appears regularly on Radio Cornwall and Radio Devon’s Sunday morning gardening phone-in programmes as well as on Radio 4 and other local radio stations. He has worked on BBC TV and ITV gardening programmes. John and the walled garden have been written about in a number of books, national and international media and other publications and he has also advised on historic horticulture for films. He is chairman of the Quintrell Downs Gardening Club, Chairman of Newquay Championship Show and Horticultural Adviser for the Cornish Women’s Institute. He is a silver medal winner at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. For further information see the website at www.coloradomoongarden.net