Summer School 2010
5 - 8 July 2010
***** This event has now finished *****
The Garden House Summer School is our popular ‘hands-on’ summer course that takes you behind the scenes at several inspirational gardens and nurseries.
Suitable for all levels of horticultural knowledge and skills, the course will include plant identification, pruning, propagation, general maintenance and care of vegetables, herbaceous and shrub borders.
We will work at the 6-acre Sussex Prairie garden near Henfield –absolutely inspirational if you love late-flowering perennials. Here the large perennial borders have been planted in a free-flowing naturalistic style by owners Paul and Pauline McBride. The garden is sited on a farm and despite this being a relatively new garden, its maturity and connection with the wider landscape is just sublime.
There’ll be day of propogation at Allwoods Nursery, Sussex, where they specialise in pinks and carnations. The present owners, David and Emma James, took over this long-established nursery in 1994. They both come from nursery-owning families and Emma has developed the mail order business selling 250 varieties. “The spicy fragrance of clove-scented pinks wafting through the air on a balmy summer evening must rate as one of the most sensual experiences of the gardening year, so it’s hardly surprising that these sun-loving flowers have adorned Britain’s gardens for centuries.” (Journalist Val Bourne writing in the Telegraph newspaper 29 May).
And we’ll work at the wonderful Hankham Organics in East Sussex. They are a local business growing a large variety of seasonal vegetables and fruit throughout the year, both outdoors and in a large greenhouse, for delivery to homes and businesses throughout Sussex (including two long established worker’s co-operatives, Infinity Foods in Brighton and Trinity Wholefoods in Hastings). www.hankhamorganics.co.uk
Finally, we’ll spend the last day of the course in a local Brighton garden – a practical session learning how to maintain your borders and beds throughout the year – and we’ll enjoy a delicious lunch together at The Garden House, Brighton, provided by us from produce gathered in our garden – a final opportunity to consolidate what has been learnt and exchange ideas.
Cost: £125 – this includes coffee and croissants each day, plus the final day lunch. Transport is under your own steam or in shared cars, meeting each day at a different venue.