Fruit Routes: Forest Gardening Weekend

Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September, 9.30am - 5pm each day

Tickets are for the two days and attendees are expected to attend both days.

About this event

We are delighted to invite Tomas Remiarz, a renowned authority on Forest Gardening, to Fruit Routes this September for a special two-day workshop introducing the principles and practical applications of Forest Gardening.

The two-day workshop will allow you to plan and design your own forest garden. We will explore how to combine trees, shrubs, and perennial plants and organise planting, harvesting, and maintenance activities. Whether you are a beginner or have already started your garden project, the guidance from Tomas Remiarz, a leading educator and practitioner in the field of Forest gardening, and local community herbalist Gisela Derrick will take your vision to the next level. Fruit Routes artist/co-ordinator Mita Solanky will be supporting the practical aspects of the course, ensuring that everyone has an enjoyable weekend learning with nature in a safe and comfortable environment.

This course is suitable for beginners and experienced gardeners. We will use the Forest Gardening Design Principles and look at a best-practices that you can apply to your own garden scenario.

Forest Gardens have been shown to increase biodiversity, soil health, carbon capture, and food sovereignty and nutrition. The course will demonstrate how a multi-layered method of growing food, can create a beautiful space and provide abundant harvests for both humans and other ecosystem dependents. The course will provide an introduction in how to develop a Forest Garden in any type of green space, whether a greenfield site or existing garden. You may use this design approach for any space you are looking after, be it large or small, urban or rural, commercial or a private garden. Whatever your space, the basic principles of Forest Gardening will be applicable to many environments.

Course outline

We will steer the course content based on the group interests as gathered from the pre-course booking questionnaire that all participants are invited to fill in.

Saturday 13 September, 9:30am-5pm:

Day 1 will focus on the Forest Garden concept, designing and planning your own Forest Garden, and looking at real life case studies.

Sunday 14 September, 9.30am-5pm:

Day 2 will focus on site observation, preparation, selecting plants, planting a food forest, maintenance systems, and succession and learning.

There will be opportunities through each day during break-out sessions for group learning through sharing of experiences.

Where is the course taking place?

The course is being hosted by the Fruit Routes project at Loughborough University, allowing hands-on learning in the Fruit Routes Orchards. This will allow you to learn in an experiential way to illustrate the theory directly. The indoor learning will be based at International House, on Loughborough University's campus, which has all the facilities for a relaxed but focussed learning environment with ready access to a garden and wildlife area.

We aim to create a welcoming and accessible course for all participants, enabling time to explore details, ask questions, and share experiences within the group.

The number of participants is limited in order to maintain a good ratio of teaching time to discussion time.

Who is the course for?

This course is suitable for beginners and experienced gardeners.

This course is for anyone who wants to learn about creating a forest garden - staff, students, professional gardners and members of the local community. You may want to turn your own green space into an edible garden, or be involved in a community or organisation that has green spaces and want to transform them. Keen gardeners will be able to take ideas back to make their gardens more productive and wildlife friendly. Members of the community can learn how to apply forest gardening approaches to their green spaces, to create richer wellbeing places that support a wider range of activities. Those working in organisations that have a role in managing green estates can adopt principles from Forest Gardening design to showcase cultural shifts towards better use of green spaces for biodiversity and sustainability. The course can aid policy makers and land workers seeking to transition to more agroecological land-use systems.

What do I need to bring?

Lunch/snacks; Flask for water/hot-drinks; Notetaking materials; Waterproofs and outdoor shoes for walking in the orchards

How much does the course cost?

The course is a non-profit event as part of the Fruit Routes programme. We want the course to be accessible to anyone that is interested in learning, regardless of their budget, so we have a pay-what-you-can ticket system. Please select the ticket price which is affordable for you:

• £180 - Pay it forward rate so that others can receive support for the costs of their place
• £120 - Standard rate to cover the cost of your place
• £60 - Supported rate to help meet some of the costs of your place

Tickets are non-refundable unless the course is postponed or cancelled.

Facilities

Indoor teaching will take place at International House. The space has level access to a kitchen and toilet facilities.

Refreshments are available throughout the weekend, with kitchen facilities for heating food and access to a fridge for keeping food fresh. Hot water, and tea/coffee making facilities will be available all weekend.

Accessibility

The indoor elements of the course are on the ground floor with step-free access, however the outdoor elements include uneven terrain, slopes and steps which are not accessible to wheelchair users or buggies. If you have any specific access requirements that you would like to discuss in advance of booking, then please contact LU Arts by email: LUArts@lboro.ac.uk.

Getting here

International House is located in the central part of Loughborough University's campus and can be reached by walking or cycling from Loughborough town centre. We encourage wherever possible that you travel here by public or shared transport to reduce the environmental impact of the event. The Sprint bus (operated by Kinchbus) connects the campus with Loughborough town centre and train station and runs regularly. The closest bus stop is the Accommodation Centre (third stop on campus).

Students, staff and visitors are required to register their vehicle and pay to park on campus. Visitors should use the main entrance on Epinal Way. The nearest parking is in Car Park 4 and Car Park 3.

For information on registering and paying to park please visit the parking pages of the University website.

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