Goethean Plant Study Day

There’s now a greater understanding of the importance and benefit for people to re-connect to nature. Goethean plant study can help us to develop a closer relationship to whatever it is in nature that we’re studying. Working as a group can also validate our individual experiences and show us that we are often more observant and perceptive than we give ourselves credit for.

Following the ideas of Goethe, we will look at the plant in the living sequence of it's movement and transformation from a seed through rooting, leafing and flowering to when it bears seeds itself.

Unlike the conventional scientific approach, Geothean science includes (and validates) our human intuitive and emotional responses to whatever it is we’re studying.

Scientific rigour is still an important part of the process, but as the ‘instruments of perception’ we as humans can learn so much more about a plant than just relying on lab tests and chemical analyses.We will participate in detailed observation, sketching and 'sensing', and then use our memory to 're-grow' the plant in our imagination.

In this way, together, we will try to relate to the plant's being and gesture (what the plant is telling us) and finally explore how that may relate to the human being.

We will discover lots of aspects we didn't know before and forge new connections to the plant world!

Agenda for each day:
10.00 Welcome and introduction
10.15 – 11.00 Workshop part 1
11.00 – 11.15 Tea break
11.15 – 12.30 Workshop part 2
12.30 – 1.15 Lunch (bring your own)
1.15 – 2.30 Workshop part 3
2.30 – 2.45 Tea break
2.45 – 4.00 Workshop part 4 and conclusion

Things to bring:

• Your lunch (Hot drinks will be provided)
• A leightweight/folding chair
• A hand-held magnifier (if you have one)
• We will be outdoors at The Field all day, please dress accordingly.

Please note, this event is for 18+, or over 16s if accompanied by an adult.

Directions to the field:

Please us the postcode DE75 7JB until you arrive at Shipley Garden Centre then look for ‘The Field’ road sign which is almost opposite the garden centre. If approaching from Ilkeston ‘The Field’ sign is on your left before you arrive at Shipley Garden Centre after the traffic camera as you come down the hill past the community allotments. If you are travelling from Heanor, the sign is after Shipley Garden Centre on the right, off the A6007. Turn down this small road, and the Weleda garden is on the left after the bungalow.

What3words – takes you to the garden gate///chucked.shunning.minerals

Please share a contact number with us when you complete your order - we will contact you in the event of adverse weather or any changes to parking arrangements. Our parking area can on occasion become waterlogged, in the event of this we ask guests to park nearby at Pit Lane - a few minutes walk from the garden.