Travel & accomodation list        Printable course booking form         Online course booking form

Agroforestry Research Trust - Courses in 2009

with Martin Crawford

Director of the Agroforestry Research Trust

Venue: Our 2 acre forest garden, adjacent teaching space and trials site in Dartington,  Devon  

Forest Gardening

2009: 23-24 May, 6-7 June, 4-5 July, 15-16 August

The overall aim of this two day course is to give you an overview of how to design, implement and maintain a temperate forest garden.

Forest gardening – course outline

 Basics 

• First principles – natural forests – definition - growth layers
• Why Forest Gardening - benefits
• Succession

 Design 

• Design principles – questions – initial stages – collecting info
• Combining everything
• Design of clearings
• Design of edges – edge features - light (PAR) – types of edge – types of plants
• Design of hedges
• Design of paths
• Design of ground covers – functions – types

 Practicalities 

• Preparation - converting grass to ground cover
• Planting
• Mulches – mulch types
• Seasonal maintenance
• Growing your own plants

 Species 

• Species for clearings
• Species for edges
• Species for hedges
• Tree crops
• Shrub crops
• Climbers
• Perennials
• Perennial leaf crops
• Species for ground covers – paths – clearings - polycultures
• Annuals & biennials
• Root & bulb crops
• Fungi – below ground – above ground
• Plants for difficult sites

Teaching sessions will be interspersed with frequent visits into our 13-year-old established forest garden.

Practical information on tree crops, shrub crops, perennials and ground covers will be complemented with visits to our forest garden to look at our successes and failures, as well as to taste unusual leaf and fruit crops.

The course will run 9.30-5.30 on Saturday & 9.30-4.30 on Sunday.

Course fees - £140 (non-residential) includes lunches (vegetarian) + teas/coffees etc.

Travel & accomodation list               Printable booking form                Online booking form

Home

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Growing Nut Crops

2009: 10-11 October

This weekend course will cover all aspects of growing common and uncommon nut crops in Britain.

Teaching sessions will be interspersed with visits to forest garden and trials site where several nut crops are grown. Several unusual nut crops will also be available to taste.

Common nuts covered are Chestnuts, Hazelnuts and Walnuts.

Less common species include Almonds, Butternuts, Heartnuts, Hickory nuts, Monkey puzzle, Oaks with edible acorns, Pine nuts.

The course will run 9.30-5.00 on Saturday  & 9.30-4.00 on Sunday 

Course fees:  £130 (non-residential) includes lunches (vegetarian) + teas/coffees etc.

Travel & accomodation list               Printable booking form                Online booking form

Home

  ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Preserving and Processing

19-20 September 2009

Learn how to process and preserve fruits, nuts and other garden / forest garden produce.  A practical hands-on course where we’ll be making jams, drying fruit and making fruit leathers, making juice, bottling fruit, making chutneys etc.

This course runs on the Saturday afternoon (2.00-5.00 pm) and Sunday morning (9.30-12.30 am).

Course fee: £100 (non-residential) includes teas/coffees etc. and you get to take away various preserves.

Travel & accomodation list               Printable booking form                Online booking form

Home

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Travel to Totnes

Rail:  Totnes is on the main railway line from London Paddington and Birmingham.

Coach:  National Express coaches from London and elsewhere also stop at Totnes.

Road:  Access is good via the M5/A303 and A38.

Accommodation in and around Totnes

Our courses take place on the Dartington Estate, about a mile out of Totnes; there are footpaths/cycle paths from Totnes all the way to the venue/forest garden.  Totnes itself is an ancient market town on the river Dart with a distinctly ‘green’ feel, having numerous individual shops, cafes and pubs.

A full list of accommodation is available from:

 There are numerous bed and breakfasts, also plenty of Inns in Totnes and the surrounding villages.  The following is a selection of bed and breakfast emporiums: 

Dartington Hall is the hub of the Dartington Estate, owned by the Dartington Hall Trust.  The estate includes farmland, woodland, a school, an arts complex, an arts college, a conference centre, a restaurant, accommodation and more. 

 Camping – Beara Farm is a quiet site near the River Dart about 3 miles from Dartington.   

Home

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tours of research sites

The ART is inviting interested visitors on a tour of our Dartington forest garden site led by Martin Crawford.  A suggested minimum donation of £2 applies.  Numbers are limited to 25 - please email, mail or telephone to reserve places.

The tours are on:

2009:      Sunday 10th May 1.30 p.m. - forest garden

                Sunday 21st June 1.30 p.m. - forest garden

                Saturday 25th July 1.30 p.m. - forest garden (* date changed from printed catalogue)

                Sunday 23rd August 1.30 p.m. - forest garden

                Sunday 27th September 1.30 p.m. - trials site including nut trials

Please see the map below for directions - park at the Craft/Adult Education Centre car park.  

Meet at the car park/ forest garden site to start.  The tour will take about 2 hours. 

No dogs please.

Home