Announcing several face to face introductions to forest gardening in the UK and online, plus a full design course for community forest gardens

Following on from the hugely popular series of courses last year, we would like to offer these courses again.

This is made up of 2 parts, Introduction and Full design course

INTRODUCTION (part 1):How to design a forest garden

This year I have 3 face to face introduction courses, plus one online course. You must attend one of these or have done a 2 day face to face introduction or a 3 or 4 day online introduction before (the single half day or a 2 hour introduction talks are not enough) to do part 2 (the full step by step design course).

Online: 14th, 21st & 28th Sept facebook.com/events/356911862498987
Manchester: 18th & 19th Sept facebook.com/events/800484403985296
Bedfordshire: 25th & 26th Sept facebook.com/events/570128251012214/
South London: 2nd & 9th Oct facebook.com/events/1011132102955786

FULL DESIGN COURSE (part 2):An easy step by step guide to designing your own forest garden
Weekly from Tue 5th October to Tue 23rd November 6pm to 10pm UK time (8 sessions). Mainly for designing community forest gardens, but also open to individuals who want to design their own space.

https://www.facebook.com/events/151962167032258

WHAT IS FOREST GARDENING

Imagine your garden or community space looking as lovely as a woodland edge. Imagine that on top of looking wonderfully wild, it produces an abundance of nutrient dense food and will ultimately need very little digging, weeding, manual watering or pest control - all in harmony with animals and other beings (eco friendly and vegan). This is ‘an edible forest garden’.

Forest gardening is a way of growing food where nature does most of the work for you. Modelled on natural woodland, crops are grown in different layers from high and medium sized canopy to roots, ground cover and climbers. And its not just food and medicine you will get from the forest garden, there are many more yields.

Through careful planning plants are chosen which have beneficial effects on each other, attract beneficial insects and create a healthy biodiverse rich system that maintains its own fertility. Once established, your main task will be harvesting!

WHAT TO EXPECT ON THE INTRO & FULL COURSE

This workshop is in 2 parts

PART 1: Gives you the tools you need to design your own forest garden (see above for options).

PART 2: Gives you an opportunity to design your own place with the help of others. You will also learn how to implement your designs.

RECORDINGS

All sessions will be recorded, so if you miss a day it will be easy to catch up

WHAT TO EXPECT - FOREST GARDEN DESIGN PART 2

------ A step by step guide to designing your own forest garden ------

This is mainly for people who want to make a real forest garden design (their own or help someone else). This course is well suited for people working together to design a community forest garden. You must have done Part 1 to do this part 2

During this part you will
- Make maps and gather the right information to make a design
- Identify your and/or your communities needs and needs of the land
- Learn how to implement your designs (where to start)
- Make a succession plan (how the forest garden grows and matures by itself)
- Design how you get yield from year one
- Think about any maintenance
- Think about how you harvest your yields
- Water management
- Tree and plant guilds
- We will also discuss how to work well with other people in a community project

LEAD FACILITATOR

The course will be led by Rakesh “Rootsman Rak” - experienced Permaculture designer, teacher and Forest Garden specialist, yoga teacher and homeopath. He has been growing food since he was a child, and has been designing and teaching edible landscaping, permaculture, forest gardening, etc since 2009. Rakesh has designed and implemented forest gardens from small-scale private gardens and schools, to farms, community gardens, communal nature gardens, as well as designing a forest garden on part of a 30-hectare ecovillage in Croatia.

TESTIMONIALS FROM FOREST GARDENING COURSE 2020
Absolutely inspirational! Rakesh's unique way of teaching enabled us to develop our knowledge and skills whatever our starting point. I can't wait to put it all into practice now! (Sally)

The most interactive and engaging workshop I’ve ever been on. Rakesh is an absolute inspiration and I always feel motivated to get out in my garden and create something new towards my future forest garden. Thank you thank you so much  (Rak)

When I first heard of the idea of a Forest Garden I was excited by the concept and Rakesh's inspirational teaching enhanced my enthusiasm. I knew very little about plants and growing things before the course: I thought it was something boring old people did. But I now see it as as an exciting way to help bring people together and combat the earth-destroying practices that have come to dominate our lives (Anthony)

Rakesh is a great teacher quite patient with us dullards, has a mastery of the technology currently needed for online training and of course knows his stuff with regards to Forest Garden Design. (Chris)

I acquired a really thorough understanding of the principles of a forest food garden and now feel well equipped to make a design and put it into practice. And it was fun! (Anke)

If You want to be the part of this necessary change we all need to see in the world - just study FG. You will feel reconnected to the Earth, to plants, and to other people. (Dorota)

This is a really good course and I would recommend it to those interested in Forest Gardens. Rakesh gently manages the group and enthusiastically shares his knowledge and skills. (Ruth)

More testimonials of Rakesh's courses can be found here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AaNC_tGBvG7AdwQXAT07PPf5HXhIAsy1w18rNt6WN9A/edit#gid=0

COURSE COSTS

We want this course to be accessible to all and are therefore working in a conscious contribution system, inviting you to pay what you can afford towards meeting the needs of the facilitator(s). We therefore invite those who can pay more to help those who cannot afford as much.

Please contact us if you have any questions about this.

See separate course listing for suggested contributions for the specific introduction sessions

Suggested contributions for the intro courses
Between £50 to £200

Suggested contributions for the 8 day design course
Between £150 to £400

If you cannot afford this then PLEASE get in touch and we will work something out that is mutually beneficial.

REGISTRATION FOR THE 8 DAY FULL COURSE

To register for this course, please click on the ticket section below and fill in the form (make sure you hit the submit button, after which you will get an email confirmation). If you do not get an email confirmation, have any difficulty filling it in or have any questions please feel free to contact Rakesh

https://forms.gle/NPhTviX2n9Y7L37S8

REGISTRATION FOR THE INTRO COURSES

Online: 14th, 21st & 28th Sept https://forms.gle/e4SPFB1aMiymhjBm6

Manchester: 18th & 19th Sept https://forms.gle/4kkoK9BCDFUEjoFw7

Bedfordshire: 25th & 26th Sept 

https://forms.gle/vBuscyN4vrrWcYs39

South London: 2nd & 9th Oct 

https://forms.gle/evbkYhyApgJ42MJ5A