Our Grow Your Own programme is a series of nine short courses providing all the basic knowledge required to get growing at home. Our focus is growing vegetables whilst being mindful of nature.

This course will look at methods and techniques for planting out vegetable crops that have been raised under cover or in a seedbed. It provides underpinning theory on crop rotation and different growing systems and techniques.

There is a classroom-based theory section to this course, as well as an outdoor practical where you will be taken through the full process of planting out different vegetable crops.

This course will equip you with the fundamental techniques of planting out in vegetable beds outdoors.

Please note: This course will involve outdoor demonstrations. Please come prepared for working in wet and cold weather. All tools and working gloves will be provided.

This is the first day in a series of three planting out vegetables courses. The second day (on Sunday 10th May 2020) will focus on planting vegetables under cover for the summer and the third (on Saturday 3rd October 2020) will cover extending the season by growing crops for the winter under cover.

The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over. Please bring a packed lunch on the day. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided.

Our Grow Your Own programme is a series of nine short courses providing all the basic knowledge required to get growing at home. Our focus is growing vegetables whilst being mindful of nature.

This course is for those that want to learn how to directly sow seeds outdoors successfully. It covers how to prepare the soil prior to sowing, the right drill for the seed being sown and techniques used for seeds of different vegetables to ensure best success.

There is a classroom-based theory part to this course, as well as an outdoor practical section where you will be taken through the full process of sowing.

This course will equip you with the fundamental techniques of sowing vegetable seeds outdoors.

Please note: This course will involve outdoor demonstrations. Please come prepared for working in wet and cold weather. All tools and working gloves will be provided.

This is the second day in a series of two vegetable sowing courses. The first day (on Sunday 22nd March 2020) will focus on sowing vegetable seed under cover.

The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over. Please bring a packed lunch on the day. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided.

Our Grow Your Own programme is a series of nine short courses providing all the basic knowledge required to get growing at home. Our focus is growing vegetables whilst being mindful of nature.

This course is for those who would like to learn how to sow vegetable seeds to raise young plants in a polytunnel or greenhouse successfully. We will look at the different containers and composts that are available, along with the different propagation environments that can be utilised.

There is a classroom-based theory part to this course, as well as a practical section where you will be taken through the full process of sowing.

This course will equip you with the fundamental techniques of sowing vegetable seeds undercover.

Please note: This course will involve outdoor demonstrations. Please come prepared for working in wet and cold weather. All tools and working gloves will be provided.

This is the first day in a series of two vegetable sowing courses. The second day (on Saturday 4th April 2020) will focus on sowing vegetable seed outdoors.

The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over. Please bring a packed lunch on the day. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided.

Our Grow Your Own programme is a series of nine short courses providing all the basic knowledge required to get growing at home. Our focus is food growing whilst being mindful of nature.

The soil, beneath our feet, is much overlooked when it comes to starting your own food garden. Understanding our soil and feeding it properly is vital to growing healthy plants and harvesting delicious produce.

This course will cover all the essential information about soil and its management. It will explore how to assess a soil to know how to manage it, various ways the soil can be fed and methods of cultivating it.

The first day of the course (on Sunday 23rd February 2020) will be classroom-based theory. The second day will be fully practical, when you’ll be able to test a soil sample from home and carry out some soil cultivation outdoors. This course will equip you with the fundamental techniques of caring for your soil.

Please note: This course will involve outdoor demonstrations. Please come prepared for working in wet and cold weather. All tools and working gloves will be provided.

The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over. Please bring a packed lunch on the day. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided.

Our Grow Your Own programme is a series of nine short courses providing all the basic knowledge required to get growing at home. Our focus is food growing whilst being mindful of nature.

The soil, beneath our feet, is much overlooked when it comes to starting your own food garden. Understanding our soil and feeding it properly is vital to growing healthy plants and harvesting delicious produce.

This course will cover all the essential information about soil and its management. It will explore how to assess a soil to know how to manage it, various ways the soil can be fed and methods of cultivating it.

The first day of the course and will be classroom-based theory. The second day (on Sunday 8th March 2020) will be fully practical, when you’ll be able to test a soil sample from home and carry out some soil cultivation outdoors.

This course will equip you with the fundamental techniques of caring for your soil. Please note: This course will involve outdoor demonstrations. Please come prepared for working in wet and cold weather. All tools and working gloves will be provided.

The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over. Please bring a packed lunch on the day. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided.

Our Grow Your Own programme is a series of nine short courses providing all the basic knowledge required to get growing at home. Our focus is growing vegetables whilst being mindful of nature.

Annual pruning of fruit trees in winter, will ensure that your trees stay healthy, maintain good shape and provide a bumper crop of fruit.

This course will equip you with the fundamental techniques for pruning fruit trees in winter.
Learn why you should prune your fruit trees in the winter
- Pick up tips on what equipment you need
- Discover pruning techniques to help get you started
- Hands on, practical demonstrations
- Suitable for growers of all levels

Fruit trees have got to be the most gratifying plants to have in the garden.
There is nothing more satisfying than picking and eating the homegrown fruit off your own trees – definitely one of the best ways to get your ‘5 a day’! Whether your garden is big or small there is a fruit bearing tree to suit – apples, pears, plums and cherries in all shapes and sizes, potted or planted – a ‘must have’ for the modern garden!

Please note: This course will involve outdoor demonstrations and hands on training in the forest garden area at Denmark Farm. Please come prepared for working in wet and cold weather. All tools and working gloves will be provided.

The course is suitable for anyone aged 16 or over. Please bring a packed lunch on the day. Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided.

Dr. Elaine's^TM Soil Food Web School is dedicated to
empowering people all over the world to regenerate the soils in their communities.

We train people who help farmers to restore natural biological functions to their soils, eliminating the need for chemicals.

Dr. Elaine's ^TM approach has been used on over 5 million acres worldwide to dramatically reduce input costs, increase yields and to sequester soil carbon - this could help to stop climate change!

In this series of four self-paced, online courses, you’ll learn the theory and application methodology behind Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web Approach. This is a comprehensive program comprising over 40 hours of lectures. Learn the most rapid and effective way to regenerate soils, protect the environment and increase profits for farmers.

The scythe has been used in parts of the world since Roman Times. It is still being used in many countries today and is having a revival in Britain.

Join us on a day exploring how to use this fantastic tool.

The day will cover: how to set up the scythe, selecting the right blade for the job, altering the angle of the blade, how to sharpen the blade and, most importantly - how to mow with ease and flow!
Later in the day we will cover how to repair blades and have a go at 'Peening' the blade with the Peening jig.

Austrian scythes will be available to use but if you have your own feel free to bring it along.

Lunch will be vegetarian/vegan from organic produce grown at karuna.
Camping available by arrangement- £6 per night, per person.

Andrea Gilpin has been teaching scything whilst working for a conservation charity for over 10 years. 'In all the community spaces we work in we never use strimmers. We always use scythes - not for nostalgic reasons but purely practical - they produce no pollution, vibration or noise. They are enjoyable and sociable to use and a good scyther can scythe quicker than a strimmer - what more reason do we need to pick up a scythe when a job needs to be done!'

This intensive course is a professionally tailored curriculum for people who really want to know how its all done. You will be taught the keys skills by a pro with 14yrs of timber framing experience. You will not simply be working to finish someone’s project. This 4 day intensive Roundwood Timber Framing & Reciprocal Roundhouse Building Course gives you the chance to learn cutting the scribed (butter-pat) and mortise and tenon joints and we’ll build a full size reciprocal roundhouse roof so that you understand how that wonderful piece of geometry works. We’ll look at all the joints you’ll need for a roundhouse and experiment with reciprocal roofs of different size and pitch, to make sure that you really understand how this intriguing piece of geometry works. There will be time to discuss any technical questions you might have. No previous experience necessary. Camping available.

From small mobile power banks to electric vehicles, we are relying more and more on batteries as a crucial party of our energy system. And with distributed renewable energy becoming more common, there's never been a greater emphasis on the importance of storing electricity.

This half day workshop will take a look at some of the everyday applications for lithium batteries, how they work, what differences there are between different types of lithium cells, what the risks and dangers are, and how the way they are used is changing. We will show how to recover lithium cells from old laptop batteries to build your own power bank, and explain how you might use them in your own DIY energy projects.

You will:

• Learn what energy is - how it works today, and what’s in store for the future
• Understand the electrical basics: current, voltage, resistance, power, series and parallel circuits
• Build your own USB power bank!
• Understand how to recover and test lithium battery cells
• Dig deeper into the energy dilemma - and possible solutions

No prior knowledge required!

For more information on our courses go here.

To book a place go here.

To book with Build Your Own Solar Charger and save £15 go here.

All profits reinvested into our social objectives.
Demand Energy Equality is a not-for-profit dedicated to increasing energy literacy, reducing energy demand and working with others to ensure equality of energy access.