PERMACULTURE GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS, with ADRIAN ROCHE

This four-part practical permaculture gardening course is arranged to help you gain the fundamental knowledge and skills to approach your space in a way that works with nature, for your garden, and for you.

Adrian Roche, our Kelmarna Gardens Community & Site Manager and life-long gardener, will walk you through the basic methods and practices to give you a sturdy foundation for gardening effectively in your space.

Part 3 - GARDEN MAINTENANCE & WEED MANAGEMENT

Sunday 20 June - 9am to 12pm (3 hours)

This third part will focus on the fundamental considerations, systems, and methods for maintaining the health of the garden and controlling unwanted or non-beneficial elements.

Adrian will begin with a guided wander of the garden to take a closer look at the state of things and practice 'diagnosing' different plots to help understand what's going on and what needs to be done.

You will have a chance to share your weed samples from your garden to learn more about them, how they might impact your garden, and what you can do about it. This will kick off your activities around identifying and managing weeds, discussing basic tools and methods from hand-pulling to dense planting, and learning about different impacts of basic annual weeds and systems for controlling more tenacious pest plants.

Finally, your group will again revisit the three fundamental process that you started in Part 1 (your planted seedlings, sown seeds, and compost pile) to reflect on their progress, check for any changes, and troubleshoot any issues that you might notice have arisen.

There is no homework before the next and final session (Part 4 - Harvesting, Seed Saving & Food Forest Basics), but of course you can bring all of your questions about harvesting your crops, saving your own seeds, and fostering a thriving food forest.

Adrian has been gardening for 27 years, the bulk of which has been at Kelmarna Gardens as lead gardener, site manager, mentor, and general face of the gardens for much of our community. He is driven by a desire to help build a sustainable future for our humanity, which leads him to focus on food production and the role of gardening for connecting people and building community. His philosophical touchstone is permaculture, which feeds his desire to understand the natural world in order to work with, benefit from and coexist within it.