Kitchen Garden Workshop: A 2-day Journey Through Soil, Soil Life, Compost, Organic Matter and Natural Fertilisers – with additional accommodation offer

Join us here at Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden for a two-day voyage, deep into the living soil beneath our feet, investigating all that lives there and the composts that best feed it for our food-growing needs.

A good understanding of soil health and composts is the foundation to growing healthy, nutritious (aka tasty) food. Healthy soil means healthy plants, means healthy people. 

In this immersive two-day workshop you will study the basics of soil science and the life that supports it. Bringing a sample of your own garden soil (optional), you will learn how to identify its type, characteristics and needs. You will also learn the basics of different composting systems and other sources of healthy organic matter, alongside a bit of helpful theory. 

You will also carry out some fun, practical work to apply your learning and to help keep our living soils happy, here in the kitchen garden.

On rare occasions, our plants need a little helping hand, so you will also learn how to make effective and wildlife-friendly plant-based fertilisers, for free! 

“Feed the soil, not the plant” has gone from being a maxim of Organic food growing to a keystone of all progressive agricultural practice. We now know that soil biology is far healthier and more sustainable than synthetic soil chemistry. And with the rising social, environmental and economic costs of fertilisers and pesticides, we need to befriend soil life more than ever. Feeding the soil begins with good soil management and making great compost! It’s also a great way to make best use of your organic waste materials, recycling valuable nutrients while absorbing carbon and minimising our impact on council waste systems and the environment alike.

The web of soil biology extends from deep in the ground, through your composting systems and into the air, sustaining many creatures who not only keep pests in check but maintain a healthy, balanced soil ecology in a way that no synthetic pesticide or fertiliser could ever match. Good soil management is also a great way to absorb carbon and increase biodiversity. 

Did you know that a quarter of all life on Earth is in the soil?!

We’re all part of the soil community and if we think we’re not, then we’re probably a pest.

Complete beginners through to keen amateurs all welcome.

Places are limited to 10 in order to maintain a quality experience for those attending the workshop.

Tea, coffee and a wholesome lunch of soup, bread and kitchen garden salad will be provided.

Please dress appropriately for the weather with sturdy shoes or boots that don’t mind getting muddy.  And be prepared to get your hands dirty. Please do also bring a pen and note pad.

Please consider using public transport or bicycle to get here and if you’re coming by car, please park in the tree-lined avenue nearby, if there is space. Otherwise, we have limited space in our (often muddy) field. For travel information click here.

Accommodation Offer

In order to make our workshops more accessible for those coming from far afield, we are offering bed and a self-service breakfast in the Manor for the nights before, during and or after the workshop.  If you wish to book a bed, as well as the course, then follow the instructions for Bed and Breakfast ticket too, with one two or three nights selected. Bedrooms will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

Once you’ve booked we’ll then send you details for some of the many local places we’d recommend, so that you can book your evening’s food, drinks and soiree.

Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden is now working under the umbrella of the non-profit Asthall Wild Community Interest Company (Asthall Wild CIC) with the aim of helping to create a healthier, happier food system for all. We grow wildlife-friendly and people-friendly food using Organic methods and Permaculture principles. We grow for a small, local box scheme, for the occasional Potting Shed Café, for chefs and for the Manor kitchen. We do this while providing a mixture of wild habitats such as ponds, log piles, flowering weeds, seed heads and uncut margins for beneficial creatures to feed, hunt, sleep, bask, breed and hibernate in.

The funds raised from this workshop will go towards delivering the aims of Asthall Wild CIC. For more information, see here.

The course will be delivered by Tim Mitchell, a qualified Level 2 Organic food growing tutor with 8 years of teaching experience. He has worked in community food growing and commercial Organic food production for the last 9 years.

Photo: © Tim Mitchell

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