Friday March 8th 2024
Time - 1pm - 5pm
Venue - The Old Rectory Garden and Studio, Wicklow
Tutor - Joanna Sloan
€75 (includes light refreshments and 'A Garden of Life' 2024 calendar)
Who this workshop is for:
- This workshop is for those who are interested in learning how to create a vegetable garden, using the space that's available to you from large open sites to patios and balconies.
- It is for beginner and intermediate gardeners who'd like to delve deeper into soil nutrition, healthy yields and companion planting.
- Those who are interested in cooking and baking with their own garden produce.
- Those who would like to spend time with like-minded horticultural and organic food enthusiasts.
- Those who are interested in learning about sustainable horticultural practices that benefit our wide ecological world.
What we will cover:
- What vegetables to grow and where to grow them; do they require more ground space or vertical space.
- Soil nutrition - peat free composts, mulches, microbial-rich feeds and ferments that aid better yields and benefit the wider ecological health of your kitchen garden.
- What to propagate yourself and how to do it.
- Learning about key sowing and harvesting dates (taking into account dramatic weather events)
- How to conserve moisture and nutrients in your soil during periods of drought and flooding.
- How to create rich pockets of polyculture in your garden where several crops and varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown together.
Where this workshop takes place:
- The workshop will be hosted and taught by Joanna Sloan in her working kitchen garden and studio at The Old Rectory - this ensures lots of practical gardening learning. A PDF in hard copy and digital version will be given to each participant which will comprise learnings from the afternoon.
About Joanna Sloan:
Joanna was a winning gardener on RTE's Ireland's Garden Heroes in 2022. She runs an organic textile print company from her studio at The Old Rectory alongside gardening 5 acres using chemical free and ecological horticultural practices. She is mum to 5 boys and is passionate about cooking with as many fresh ingredients from her garden as is possible (given the demands of modern life!). Her garden is open to the public during the spring and summer by appointment only. Every year she hosts a garden party for a charity in her garden. Friends of the Elderly, Ireland have been her guests for 2 years running and are invited back this May, 2024. 50% of her proceeds from her 2024 calendar 'A Garden of Life' are donated to Friends of the Elderly charity.
Max number of participants on the workshop:
10