Course: Forest Gardening Course (Level 2 Award)

Learn all the skills you need to design, create and manage a forest garden through our seven month accredited online course, featuring the videos of Martin Crawford, author of several books on forest gardening and director of the Agroforestry Research Trust.

You will learn from videos, handouts, interactive quizzes and online assessments plus regular group tutorials, leading you to qualify for a Level 2 Award in Forest Gardening. This course is accredited by the Crossfields Institute. 

Some of our students have moved onto careers in horticulture or food-growing or are now working for organisations in the environmental sector (including The Orchard Project!). They have also enjoyed meeting other like-minded growers and enjoyed becoming part of our informal network.

“I loved the course. I just remembering thinking, I think I want to do this forever!”

"Very informative, learning with kind and patient tutors and alongside interesting students. Would highly recommend to others."

Course structure

This course will teach you everything you need to know about designing, planting and maintaining a forest garden, including: Forest garden characteristics; windbreaks and shelter; managing different soils; maintaining fertility; the role of mycorrhizal fungi; carrying out a site survey; useful trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants; designing the different layers of a forest garden; maintaining a forest garden; propagating plants; and edible fungi.

You will be assessed via quizzes and written homework. 

Workload

Course work includes 13 pieces of homework and 11 assessed quizzes. Homework will be set fortnightly, and you will need to allow about 8 hours a fortnight to watch the videos, take the quizzes and do the homework. Please note it’s similar to doing a GCSE level but we can be flexible; if the accreditation is not for you, you can attend without being assessed for the Level 2 Award.

Logistics

To support the online materials our Training Co-ordinator, Sarah Mason, is hosting seven monthly, interactive online tutorials. These highly recommended Zoom tutorials are 19.00 – 21.00, 

Tutorial dates

• Tue 6th May - Course intro
• Tue 3rd June – Soil - Lewis McNeill
• Mon 7th July – Survey – Witchhazel Wildwood
• Mon 11th August – Plant choice - Alan Carter
• Mon 1st September – Plant choice - Pippa Chapman
• Mon 22nd September - Design – Jo Homan
• Mon 13th October - Design Q&A - Jo Homan
• Mon 17th November – TBC

Cost

• £800 (general x 20) – (full course & accreditation)
• £570 (concessionary* x 5) – full course & accreditation (payment by instalments available)
• £570 (unaccredited x 2) – full course without accreditation (payment by instalments available)
• £420 (materials only) - access to online materials only, no tutorial access.

*Concessionary Places: For those who are unemployed, economically inactive or on low income (below £20,000 p.a.).

Pay-by-instalments: If you wish to pay-by-instalments please contact [email protected] prior to booking this ticket to gain the access code. The full cost of the course is £800, you need to pay an initial deposit of £160 then set up a monthly standing order for £128 starting on 1st May and ending on 1st September (£128 x 5). For concessionary and unaccredited tickets, you will pay an initial £160 deposit and then £82 per month for 5 months (£82 x 5).

Please contact Sarah Mason if you have any other queries.