Gardening with Wildlife in the Summer – For Families

Some for the Birds, Some for the Bugs and Some for Us

We’re taking our popular Gardening with Wildlife workshop onto a new level this year, by trialling a family-friendly version! 

As usual, complete beginners through to keen amateurs are all welcome, but this time, we’re making it suitable for ages 6 and up. Naturally, we are not inviting unaccompanied children, and everyone under 14 should be accompanied by at least one adult. The course will be delivered by Tim Mitchell, a qualified Level 2 Organic food growing tutor with 10 years of teaching experience while working in community food growing and commercial Organic food production.

A thriving and diverse population of insects and animals, big and small is key to growing healthy, nutritious (aka tasty) food. Healthy wildlife means healthy plants means healthy people. 

In this all-day workshop in our kitchen garden, you will learn the fundamental benefits of gardening with wildlife while growing food for people big and small. Through fun and games, adults and kids alike will develop an understanding of why our wild bird, animal and insect friends are not just either pests or a nice aside to have in the garden but are in fact critical, hard-working colleagues and classmates who play a vital role in the guarding and growing of nutritious food. You’ll learn the different roles that many creatures play and what they need to keep them happy all year round, with an emphasis on the summer months. The day will entail a healthy mix of learning through games, puzzles and investigations. We may also carry out some fun, practical work to apply your learning and to help increase the diversity and vitality of our wild friends. 

Places are limited to 15 in order to maintain a quality experience for those attending the workshop.

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

Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden is currently in the early stages of becoming a social enterprise 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 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.