Winter Fruit Pruning workshop

Join us for a workshop on Winter Fruit Pruning here at Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden.

Complete beginners through to keen amateurs all welcome.

In this all-day workshop you will learn the basics of winter fruit pruning to encourage the health, vigour and cropping of your fruit trees and bushes. You will also be challenged to think about whether pruning is required at all. This will be achieved through learning some useful theory alongside some fun, practical work to embed your learning during the day. This will be followed up with some useful resources to help you utilise your developed skills at home.

During the workshop you will learn about and practice on both trained and free-formed young and mature apple and pear trees along with a range of fruit bushes such as gooseberry, blackcurrant, both young and old. You will also be instructed on tool use and care.

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

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

Please dress appropriately for the weather on the day with sturdy shoes or boots that you don’t mind getting muddy and be prepared to get your hands dirty. Fruit pruning is cold, stationary work so wear your thermals and a warm hat if it’s forecast for cold.

Please bring your own gloves and secateurs if you have them. Let us know in advance if you do not have both and we will ensure to have them available for you.

Please also bear in mind that this is a working production site and not a clinical classroom setting.

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 or the dedicated signposted parking, if the weather permits. More travel information here: https://www.asthallmanor.com/plan-your-visit/

Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden is part of Asthall Wild CIC, 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 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 Fiona Pleydell, an RHS Level 2 qualified gardener. Fiona has been growing with the Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden team for more than 2 years and has 8 years’ experience working in gardens in Oxfordshire. She is currently studying for own certificate in Community Orcharding.