Horticulture practical skills level 1

Hi all,

I have just started a horticulture practical skills level 1 city and guilds course through Barnsley college based at Wigfield Farm. This is a part time course taking place between 9am - 1pm on Saturdays and has cost me £100. It will roughly last until the end of June. I have decided to share my experiences each week through a thread on here. I hope that what i do each week appeals to someone and might inspire them to look for a similar course in their area and what to expect.

I feel that i do have a good understanding and can do 90% of the course spec but i have nothing to show for it. Im wanting to go into horticulture as a career and need to start somewhere. With me working 9-5 mon-fri and having a mortgage to pay for, part time is the only way!

The venue itself is a working farm that is also a tourist attraction. Members of the public can pay a couple of quid and take their children around the farm to look at the animals. There is also a pitch and put. One of the barns has been converted into several class rooms. The animal and land based studies are held here. There are two polytunnels, a greenhouse and two brassica cages. The college has just won a grant of 1.5million pounds to renevate the site and build three more polytunnels with the aim of expanding their horticulture side. All the food grown on site is used at the onsite cafe and the cafe in the town centre.

Week one - 08.02.14:

This was mainly a introduction day. This was the first time we met our tutor Jenny. Jenny used to work for Clumber Park in their kitchen garden for a number of years and seems to have a vast knowledge. We went through what we will be studying in greater detail before having a tour around the farm. We then got started straight away in one of the polytunnels. Jenny started us off by talking us through the process of planting seeds in trays and pots. We talked about the different composts, the need to firm down the compost in the tray, siving and different watering methods. We were then let loose and started off several herbs and some tomatoes. This was pretty much all we had time for but i had fun. Before we left we were asked to bring in a sample of our garden soil for testing.

Week two - 15.02.14:

We started off with a recap on the previous week and went into some theory for around an hour. We were then tested for our first assessment. After this we headed out into the polytunnels. There were several modules full of African Daisy cuttings that one of the full time classes had taken. They were now ready to be potted on. We proceeded to pot them all up and threw away any that had failed to take. Next we were to start off some sweet peas. After our break we were back in the tunnels learning about direct sowing into beds. The beds had previously been dug. We talked about how to prepare them, was shown a demonstration and then given a go at raking the surface, removing any large stones in the process. Once the surface was a nice fine texture we set up a guide line. We started to carve out a trench along this line about an inch deep. We planted spring onions and beatroot in several rows labelling them as we went.

Back in the classroom, Jenny pulled out a soil testing kit and we all had a go at testing the soil we were asked to bring in. We went through the PH scale and soil structure chart and talked about what this meant. I personally felt this was a great subject to learn as nearly all the students in the class didnt realise that you cant just plonk a plant in your garden and expect it to flourish like the picture on the tag. The need to know what you own and what you can and cant grow is very important and can save you a lot of heartache and money. This was all we had time for, 4 hours with a 30 minute break certainly goes fast!

 

I'd love to do such a course, but I've never been able to find anything round here.

 

@Craig1987 Great thread and hope you keep it up as it will be valuable resource.

 

I wish you the best of luck with this course Craig. Hopefully it will take you in the direction you want to go. It's a very interesting thread so I hope you continue to post.

 

Sounds good - I'm sure there will be lots of interesting info to share with us. Good luck!

 

Hope you keep it up Craig, if you need any help there are plenty on here who will willingly give it..

 

Good luck with the course

 

sounds fascining craig. keep it up. regards nijinski

 

Great idea Craig to put a weekly column on here . Good luck with the course as well

 

wow did not expect this response, thanks!

week 3 - 22.02.2014

today started off with a quick recap on how we finished last week, soil testing. We discussed the pH scale in a bit more depth. We talked about the different colours and numbers on the chart and some examples of what would fall into these categories eg. lemon juice...We then moved on to the nutrients and trace elements in soils and what they meant to plant growth. This then lead onto the various plant foods available. We discussed how to manipulate the soil by adding things to it to sway the pH.

We made our way to the main polytunnel which we have been in during the previous 2 weeks. The group would be doing a rotation today, half would be setting lines in one of the beds and planting onion sets and the others were to prick out onion seeds and pot them into individual cells. Once we had done both we had a break.

After the break we emptied all of the seedlings into the big greenhouse and then made our way to the second polytunnel. This one is pretty bare inside. The soil is very heavy clay. We had to give it a good rake and again set lines. We were planting parsnips direct into the ground.

Today was a very hectic session. There were trays upon trays of onions that needed pricking out and then moving into the greenhouse. Once in the greenhouse, it resembled something you would expect to see in a commercial set up. There was hardly any room to place anything as the other full times classes had been sowing plenty of stuff. The college grow flowers from seed and then create hanging baskets and planters which they sell outside the cafe to raise money. The polytunnels and greenhouses are very important but fill up really quickly.

 

Great thread Craig i can see it getting more hectic when the growing season really gets going...hope you're enjoying it

 

Fascinating, thanks for taking the time to share and I shall enjoy reading future instalments Good luck with the course and your future career.

I reckon that would be a "drawing a drill" rather than a "carving a trench"

Was this in the greenhouse? (Not come across them being grown indoors before)

 

Hi all, its that time again,

Before i start, Kristen: you are right, the term is definately 'drawing a drill' rather than carving a trench. I blame my yorkshire roots.

The parsnips were sown in the unheated polytunnel direct into the ground.

Week 4 - 01.03.2014

Today as always we started with a bit of theory. We talked briefly about the different parts of the plant and the different stages of seed development. We touched on the needs for the seedlings and how they develop into the main/adult plant. We also talked about how taking cuttings differs from each plant. We were told that we would be going into greater detail on this later on in the course.

As we had a busy day the theory was very short. We headed for the heated polytunnel where we were pricking out and potting on trailing lobelia, crystal palace lobelia and parsley.
We had 3 people missing today so the potting on took longer than the tutor expected.

We also had quick look around the polytunnel. We checked the beds and found that the beetroots we planted in week 2 were mostly up and looking healthy! the onion sets we planted last week were also starting to appear.

After our break in which i enjoyed my regular sausage butty and coffee for £2.17! we headed for the unheated polytunnel. We had to prepare one of the beds for some transplanting of lettuce and collies. We marked out the lines and got transplanting the crops. We had 3 lines of lettuce and 4 lines of collies.

We went back into the heated polytunnel where we talked about growing spuds. We got 4 containers, filled them with a shallow amount of compost and placed the seeds into position and then covered the spuds. We will be earthing these up as the weeks go on.

We had 3 or 4 packets of summer flowering bulbs and some more veg seeds but as we were a few people down we ran out of time. As our tutor says, she would rather we had too much to do than not enough.

Apart from the little jobs (watering the plants/seedlings in the greenhouse, moving plants from here to there), that was pretty much it

4 hours really does fly!!!

 

Interesting. Starting Parsnips (I'm on heavy land) is difficult. Ground is wet, and in most years cold. Parsnips take ages to germinate, and by the time you find they haven't its all too late to sow again ... OTOH they don't transplant either (it makes the roots fork, and they are a nightmare to peel in the kitchen when they look like a glove! I get around that by raising them in "pots" made from rolling a sheet of newspaper round an aerosol can, and then planting the whole thing ...

Obviously sowing them in polytunnel sorts out the wet / cold soil issue (you probably have nice sandy / free draining soil anyway?) but my immediate reaction is that the heat of the polytunnel will be too much for the plant, and it will be more inclined to Bolt as a result. Would be interested to hear what others here (or your tutors) think on that point?

Unless they have decided horticulture is not for them (in which case I would have expected your tutor to have known, before hand, that they have dropped out) I find that pretty unforgivable, unless all 3 are at death's door - mucking up the course for everyone else, and placing an added burden on the tutor helping them to catch up missed lesson(s)