Basic Woodwork first level - 19 Feb 23

This course has been really popular, it gives complete beginners a chance to try cordless drills, handsaws and other basic woodworking tools and gain that vital confidence to start making and repairing stuff themselves.

I've been teaching it for a few years now and have found the best way is to split up tasks, like sawing accurately, into little chunks, demonstrate each bit then give plenty of time for practice. I set up various different simple practice pieces for that.

FRUIT TREE PRUNING 2023

We put on two fruit tree pruning courses this year which both sold out. It's really encouraging that interest in all aspects of sustainable living is picking up so strongly.

We held one course at Perth Community Farm and one in a large well-established garden belonging to a lovely couple I met through one of our earlier gardening courses. The basic principles of pruning and tree care in general are reasonably simple, it's more a question (like so many things) of practice, practice, practice - and everyone got plenty of that on these two days... more detail about pruning on my post from last year here.

ALL THINGS SUSTAINABLE - Woodworking and more...

We had a great response from the courses we put on at the farm last year, people find them really informative and we have lots of fun too, so I'm building on that for this year with repeats of the popular events and some brand new ones too. 

Lots of clamps... a brand new level two woodwork course, whole weekend for repairing, reclaiming, repurposing and getting creative

I'm putting everything in a collection here on EVENTBRITE. 

NEW COURSE: POLYTUNNELS FOR GARDENING... AND MORE...

 If you're wondering about whether it's a good idea to get a polytunnel and what's involved in setting one up and managing it this is the course for you...

POLYTUNNELS - GARDENING AND MORE Tickets, Sun 15 Jan 2023 at 11:00 | Eventbrite 

VENUE: Perth Community Farm

Lots of things, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines etc etc like plenty of heat. With a bit of planning you can have stuff growing all year round - not bad for Scotland...

WHAT DOES THE COURSE COVER?

!! NEW COURSE DATES - WOODWORK AND GARDENING - NOV 22 TO FEB 23 !!

I have been having a lot of fun running our ALL THINGS SUSTAINABLE COURSES and have had a brilliant response from participants. It feels really good to me personally to be doing something positive in these crazy times... 

I've just put a group of courses up on Eventbrite:
Whole Collection Here

BASIC WOODWORK - PART ONE
the one for complete beginners - women and men welcome, over18's - all hand tools

TWO DATES: SUNDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 22 and SUNDAY 4TH DECEMBER

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

easy fruit and veg growing - everything you need to know to get started

SUNDAY 27TH NOVEMBER

FRUIT TREE PRUNING

TWO DATES: SUNDAY 29TH JANUARY 23 and SUNDAY 5TH FEBRUARY 23

!! NEW COURSE - POLYTUNNELS !!

Finally, one of our gardening students asked if we could do a course on setting up and managing polytunnels and here it is:

BRAND NEW COURSE - POLYTUNNELS FOR GARDENING AND MORE

SUNDAY 15TH JANUARY 23

Here's a few photos from this year's and last year's courses,

See you soon, Ian

Gardening for Beginners

Our first Gardening for Beginners course at Perth Community Farm went really well - our gardeners are clutching seeds they've planted and vines and herbs they've propagated. The farm is a brilliant venue for this as we have loads of different plants and ways of growing them for people to see. One of our gardeners is going to be setting up a community farm/garden themselves - excellent how know-how and experience can ripple out.
And great to be doing something that feels really POSITIVE amidst all the doom, gloom and general bonkersness...

We were very lucky to have help and support from Yvonne Bell from the Perth and Kinross Waste Management Team on this course (and on our compost making courses).

Apart from sharing the presentation, Yvonne brought some very useful handouts with her, here's some of the basic guides to growing stuff: the "Growing Food from Seed" series

INTRODUCING THE PLASTIC MAC...

I've been working on a design for a chair made from local and re-used materials for ages... here at last is the MK3 version.

The Plastic Mac in all it's glory - spot the slight Charles Rennie influence

It's made from willow poles from the farm, a reclaimed pallet that happened to be made from some sort of tropical hardwood, some reclaimed ash, also a plastic sheet from recycled bottle tops (thank you Craig Smith of St John's School tech department) and reclaimed bike inner tubes (thank you Mark Woods of the Bike Station).