A GREAT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM MOMENT...

A great PCF moment - me handing over my farm keys to Mark. Brilliant that Mark, Charlotte and Gary are keeping everything going so capably and developing new ideas. 

Now I'm rapidly approaching my very late teens, I've decided to back off from the everyday work at the farm so as to focus more on building up my range of courses, "ALL THINGS SUSTAINABLE". I'm still running gardening and fruit tree/woodland courses at PCF but have been developing woodwork and tiny house courses (and much more) with great friend Kate Everett at Inverqueich Farm.

BASIC WOODWORK COURSES

The first two courses in basic woodwork I run cover everything you need to know for making simple everyday things for the home and garden, stools, raised beds, trestles, picture frames - all with hand tools. With plenty of practice, you can even use the same tools and experience to make seriously useful stuff - such as the extra sheltered space we've made at the farm. I'm very proud to say that a couple of the people helping me on this project had no previous experience at all... 

NEXT WOODWORK COURSE DATES ON EVENTBRITE HERE

Here's a few photos from recent basic woodwork courses:

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS - 7th May 2023

TEN THOUSAND CARROTS

On this course Charlotte and I tried to pack in as much information and as many techniques, with hands-on practice, as we possibly could. We covered seed sowing and propagating plants from root and stem cuttings, compost making and management, planting tatties and onions, different kinds of fruit and veg beds and managing them, and a bit about forest garden, orchard and woodland management. Perth Community Farm is a brilliant place for doing all this as we have such a wide range of stuff set up for people to see in action, rather than just reading about it. We always planned that teaching would be our main function - I reckon teaching 100 people to grow carrots is better than just growing a hundred carrots yourself. If a hundred people grow a hundred carrots you get ten thousand carrots...

NEXT DATE FOR THIS COURSE - SUNDAY 4th JUNE

NEW SPACE AT THE FARM

 

It's taken me and a team of trusty volunteers a little while but we at last have the roof up on our new outdoor/indoor space, currently known as the "GazeeBarn" until we can come up with a better name.

!? RATIONING !?

 

Pipe smoking optional... 

Learn how to grow your own on our Gardening For Beginners course: GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS - EASY FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND MORE Tickets, Sun 7 May 2023 at 10:30 | Eventbrite

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.