Join us for this 4-day intensive with Richard Perkins, who has grown one of Europes most profitable intensive Market Gardens using no-dig techniques.
Richard will lead you through 4 intensive days covering everything you need to know to market garden successfully; blending the best planning techniques and tools with the best soil care methods, we’ll look at planting to harvesting techniques, prepping beds to preparing new land, as well as all the tools, planning and infrastructure needed to get started efficiently and productively.
This course has provided hundreds of past students with enough insight and data to go and start successful businesses.
Our schedule will be full and packed, as well as leaving you with a huge amount of digital resources to take home that cover all aspects of planning and managing a market garden, as well as all other aspects of regenerative agriculture.
Topics Covered
- Bed formation and preparation
- Planning the farm layout
- Overview of farm operations
- The right tools for the job
- Choosing what crops to grow
- Working smart
- Soil, Composts and Nutrition
- Soil microscopy
- Making different composts
- Microgreens
- Nursery production
- Greenhouse production
- Planning a Market Garden
- Rotations and planting plans
- Succession cropping
- Monitoring the plan
- Washing/ Packing/ Storing produce
- Marketing and selling your produce
- CSA’s/ Markets/ Restaurants/ Buying clubs
- Reflections and next steps
WHAT MAKES OUR TRAINING UNIQUE?
Besides Richards' broad and intensive experience working as a professional grower, designer and educator in this field for 20 years, Richard has demonstrated and documented how to make a good living from a small diverse farm. Whilst there are many trainings of this nature out there around the world, there are very few professional educators with such rounded experience who actually make a living from production. Richard is focused on the transmission of field-based knowledge and insight, not the sharing of ideas and concepts. He is dedicated to supporting others into farming and producing for themselves in a way that restores soils and habitats, community and local economy. His experience shows that it is clearly the 'back end', the decision-making and planning, the economics and monitoring that makes it all work.
Henbant runs a beautiful, small No-Dig Market Garden following Richards methods, we feed 80 families a week plus a few cafes and restaurants. It's a very productive, efficient space, yet its not perfect and we are still on a journey. You can learn from Richards ideal methods as well as Henbant's mistakes and successes.
This training being at Henbant Permaculture introduces elements of really meeting all the needs of a modern regenerative farm, making a profit, building soil, building biodiversity, building social capitol and enjoying it all at the same time.
Aim to be at the farm on Tuesday 11th of April, please arrive after 2 and before 6pm if you want dinner with the group. The course will start at 9am on the Wednesday morning. The course will end on Friday evening but many people will stay and we will provide breakfast on Sunday Morning. Camping at the farm and great food is included. We have some glamping available there are also several B&B's in the area. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided for the duration of the training and all food will be from the farm or from mainly organic sources.
If traveling from over seas we recommend flying into Manchester airport, then taking the train to Bangor and some one from the farm will collect you from Bangor, please advise us in advance if you will require collection. Our nearest easy place to get to by public transport is Penygroes, we can pick you up from there.
The course is very intensive, and we would suggest your better off being here by yourself, but there would be space at Henbant for your partner or family to camp here as well.
Training Cost: £849 (includes very good food and camping in your own tent).
It's a £100 non-refundable deposit initially to book your place and then it is OK to pay in instalments, however suits you best, full payment must be made one month before the course.