Other Growing Groups and Courses
Gardening course / workshops at Black Isle Brewery market garden, Allangrange
2023 WORKSHOP TIMETABLE AND INFORMATION
Vegetables for All Seasons – Join our Head Gardener Alexander who has over 20 years’ experience of Organic growing as he teaches you all you need to know to produce your own fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs. Learn how to plan your garden to suit your needs, how to care for your crops, right through to the best way to harvest and preserve your produce to provide yourself with the best quality food all year round, all while increasing local biodiversity.
Workshops are 10am – 2.30pm, meet in the lecture room, organic tea, coffee, cake provided, and a basket of fresh produce when available. Please bring weatherproof clothing and a packed lunch if required.
£350 for the whole course. In order to make our courses accessible to as many people as possible we are implementing a sliding scale pricing structure of £35, £45 and £55 for those who wish to pay for individual workshops. We are grateful to those who choose to pay the higher charge to help make this possible.
9 March Planning your vegetable garden
Details and booking
9 February Fruit tree pruning
Details and booking
6 April Seed sowing and Compost making
4 May Pricking out, potting on and planting out
18 May Perfect tomatoes, indoor growing, companion planting
8 June Watering, weeding, pest control
6 July Harvesting, successional sowing, maintaining summer crops
10 August Second season - plan and sow for autumn/winter
7 September Harvest festival - storing and preserving your produce
9 November Laying the ground for next year - no-dig
(dates are all Thursdays)
Details and booking for full course
In addition to the series Alexander is also running:
12 October – Introduction to Biodynamics, working with the rhythms of nature
This year we are also offering workshops by visiting master craftsmen and craftswomen to teach sustainable rural skills.
- 11-12 March Dry-stone dyking with Brian Wilson - £150
Details and booking
- 21 September Seed saving with Finley and Hayley of Seeds of Scotland £TBC
- 19-20 October TBC - Basket making with Tim Palmer - TBC
- 30 November Wreath making with JJ Gladwin - £45
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January 2023
Knocknagael Community Growing Project
We are a community not-for-profit organisation established to take over the "Smiddy Field" - one of the fields at the Scottish Government-owned Knocknagael Farm on Essich Road in the south of Inverness - by an Asset Transfer Request.
The aim of the Knocknagael Community Growing Project is to create, maintain and manage food growing activities, including allotments, for the benefit of the community.
Plans under consideration include a community garden, allotments, a community orchard, food growing areas, and outdoor walking paths. We are in discussions with potential stakeholders including Education and Mental Wellbeing organisations.
With new housing going up all around Inverness, our aim is to create a Green Hub to get more people growing and enjoying local produce, while benefitting from a rural oasis in an increasingly urban landscape. We recently submitted comments to the Highland Council's Inner Moray Firth Development Plan, which is currently under review.
We have joined Community Land Scotland, the Community Woodlands Association, and been awarded a Stage 1 Grant by the Scottish Land Fund.
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November 2022
Highland Wholefoods winter newsletter
Late Opening Thursdays & Sundays
We are extending our opening hours in December to make it even easier for you to stop by. We will be opening late on a Thursday, until 7pm and on a Sunday (10am - 4pm)
Festive Opening and Deliveries
Highland Wholefoods will be open right through to midday on Christmas Eve. We will be taking orders and sending goods out for delivery up until the 23rd December, but to be certain of delivery before Christmas please order before midday on Tuesday 20th.
Highland Wholefoods will be closed from midday on the 24th December until 9am on 4th January 2023.
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July 2022
Old Allangrange and Black Isle Brewery Market Garden
Allangrange garden design office@blackislebeegardendesign.com
Also at Allangrange is the Black Isle Brewery's market garden, which supplies vegetables to the Brewery's bars in Inverness and Fort William and IV10 in Fortrose, and has been transformed to a more sustainable and regenerative model by redesigning the main garden using agroecological design and growing principles.
https://www.blackislebrewery.com/
Brewery Head Gardener Alex Davies writes about the market garden
We grow our organic vegetables and fruit using agroecological, no-dig and permaculture methods to increase biodiversity and support local flora and fauna. A good example of this is how we use the spent grain from the brewery – as well as feeding it to our Hebridean sheep, we combine it with green waste from the garden and wood chippings from local tree surgeons to produce the compost in which we grow all our veg - this ‘closed loop’ system acts in a regenerative way, allowing us to give back more than we take from the land.
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Highland Seedlings / Fearn Free Food Garden
Mairi MacPherson
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'Pocket Orchards' in Wester Ross
Former TBI director John Wood and friends have been planting fruit trees in public spaces around the wester Ross villages since 2018.
Pocket Orchards update 2022 - by John Wood
A ‘pocket orchard’ is a small group of community fruit trees which are accessible, where possible, to local residents with no, or minimum driving. The inspiration came from the community orchard in the garden of Cromarty Courthouse Museum, the wonderful gardens at Inverewe, and noticing some neglected apple trees in an overgrown corner of Poolewe.
. . . .
To find out more or get involved with the project, visit the group’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pocketorchards
Or get in touch with them via email: pocketorchards@gmail.com
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Andrew Lear, Perthshire https://plantsandapples.com/
Dunbar and District Local Good Food Alliance
MOO Food Muir of Ord
Background October 2017
The Scottish Food Coalition
Stirling Online Market
This was originally set up as Stirling Food Hub in 2016 by Forth Environment Link, who in January 2020 transferred the market to The Kitchen at 44, who now run it under the auspices of the national NeighbourFood network.
Transition Town Forres' Community Garden
TTF have a page on their main website about their Community Garden, and the garden also has its own website, mainly intended for garden members and users.
The Seed Co-operative
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Forthcoming Events…
- Saturday 28 January
- 10:00 North Kessock Community Market
- 11:00 Transition Town Forres need help with hedge cutting
- 19:30 CCT - Talk by Shona Maclean on 'The Bookseller of Inverness'
- Monday 30 January
- 08:30 Transition to a zero waste and circular economy in Scotland - online commercial conference
- Tuesday 31 January
- 14:00 Opportunities for large scale reuse in Scotland
- Wednesday 1 February
- 18:00 'Riverwoods' film at UHI
- Saturday 4 February
- 13:00 Black Isle Repair Cafe North Kessock
- 17:30 Transition Town Forres - Imbolc fundraising event
Events to add to calendar? Contact Us.
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