Charles Dowding
Wide ranging descriptions based on all I have learnt from thirty years of gardening, with images of my gardens to help explain some interesting and unconventional, yet highly successful methods
What will students gain if they come on one of your courses?The ability to tackle their own gardens with a more productive and less weedy result.
Are there any particular techniques/processes you use in your teaching?Not digging or disturbing the soil as little as possible is key, using sufficient organic matter to enable health in soil and plants is also explained in detail.
What inspires your own work?My desire to sell as much healthy, organic produce from a small and manageable area, and to understand more fully the processes of plant growth.
Where did you gain your training/experience?I have an MA degree in geography from Cambridge University, then all my gardening skills have been honed out of my own experience which has included a wide range of mistakes! Nowadays they are more rare.
What teaching experiance do you have?Many day courses at the farm here which receive favourable reviews, day courses at other farms and lecturing all over the country to colleges and societies.
Have you written any books/had articles published?Organic Gardening the Natural No Dig Way, Green Books 2007, second edition 2010
Salad Leaves For All Seasons, Green Books 2008
How to Grow Winter Vegetables, Green Books 2011
Charles Dowding’s Complete Vegetable Growing Course Book, Frances Lincoln 2012
Many articles too numerous to list inc in The Garden (RHS), National Geographic, The Guardian, Amateur Gardening weekly column, Blackmore Vale Magazine etc.
The Organic Growers Alliance, Soil Association.