Nervous about what to do in your garden? New to gardening? Not sure about pruning?
I am offering a range of options, including
- Private Tuition
- How To Be A Gardener - read all about it!
- How To Be A Gardener Advanced: spend a day with me!
- Botany Workshops
Private Tuition:
Are you new to gardening? Just moved house, and don't have a clue as to which shrub is which, or how to deal with them?Book yourself a Garden Tuition afternoon, and I will spend three hours with you in your garden, helping you to learn about your plants, and how to deal with them.
Based in and around Wantage, for individuals and for small groups - real, hands-on, dirty fingernails gardening. This can be on a one-to-one basis for individual help: or for small groups of up to four persons.
Tuition sessions are normally a 3-hour afternoon, from 1pm to 4pm, and will include whatever level of instruction you require - from complete beginners, to those who know the basics but perhaps need a little encouragement or confidence to deal with topiary, roses, etc.
If you have recently taken an interest in gardening, but really don’t know which are the weeds, or how to tackle the roses, this is a good way to learn, at your own pace, in your own garden.
A beginners’ session can start with the absolute basics of real gardening: the best tools to use; how to weed; how - and when - to hoe, how to tackle shrubs and climbers, how to prune those roses; and will cover when and why, as well as how. Learn about compost, mulching, propagation, and have the opportunity to ask as many questions as you wish. I can’t guarantee that I will know all the answers, but I will certainly try!
Some of the many subjects which can be included are:
- Introduction to your garden: weeding, plant identification, books and tools.
- Planting out: soil preparation, choosing good plants, giving them a good start.
- Topiary: maintenance, changing shapes, starting out.
- Plants for free: teaching you about splitting and division.
- Plants for free II: propagating from cuttings, and growing from seed.
- Pruning: roses, shrubs, climbers: where to start, and where to stop!
- Garden Design: how to focus your ideas.
- Vegetables: where to start!
- Retrieving a mature garden that has gone back to the wild.
- Organic gardening: pros and cons.
| Who is it for? | Complete beginners, or people with a little experience: people who haven’t gardened for while and think they have forgotten how to: or people who are just a little unsure how to tackle specific problems. |
| What does it cost? | £180 for a 3-hour afternoon. |
| What do I need to provide? | Just the location, and whatever tools you already have. |
| But my garden is small with not much in it: I want to learn about things I don't already have, can we do that? | Yes: I can arrange access to an established garden, where you can learn about a wide range of garden features. |
| Can I choose what subjects you will cover? | Of course you can. Just assemble a list of what topics you would like to talk or learn about. |
| Are you terribly efficient and full of latin words? | Well, yes I am terribly efficient, but I won’t rush you, we will go at your pace. I won’t force you to learn any latin, although I might possibly tell you why it's a good idea to learn just a little bit... |
| Can I have my friend along as well? | Of course. The rate is the same for one of you, or for two or three: not too many otherwise it's hard for everyone to hear me. |
| How far will you travel? | I am based in Wantage, so anywhere in and around that area. |
| How do I book you? | E-mail me at Inquiries@rachel-the-gardener.co.uk. Tell me where you are, what sort of things you would like covered, whether it’s just you, or a small group, and I will get back to you with a suggested date. |
What others have said:
How To Be A Gardener
Thinking of turning professional? If you have always wanted to be your own boss and to work as a gardener, I have written a book that is just for you!
It is available as an eBook from Amazon, so you can download it to your Kindle, Fire, or any tablet with a reader: or you can just view it on your own pc, by downloading the free "app" that Amazon kindly supply.
The book itself is also free to download if you belong to Kindle Unlimited, or Amazon Prime. Otherwise, I'm afraid you will have to buy it, but it's well worth the money (said she, modestly).
To download it for free or to buy it, go to Amazon and follow the instructions.
How To Be A Gardener - Advanced!
Once you have read the book, if you thinking about starting up as a gardener, but are not quite sure if you have the knowledge, or the confidence, I can offer you the chance to work alongside me, for a day, to see if you would like it, and to see how it is done.
The day is in two halves: one 4-hour morning of Work Experience, where you come along to one of my regular gardens with me, to observe how I interact with a real Client, in a real garden: then one 3-hour afternoon of private tuition.
This is the same cost as private tuition, £180 for the three-hour afternoon session: you get the morning ride-along for free - and no, you can't have just the morning, without the afternoon! - and the day will cover not just working with plants - identifying, pruning and managing them - but will also cover many aspects of working for yourself. A chance to ask as many questions as you like, while gaining practical experience.
To discuss booking a Work Experience day, email me at Inquiries@rachel-the-gardener.co.uk.
Botany Workshops
Botany is an underfunded subject at present, so I also run courses on plant and tree identification, and the use of dichotomous keys.
For the past several years, I have run these courses for organisations such as the Field Studies Council, for private companies, for Ecology-based charities, and for private individuals.
It's very important to get young people interested in plants, so I would also hope to extend a welcome to local schools and colleges..
To email me: click on View My Complete Profile and use the link there,
or email direct to Inquiries@rachel-the-gardener.co.uk. Thank you!
