After being a course leader and lecturer in Horticulture at Nottingham Trent University for nearly 20 years I am now working on a new venture in Limousin, France. In our plant nursery and garden school we aim to carry on sharing our passion for horticulture and natural crafts.
Specialist subjects include plant science, propagation, plant identification, specialist traditional and modern pruning and maintenance techniques. We also teach greenwood crafts, weaving, stained glass art and other crafts using natural materials.
Discover Garden Design
Learn the principles of garden design on this two day course.
The course covers a brief history of garden design and how this influences modern design principles. You will explore the principles of good design, colour theory and discuss a variety of different styles.
You will then look at how to survey a garden and create a basic scale drawing of your garden. You will go on to add design elements to the plan and learn how to create planting plans.
The course covers all that you need to be able to redesign your own garden and create basic designs and planting plans for friends, family and clients.
The course will run over two full days giving you time to survey your garden and bring along your sketches to the second day.
Both days will include a light lunch. We will supply materials that you need to create your scale drawing for use on the course and can advise on basic equipment required to set yourself up at home.
09.30 – 2.30 on Thursday 26th April and Thursday 3rd May 80€
To book onto the course please use the buy now button below. If you have any questions please use the enquiry form:
Any questions please use the contact form below:
of flowers that promise the start of spring. Some of them like the beautiful witch hazel Hamamelis ‘Diane’ are highly scented and fill he air with spicy perfumes to attract any pollinating insects that might also have woken from hibernation early to make the most of a little winter sunshine. These winter flowering plants provide vital pollen and nectar for the overwintering insects that will be getting low on energy by now.
Another shrub with a powerful fragrance is the winter honeysuckle Lonicera x fragrantissima one of the shrubby honeysuckles that bears pairs of fragrant flowers all along its arching stems from January through till April will be covered in bees on a sunny winters day. Spot the pollen sacks on the bee in the photograph taken 24/01/18
separate male and female floral structures. The male flowers are usually catkins, releasing pollen when they mature. At the moment the hazel trees are in full flower, their make catkins having elongated over the last week or so waving away in the hedgerows distributing their pollen in the wind. Harder to spot are the female flowers that look like miniature sea anemones emerging from small plump buds along the stems. Hazel trees need a period of mildly windy weather without too much rain for the pollen to spread effectively and be caught up on the sticky 
female floral parts. Unfortunately high winds and heavy rain at this time of the year can lead to a bad crop of nuts.
Graft your own fruit tree: learn the skill of grafting and have a go at grafting your own apple tree to take home with you. Half day course either Thursday 1st February or Saturday 3rd February. 35 Euros per person (includes light refreshments and materials) see post: 
ebruary or Saturday 10th February. 25 Euros per person (includes all materials and light refreshments) See post for more details and booking: 
ourse either Thursday 22nd February or Saturday 24th Feb. 35 Euros per person (including light lunch and all materials). See post for more details and booking: 
Fruit tree pruning: learn the skill of pruning your fruit trees for best results, the course will cover the theory and practice of pruning and training young trees as well as renovating and caring for mature trees. Full day course either Thursday 1st March or Saturday 3rd March. 35 Euros per person including light lunch. See post for more details and booking: 
Winter tree identification: learn the basics of plant identification with an emphasis on identifying common trees in winter. Half day course on 17th March 20 euros per person. See post for more details and booking: See Post: 
identification of common trees. On this course you will cover some basic botany and discover the secrets to identifying plants and deciduous trees during the winter when they have no leaves present. You will be able to put these skills into practice in your own garden and while out enjoying the countryside enabling you to engage with the natural flora of the region.
Have a go at woodturning using traditional tools for greenwood crafting. You will create a ‘blank’ from a log section and turn it down into a garden dibber or sting line.
grafting your own fruit tree. We will provide you with a dwarfing rootstock and an apple variety to graft but if you have your own tree that you would like to propagate then please bring some along, use the contact form below to contact us to find out how to harvest grafting material from your tree.
If you enjoy this beginners course we will be offering intermediate courses later this spring to make chicken, cockerel or duck sculptures for the garden.
Have you ever wondered why the leaves on deciduous trees change colour in the autumn?
Chlorophyll reacts to certain wavelengths of light but these are limited, to make the most of the light spectrum plants also use other pigments similar to carotene that can react with a wider range of the spectrum. These colours are hidden by the intensity of the green chlorophyll in plants with green leaves. However, once the days start to shorten and the temperatures drop this triggers a process called abscission, in simple terms ‘leaf fall’. Plants need to be thrifty though, the main elements that make up chlorophyll are iron and magnesium but these can be in short supply within the soil when the trees come into leaf in the spring so the trees carefully extract these elements, drawing them back into the tree to store away ready for the first flush of growth in the spring. This is when the other pigments are revealed giving us the fantastic display of autumn colours.
Le Jardin Creatif 