Description
About the Venue:
Nant-y-bedd garden comprises 10 acres and sits within the Black Mountains in the Bannau Brycheiniog. Nant-y-Bedd garden creatively mixes vegetables – including perennial veg and heritage varieties – with wildflowers, ornamentals (often edible too) and a huge variety of trees. It features a natural swimming pond, tree sculptures, stream and river and a meadow managed as woodland pasture for biodiversity. Regenerative, planet-friendly gardening with no-dig, polyculture and permaculture practices informing the management throughout. Lovingly nourished and nurtured over 45 years by Sue and Ian, this garden welcomes bees, butterflies and birds as much as it welcomes visitors.
About the Tutor:
Mick Petts is a landscape-based sculptor and garden designer with many years of experience working with natural materials. He has worked on projects large and small for both private and public sector clients. For those familiar with Nant-y-Bedd, Mick designed and built the natural swimming pond, Cedric and Hart’s Rise tree sculptures, and most recently the ‘Chaise Log’ for our Silent Space. Mick has led an annual Garden Structures Workshop here for several years (which is always fully booked).
About the Practical Skills Day:
Mick will start the day with a talk about the ancient crafts of coppicing and pollarding and the use of such materials in the garden. You will then start on coppicing hazel and pollarding willow and thinning out bamboo. The idea is to sort these materials into bundles to use in creating structures within the garden in the afternoon session, as well as discussing how to process any ‘waste’ materials, by, for example, generating woodchip for mulch or paths, or creating dead hedges.
After a break for lunch in the Garden Room (with hot drinks and a wood-burning stove), there will be a practical session under Mick’s tuition and with Sue’s help, in creating structures in the garden – e.g. sweet pea domes and hazel structures. There will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions about the garden with its interesting back story and eco-friendly philosophy, and plans for its future.
Timings:
10.00am – 4.00pm
Refreshments
Tea, coffee, water, biscuits and cake will be provided. Please bring a packed lunch.
Please Bring:
Please bring loppers and sharp secateurs if you have them, along with weather appropriate clothing, footwear and gloves, and waterproofs.
Note: you will be working in some areas of uneven ground.
Please bring a packed lunch.
Costs:
Members £40
*Ticket Info – Important*
After booking your place on this event you will receive a (1) Payment Receipt email, followed by a (2) Ticket email, and also an (3) Order Complete email. If you don’t receive the Ticket email within a few days of booking and paying, please check your junk folder initially, then email us at [email protected] if you cannot locate it, to ensure that your place on this event has been reserved.
Booking Cancellations:
Please read our Standard Cancellation Policy.
