Name: Next Level Veg Patch
Price: 135.0 GBP
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

Course overview

In this course, Adam embraces his love for rare and flavourful varieties, intelligent and low-maintenance growing techniques and thoughtful organic practices to guide you through growing ingredients that with not only enrich your cooking but will also inject beauty and joy into your garden space (no matter how large or small).

Adam will take you step-by-step through building and planting up your own raised bed. You’ll learn what you need to construct it, what soil you need to fill it, a time frame for when you should aim to build your raised bed. He’ll also give you endless inspiration for things you can grow throughout the year. You’ll also learn about companion planting and crop rotation.

Salad is a four-season staple at River Cottage and Adam will show you how he keeps us in leaves and exciting salad ingredients throughout the year, even in the depths of winter. Adam will also show you how to harvest salad leaves to maximise the return and guide you through a Four Season Salad Planting Plan.

Adam will also show you different herb varieties you can grow at home - looking at the pros and cons of different herbs, giving insight into the needs of different herbs in relation to sunlight, soil and water. He’ll also look at how to plant so you ensure you have a different herbs throughout the year and how to look after and pick your herbs in a way that ensures a healthy and abundant supply.

The final lesson touches on perennial vegetables, which are making a comeback. Not only are they very low maintenance (these are vegetables that you plant once but can harvest continuously for years thereafter), they’re also hugely sustainable and arguably, more nutritious than annual vegetables.

Once established, perennial vegetables can tap into water sources and soil nutrients annual crops, with shallower tap roots, can’t access. Perennial vegetables are also hugely beneficial for long-term soil health. Adam will look at options for putting perennials in the new raised bed and show you how you can grow perennial veg at home.

You'll learn:

how to make raised beds
growing salads through the seasons
growing perennial vegetables
harvesting herbs and vegetables form your kitchen garden

The course includes:

4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Adam Crofts and River Cottage
lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
downloadable lesson notes
practical gardening assignments (with tutor feedback available)
access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
small interactive online classroom - chat online to students from around the world and share your creative ideas

Independent Cookery Schools Association approved

This course has been approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA), recognising the highest standards of training.

Time to complete the River Cottage veg garden course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 14 hours 40 minutes to complete including:

Video lessons: 2 hours 40 minutes in total
Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
Your gut health recipe assignments: at least 2 hours per lesson
Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

You'll need:

The notes include details of materials and plants included in the course.

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Adam on your gardening assignments.
If you know someone who'd love this course then give it as a gift - just tick "This is a gift" at the checkout.

Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

Watch course trailer

Lesson summary

Create a raised bed

Adam will take you step-by-step through building and planting up your own raised bed. You’ll learn what you need to construct it, what soil you need to fill it, a time frame for when you should aim to build your raised bed (i.e. what time of year is best but also how to get around timing if you want to start now). He’ll give you endless inspiration for things you can grow throughout the year. You’ll also learn about companion planting and crop rotation.

Growing salad leaves throughout the year

Adam will take you through an astounding variety of different salad varieties you can grow throughout the year. As well as showing you how to grow different leaves throughout the year, Adam will guide you through harvesting salad leaves to maximise the return and he’ll also talk you through a Four Season Salad Planting Plan.

How to grow and harvest herbs

Not far from River Cottage HQ is one of the most exciting and largest organic herb growers in the United Kingdom. Adam pays them a visit their garden to be inspired by some new varieties. He’ll then comes back to River Cottage to show you how to create a Herb Spiral using some of herbs he sourced from the Organic Herb Trading Company. He’ll also cover the benefits of organic sourced herbs. Adam will also show you different herb varieties you can grow at home - looking at the pros and cons of different herbs, giving insight into the needs of different herbs in relation to sunlight, soil and water. He’ll also look at how to plant so you ensure you have a different herbs throughout the year and how to look after and pick your herbs in a way that ensures a healthy and abundant supply.

Perennial vegetables - the most nutritious, delicious and easy-to-grow veg

Perennial vegetables are making a comeback. Not only are they very low maintenance (these are vegetables that you plant once but can harvest continuously for years thereafter), they’re also hugely sustainable and arguably, more nutritious than annual vegetables. Once established, perennial vegetables can tap into water sources and soil nutrients annual crops, with shallower tap roots, can’t access. Perennial vegetables are also hugely beneficial for long-term soil health. They’re also amazing for maintaining soil structure and health (the American Dust Bowl is the result of perennial grasslands being replaced by fasting-growing, annual wheat crops). River Cottage is surrounded by pioneers in this area who champion perennial vegetables because they are more sustainable but also they offer some incredible flavours. Planting perennial veg is also one of the easiest ways to create an abundant, low maintenance garden. Adam will visit some of these farms for inspiration before heading back to River Cottage HQ to add some new plants to the perennial veg patch on the edge of the River Cottage Kitchen Garden. Adam will look at options for putting perennials in the new raised bed.