Workshop: Introduction to Food Growing

In this popular introductory workshop, we’ll cover all of the basics you need to begin growing your own fruit and vegetables. Whilst one of the most satisfying parts of gardening, getting started can seem daunting: over the years we’ve pulled together a balanced (practical and discursive) one day course that empowers you with guiding principles and hands-on advice so that you can learn to grow simple, delicious and sustainably-grown food. The workshop will include:

• What to grow: how can you get the most out of your space?

• When to sow, transplant and harvest: how to do it

• Growing with the planet in mind: Organic approaches, Seed suppliers, fertilisers and composting

• Problem-solving: sustainable approaches to pests, disease and damage

• Technical skills: seed-sowing, pricking out, potting on

This forward-thinking workshop is an opportunity to rethink our approaches to garden design, planting, and all traditional gardening practices. As gardeners and allotmenteers, we often forget we act as custodians not only of the land but also of its inhabitants.  While traditional gardening encourages us to 'sanitise' our spaces by removing a range of ‘threats’, this works to alienate our wildlife and contribute to its decline.

Meet Jack (he/him)

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma course. He lives in South London and explores building complex ecosystems through experimental planting and habitat creation to benefit people and wildlife.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents

Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.

You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Botanical Perfume Making

Plants have been used in many forms since antiquity in devotional rituals and celebrations, to fragrance the air, anoint, cleanse, heal, beautify and to stir the senses. Discover these origins and the remarkable role of aromatic plants in this immersive workshop, where you will enjoy a hands-on, interactive time embracing the theory and creative art of botanical perfumery. With this new knowledge, plus sampling and discussion, you will be guided on basic perfumery composition and blending in order to create your personal 10ml natural perfume rollerball blend to take home.

We’ll be covering:

• The origins and history of perfume

• Understand perfume vocabulary – the art of smelling and training the nose

• Perfume structure – Top, Middle, Base notes

• Difference between oil and perfume alcohol based fragrance blending

• Fragrance classifications

• Secrets of blending & dilutions

• Safety and storage

Meet Tanya

Tanya (TIDHA, MIFPA) trained as a Clinical Aromatherapist, which led to further studies in natural perfumery and formulating. She now combines her clinical work with delivering events and workshops in aromatic blending, botanical skincare and perfumery; and provides conceptual fragrance ideas for events, heritage sites and public spaces. She has a passion for unusual ingredients, botanical history and use of plants in folklore. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @perfumemistress and find out more about her work on her website here https://www.theperfumemistress.com/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Container Gardening

This workshop is designed to share the methods to growing within the confines of containers, and transforming them into scaled-down gardens. We will decipher some of the skills, knowledge, and terminology to help you compose successful, long-lasting container gardens, from window boxes to small outdoor balconies and gardens.

This workshop will also be valuable to those who do have larger gardens to work with - one of the joys of pots and containers is that they can be moved! In bigger spaces, they can be brought into the fore to be celebrated, and then moved into the background while dormant, and we’ll also be covering how to manage this.

The session will explore:

● Types of containers, choosing plants that will work well in them, and grouping plants together

● High rise balconies and dealing with the exposure they might create for plants; artificial landscapes and how to deal with them for best effect

● Growing media - avoiding peat, what is available, what you can mix yourself, and what suits your plant choices

● Drainage, feeding, and other maintenance tasks to ensure ongoing success

Meet Danny (he/him)

Danny started his career as a maintenance gardener, later joining the RHS at Wisley to build community gardens. He was Education Manager at Walworth Garden for three years and now works as a gardener at Regent's Park University. Danny has a deep and long-standing relationship with plants, and loves nothing more than bringing their fascination closer to other people. He is constantly on the lookout for new and radical approaches to gardening and design, whether it be using alternative materials, unusual cultivars or simply fresh approaches to what a garden can be. Danny takes joy in teaching in the perfect classroom that is Walworth Garden where he specialises in our design courses and wildlife friendly approaches to gardening.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Composting at Home

Kitchen ‘waste’ doesn’t need to be wasted - as organic gardeners, we instead consider it a wonderful resource. When food is sent to landfill, not only does it release methane (a greenhouse gas negatively impacting the environment), but it also sacrifices nutrient value that can be put to much better use.

In this session you’ll learn how you can turn old kitchen scraps and waste into various forms of plant and garden feed, closing a waste loop and benefiting your garden, and biodiversity.

We will be looking at the merits of composting, wormeries, and bokashi, and how you can incorporate them into your own home and garden, depending on your individual needs - even in small urban homes with little to no outdoor space.

Composting beginners - and plenty of questions - welcome!

We’ll cover how to get started in creating your compost heap or bin using found or recycled materials, and how to be more self sufficient and regenerative to improve your soil and biodiversity. We’ll also get to know the ratios of greens and browns, meet the microbes, worms and other critters that will assist you in building healthy soil, and:

• Take a dive into the compost heap

• Share our tips and tricks to demystify the microbe rich life of compost

• Learn about the differences in aerobic and anaerobic composting

• How to source waste streams to enhance your compost bin

Meet Jack

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma course. He lives in South London and explores building complex ecosystems through experimental planting and habitat creation to benefit people and wildlife.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Fermentation as a Radical Act: Practice & Theory

This creative fermentation workshop is designed to explore the practical and theoretical aspects of fermenting. Together, we will explore the basics of fermentation through two adaptable recipes that can be customised to work with whatever you might have on hand at home.

As we prepare these ferments, we will also explore how they can nourish our minds as well as our bodies, delving into the theory behind fermentation as a radical act, and how microbes can inspire diversity in the way we eat and think.

This session is ideal for anyone interested in fermentation. Whether you are completely new to the practice or want to deepen your existing understanding, everyone is encouraged to come curious, and bring what they know to the table.

At the end of the workshop, we will have the opportunity to sample some of Barney’s signature ferments such as banana skin and Japanese knotweed champagne.

We will cover:

• Creating 2 adaptable wild fermentation recipes for you to take home

• How fermentation can help us reduce our household waste

• Discussions on how to harness the power of microbes to change our bodies and minds

• A deep dive into the theory and metaphors of fermentation

• Sampling some of Barney’s unusual wild ferments.

You will leave with the basic tools to ferment at home, and 2 wild ferments to take care of.

Meet Barney (he/they)

Barney Pau (he/they) is a London-based culinary creative working at the confluence of food, art, and writing, whose practice focuses on food futures, queering consumption, and foraging and fermenting as social resistance.

He believes food, in its ubiquity, transcends language as a mode of communication, and by applying it as an artistic medium it can be used to impart new thinking. In his practice, he uses food both to communicate his thinking and as a point of departure for research.

In 2021 Barney founded Finger Food Magazine: a contributor-based space for stories, artwork, and essays, in any and all mediums, exploring cooking, craft, and creation. The third issue of Finger Food is currently in progress.

When he’s not jamming ferments into jars, peering at plants on the pavement, or writing ramblings for his Substack, you can usually find him foraging for his food or reading books on baking.

barneypau.com / @barneypau

Price: £65/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘HALFSOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Fermentation as a Radical Act: Practice & Theory

This creative fermentation workshop is designed to explore the practical and theoretical aspects of fermenting. Together, we will explore the basics of fermentation through two adaptable recipes that can be customised to work with whatever you might have on hand at home.

As we prepare these ferments, we will also explore how they can nourish our minds as well as our bodies, delving into the theory behind fermentation as a radical act, and how microbes can inspire diversity in the way we eat and think.

This session is ideal for anyone interested in fermentation. Whether you are completely new to the practice or want to deepen your existing understanding, everyone is encouraged to come curious, and bring what they know to the table.

At the end of the workshop, we will have the opportunity to sample some of Barney’s signature ferments such as banana skin and Japanese knotweed champagne.

We will cover:

• Creating 2 adaptable wild fermentation recipes for you to take home

• How fermentation can help us reduce our household waste

• Discussions on how to harness the power of microbes to change our bodies and minds

• A deep dive into the theory and metaphors of fermentation

• Sampling some of Barney’s unusual wild ferments.

You will leave with the basic tools to ferment at home, and 2 wild ferments to take care of.

Meet Barney (he/they)

Barney Pau (he/they) is a London-based culinary creative working at the confluence of food, art, and writing, whose practice focuses on food futures, queering consumption, and foraging and fermenting as social resistance.

He believes food, in its ubiquity, transcends language as a mode of communication, and by applying it as an artistic medium it can be used to impart new thinking. In his practice, he uses food both to communicate his thinking and as a point of departure for research.

In 2021 Barney founded Finger Food Magazine: a contributor-based space for stories, artwork, and essays, in any and all mediums, exploring cooking, craft, and creation. The third issue of Finger Food is currently in progress.

When he’s not jamming ferments into jars, peering at plants on the pavement, or writing ramblings for his Substack, you can usually find him foraging for his food or reading books on baking.

barneypau.com / @barneypau

Price: £65/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘HALFSOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Botany in a Day (Online)

New gardeners often ask, what is botany? How is it different from horticulture?

Botany simply refers to the ‘study of’ plants, where horticulture focuses on the ‘practice of’ managing and maintaining plants. In this discussion-based session, we will be exploring the theory and science of plants, and learning ten basic rules of botany which will change not only the way you look at your own plants, but how you view the entire natural world around you.

This session is ideal for anyone who would like to understand more about the science of plants. From complete novices to experienced gardeners this workshop is designed for all levels of experience and skill sets.

Together we will explore:

• Plant evolution - how plants have, and continue to, evolve and adapt to a changing environment

• Plant taxonomy and classification - what plants belong to what groups, how can you easily identify these groups

• Plant anatomy and physiology - what function are different parts of a plants anatomy performing

• Botanical terminology - learn how to speak like a botanist

• Rare, Unique and Unusual Advancements in Plants - the weird and wonderful adaptations plants have adopted in response to unique or challenging conditions

The session will demystify and deconstruct the main terminology used in botanical sciences, allowing you to feel comfortably interacting with other botanists and gardeners with an increased knowledge of how plants function, plus a boosted confidence in the management of planted areas.

Please note that this session will be delivered online.

Meet Charlie (he/him)

Charlie (he/him) is a Peckham local who is passionate about both the community and the environment. With a background in health and social care management, he is invested in promoting community involvement and environmental issues through organic gardening. Charlie is dedicated to landscape and planting design within urban environments, and is currently teaching the next generation of horticulturalists as a Garden Education Officer here at Walworth Garden.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Radical Herbal Histories

Join community herbalist Rasheeqa on a journey through the cycle of histories of healing. This unique, discussion-based session will explore how societal processes and narratives from the last thousand years have led us directly to how and where we live now in our relationships with the earth, healthcare, and plant medicine. Unearthing the origins and roots of herbal medicine, the stories of women healers in history, and the violence of patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist domination, this workshop will consider how we can respond to the histories we are born from, and how we might move into healthier relations and futures.

The session will also include:

● Herb tasting and collective medicine making to honour and continue the ancient intelligence and care of ancestors

● Majority world wisdoms and resilient traditions

● The sharing of experiences, knowledge and perspectives

● Resources for future explorations

Research and consideration on this history informs Rasheeqa’s work with the daily experiences of healthcare injustice and neglect that she holds space for in her clinical and community practice, and informs her approach to her work in supporting the health of people, in collaborating with others, and in responding to imbalances in our power dynamics that generate systemic illness.

Meet Rasheeqa

Rasheeqa is a community medical herbalist based in east London with 10+ years experience of facilitating group learning and teaching short and long courses in many aspects of herbal medicine. She is a tutor on the Heartwood Herbalism Foundation Course and a clinical trainer for the Professional Course. She is passionate about collaborative and participatory herbalism in the community, with a focus on sharing and exchanging healing traditions between the diverse cultures and knowledge of London. She is co-founder of Community Apothecary Waltham Forest in north London which is a social enterprise sharing knowledge and practices of plant medicine through community herb gardens, learning and collective remedy making. https://www.hedgeherbs.org.uk/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introducción a la jardinería

En este taller popular de introducción a  la jardinería, cubriremos todos los conceptos básicos que necesitas para empezar a cultivar tus propias frutas y verduras. Aunque es una de las partes más satisfactorias de la jardinería, empezar a cultivar puede parecer abrumador: a lo largo de los años, hemos elaborado un curso equilibrado (práctico y discursivo) de un día de duración, que te proporcionará principios rectores y consejos prácticos para que pueda cultivar alimentos sencillos, deliciosos y buenos para el medio ambiente. 

El taller incluirá:

● Qué cultivar: ¿cómo sacar el máximo provecho a tu espacio?

● Cuándo sembrar, trasplantar y cosechar? Cómo hacerlo?

● Cultivar pensando en el planeta: enfoques orgánicos, proveedores de semillas, fertilizantes y abono.

● Resolviendo problemas: enfoques sustentables para solucionar el problema de las plagas, las enfermedades y los daños causados.

● Habilidades técnicas: siembra de semillas, trasplante, trasplante a macetas.

Este taller, con una visión en el futuro, es una oportunidad para replantearnos nuestros enfoques sobre el diseño de jardines, la plantación y todas las prácticas tradicionales de jardinería. Como jardineros y horticultores, a menudo olvidamos que actuamos no solo como cuidadores de la tierra, sino también de sus habitantes. Mientras que la jardinería tradicional nos anima a ‘desinfectar’ nuestros espacios, eliminando una serie de ‘amenazas,’ esto contribuye a alejar a nuestra fauna silvestre y a su deterioro.

Conoce Vittor:

Vittor es un artista que reside en Londres y es parte del equipo responsable de la educación en Walworth Garden, donde trabaja en estrecha colaboración con los estudiantes y guiado por las estaciones del año, para cuidar tanto de las plantas como de la comunidad en todo el recinto. Durante los últimos dos años, ha desempeñado el cargo de Supervisor del centro de plantas y recientemente ha asumido el puesto de Responsable de Educación sobre jardinería.

Con una licenciatura en Bellas Artes por la Universidad Goldsmiths y un diploma de nivel 2 en horticultura aplicada al trabajo, Vittor se mueve con fluidez entre el jardín y el estudio, utilizando el color y la vida vegetal para contar historias de transformación, memoria y pertenencia. Su trabajo invita a la lentitud, la atención y la conexión.

La pasión de Vittor por la jardinería comenzó en la infancia, aprendiendo junto a su abuela y su madre. Cultivar plantas juntos se convirtió en una forma de conectar con el paisaje y entre ellos, entretejiendo el cuidado, la memoria y la tradición en cada estación. Estas primeras experiencias alimentaron un aprecio duradero por la forma en que los jardines guardan historias, fortalecen las relaciones y nos arraigan en un lugar.

Precio: 85 £ / Gratis para los residentes de Southwark.

Hay plazas gratuitas disponibles para los residentes de Southwark mayores de 19 años. Cada residente puede solicitar una plaza por año académico (del 25 de septiembre al 26 de julio).

Para comprobar si cumple los requisitos, haga clic aquí. Para solicitar su plaza gratuita, haga clic en ‘Reservar aquí’ a continuación e introduzca el código ‘SOUTHWARK26’ en ‘Canjear cupón’.

A continuación, se le cobrará un depósito de 10 £ para solicitar su plaza, que le será reembolsado después de asistir al taller.

Tenga en cuenta que deberá rellenar un formulario del Ayuntamiento de Southwark, incluyendo algunos datos personales, para confirmar su plaza en el taller. Su plaza no quedará confirmada hasta que haya completado todo el proceso.

———

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Incense Making

Since the days of ancient Egypt and Rome, incense has been used for purification, ceremony, devotion and pure pleasure. Today, with 5,000 years of tradition and aesthetic refinement at its core, the use of incense is reaching new levels of popularity. Join us for a unique one-day session exploring the ancient, devotional art of incense. This creative, practical workshop focuses on using premium fragrant materials, such as resins, herbs; fruits; flowers seeds; spices and essential oils selected for their historic, therapeutic, fragrant and magical resonance.

You will be introduced, via smell and touch, to a variety of plant botanicals including essential oils, understand their history, their uses and how to select and blend them to create your own beautiful and unique incense. We will then make two sets of incense: the first will be a batch of incense cones made together as a group, and this will be followed by guidance through making of a set of loose incense individually, where you will be able to select your own choice of ingredients with which to make this bespoke.

We will also explore:

● History of incense and types of incense

● Fragrant botanical ingredients, essential oils and binders and how to work with them

● Safe preparation and creative blending guidelines

● Troubleshooting, tips and tricks to ensure your cones burn evenly and smell great

● Safety, dilutions, storage, creating a formula and record keeping

This session is ideal for anyone who is fascinated by incense, enjoys experimenting with plants and fragrance and who wishes to make clean, therapeutic and bespoke incense for their personal use or as gifts.

Please note the cones will need approx. 24 - 36 hours to fully dry out at home - please bring a shallow lunch box or similar container, to store and transport your cones home safely!

Meet Tanya

Tanya (TIDHA, MIFPA) trained as a Clinical Aromatherapist, which led to further studies in natural perfumery and formulating. She now combines her clinical work with delivering events and workshops in aromatic blending, botanical skincare and perfumery; and provides conceptual fragrance ideas for events, heritage sites and public spaces. She has a passion for unusual ingredients, botanical history and use of plants in folklore. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @perfumemistress and find out more about her work on her website here: https://www.theperfumemistress.com/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Ferns

This practical and theoretical workshop is an opportunity to learn more about the fern life cycle, how they reproduce and how you can grow your own from spore to adult and back again.

We’ll explore:

• The stages of a fern’s life

• What a fern spore is and where to find them

• How to collect and store spores for sowing

• How to sow spores and grow them on

This session is ideal for anyone who has ever been entranced by the subtle beauty of a fern frond but is mystified at the prospect of growing them. This session will prove it’s easier than you think; often all you need is patience.

You will leave with the confidence and skill to start propagating the ferns you find in your world, as well as your own sown pot of spores to take with you to watch them green up and grow.

Meet Richard

Richard is an active member of London’s community gardening movement, facilitating networking and peer-to-peer training with Social Farms & Gardens, and delivering nature engagement and community food growing activities across the city. Previously, he trained as a horticulturist with the RHS, Cambridge Botanic Garden and Kew Gardens. He has been growing ferns for 5 years now, and can often be found anxiously peering and poking into pots of spores, willing the unfolding of ferny magic to go faster.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Botanical Gin Infusions

This relaxed, hands-on workshop is an opportunity to join us for a botanical adventure in exploring and selecting various fruits, herbs, spices and flowers to create your own bespoke infused gin. We will discuss and sample key aromatic botanicals used in popular gins and explore botanical and flavour profiles to develop our understanding of the blending process. We’ll look at a range of botanical materials and flavour pairings, measurements and scaling up if wanting to create larger quantities at home and maximum infusion times.

This workshop is ideal for anyone who has an interest in aromatics, plants, culinary crafts and of course, gin! Together we will explore:

● A whistle-stop tour through the history of gin

● Discussion and sampling of key aromatic botanicals used in popular gins

● Understand flavour pairings, botanical profiles and blending

● Develop our personal recipe, select and combine to infuse in our Gin base

● Advice on tonics, mixers and garnishes to further develop your mixology skills

● Alternative recipe suggestions will also be provided for home experimenting

You will leave this session with your own 200ml bespoke infused gin to take home, an extra sample recipe to use, in addition to the skills and knowledge to continue experimenting at home. If feeling experimental, you may bring along any interesting herbs, fresh or dried botanicals you might wish to include in your gin blend.

Workshop notes are provided, but you may wish to bring along a notebook to write your own notes.

Meet Tanya (she/her)

Tanya (TIDHA, MIFPA) trained as a Clinical Aromatherapist, which led to further studies in natural perfumery and formulating. She now combines her clinical work with delivering events and workshops in aromatic blending, botanical skincare and perfumery; and provides conceptual fragrance ideas for events, heritage sites and public spaces. She has a passion for unusual ingredients, botanical history and use of plants in folklore. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @perfumemistress and find out more about her work on her website here https://www.theperfumemistress.com/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

Meet Vittor (they/them)

Vittor is a London-based artist and Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, where they work closely with students and the seasons to nurture both plants and community across the site. For the past two years, they have served as Plant Centre Supervisor and have recently stepped into the role of Garden Education Officer.

With a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University and a Level 2 Work-Based Horticulture Diploma, Vittor moves fluidly between the garden and the studio, using colour and plant life to tell stories of transformation, memory, and belonging. Their work invites slowness, attention, and connection.

Vittor’s passion for gardening began in childhood, learning alongside their grandmother and mother. Growing plants together became a way to connect with the landscape and with one another, weaving care, memory, and tradition into each season. These early experiences nurtured a lasting appreciation for how gardens hold stories, strengthen relationships, and root us in place.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Fermentation as a Radical Act: Practice & Theory

This creative fermentation workshop is designed to explore the practical and theoretical aspects of fermenting. Together, we will explore the basics of fermentation through two adaptable recipes that can be customised to work with whatever you might have on hand at home.

As we prepare these ferments, we will also explore how they can nourish our minds as well as our bodies, delving into the theory behind fermentation as a radical act, and how microbes can inspire diversity in the way we eat and think.

This session is ideal for anyone interested in fermentation. Whether you are completely new to the practice or want to deepen your existing understanding, everyone is encouraged to come curious, and bring what they know to the table.

At the end of the workshop, we will have the opportunity to sample some of Barney’s signature ferments such as banana skin and Japanese knotweed champagne.

We will cover:

• Creating 2 adaptable wild fermentation recipes for you to take home

• How fermentation can help us reduce our household waste

• Discussions on how to harness the power of microbes to change our bodies and minds

• A deep dive into the theory and metaphors of fermentation

• Sampling some of Barney’s unusual wild ferments.

You will leave with the basic tools to ferment at home, and 2 wild ferments to take care of.

Meet Barney (he/they)

Barney Pau (he/they) is a London-based culinary creative working at the confluence of food, art, and writing, whose practice focuses on food futures, queering consumption, and foraging and fermenting as social resistance.

He believes food, in its ubiquity, transcends language as a mode of communication, and by applying it as an artistic medium it can be used to impart new thinking. In his practice, he uses food both to communicate his thinking and as a point of departure for research.

In 2021 Barney founded Finger Food Magazine: a contributor-based space for stories, artwork, and essays, in any and all mediums, exploring cooking, craft, and creation. The third issue of Finger Food is currently in progress.

When he’s not jamming ferments into jars, peering at plants on the pavement, or writing ramblings for his Substack, you can usually find him foraging for his food or reading books on baking.

barneypau.com / @barneypau

Price: £65/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘HALFSOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Fermentation as a Radical Act: Practice & Theory

This creative fermentation workshop is designed to explore the practical and theoretical aspects of fermenting. Together, we will explore the basics of fermentation through two adaptable recipes that can be customised to work with whatever you might have on hand at home.

As we prepare these ferments, we will also explore how they can nourish our minds as well as our bodies, delving into the theory behind fermentation as a radical act, and how microbes can inspire diversity in the way we eat and think.

This session is ideal for anyone interested in fermentation. Whether you are completely new to the practice or want to deepen your existing understanding, everyone is encouraged to come curious, and bring what they know to the table.

At the end of the workshop, we will have the opportunity to sample some of Barney’s signature ferments such as banana skin and Japanese knotweed champagne.

We will cover:

• Creating 2 adaptable wild fermentation recipes for you to take home

• How fermentation can help us reduce our household waste

• Discussions on how to harness the power of microbes to change our bodies and minds

• A deep dive into the theory and metaphors of fermentation

• Sampling some of Barney’s unusual wild ferments.

You will leave with the basic tools to ferment at home, and 2 wild ferments to take care of.

Meet Barney (he/they)

Barney Pau (he/they) is a London-based culinary creative working at the confluence of food, art, and writing, whose practice focuses on food futures, queering consumption, and foraging and fermenting as social resistance.

He believes food, in its ubiquity, transcends language as a mode of communication, and by applying it as an artistic medium it can be used to impart new thinking. In his practice, he uses food both to communicate his thinking and as a point of departure for research.

In 2021 Barney founded Finger Food Magazine: a contributor-based space for stories, artwork, and essays, in any and all mediums, exploring cooking, craft, and creation. The third issue of Finger Food is currently in progress.

When he’s not jamming ferments into jars, peering at plants on the pavement, or writing ramblings for his Substack, you can usually find him foraging for his food or reading books on baking.

barneypau.com / @barneypau

Price: £65/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘HALFSOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

You might also be interested in:

Workshop: Harvesting Health: Herbal Remedies for Common Ailments

Herbal medicine has a long history of providing comfort for everyday ailments and promote overall wellbeing. In this exciting workshop, you’ll discover how to identify, harvest, and utilise both wild and garden herbs along with common kitchen spices to craft simple yet powerful remedies for common health issues. From soothing coughs and colds to easing digestion, calming stress, or supporting sleep, we’ll explore a wide range of herbs you may already have in your kitchen or growing around you.

Together, we’ll craft practical remedies like tinctures, cough syrup, calming teas, lozenges and balms. No experience needed — we warmly welcome everyone.

Whether you’re brand-new to herbalism or keen to expand your skills, you’ll leave with practical know-how, shared wisdom, and remedies you can use straight away to support yourself and your loved ones naturally.

Meet Claudia

Claudia (she/her) is a Medical Herbalist, plant educator, maker of botanical remedies and founder of The Floating Apothecary, a herbal medicine practice based on the narrowboat she calls home. With a BSc (Hons) in Clinical Herbalism, she blends clinical practice, teaching and remedy-making to support health and wellbeing through the power of plants and nutrition. Claudia is particularly interested in the ways climate change is affecting medicinal plants, and in how herbal medicine can foster resilience for both individuals and communities. She is passionate to making herbal knowledge accessible and her work connects plant medicine with wider conversations around ecology and social justice. @thefloatingapothecary

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

If you would like a more in-depth version of this workshop, we are also running it in a 2-day version.

Meet Danny (he/him)

Danny started his career as a maintenance gardener, later joining the RHS at Wisley to build community gardens. He was Education Manager at Walworth Garden for three years and now works as a gardener at Regent's Park University. Danny has a deep and long-standing relationship with plants, and loves nothing more than bringing their fascination closer to other people. He is constantly on the lookout for new and radical approaches to gardening and design, whether it be using alternative materials, unusual cultivars or simply fresh approaches to what a garden can be. Danny takes joy in teaching in the perfect classroom that is Walworth Garden where he specialises in our design courses and wildlife friendly approaches to gardening.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Advanced Food Growing

This food growing workshop is designed for growers and gardeners who feel comfortable with the basics and are ready to deepen their practice through ecological design principles. We'll explore how to create and care for resilient, productive, and beautiful food gardens that work with natural processes, building biodiversity, and supporting wildlife at the same time as growing delicious edible crops.

The workshop will include:

• Successional Growing: Planning continuous harvests through strategic timing and plant selection for year-round productivity

• Intercropping Systems: Companion planting and designing edible plant guilds for mutual benefit, including food forest gardening 

• ‘Edimentals’ and perennial vegetables: Selecting and establishing productive ornamental-edibles and perennial vegetables to create beautiful, abundant landscapes

• Wildlife-Focused and regenerative methods: Focusing on planting with benefits to wildlife as well as integrating wildlife habitats and composting systems to suit your food growing spaces

This workshop challenges traditional horticultural conventions, such as the separation between ornamental and edible gardening, empowering you to transform your growing space into a thriving ecosystem that serves harvest, habitat, and beauty in equal measure.

Meet Jack (he/him)

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma course. He lives in South London and explores building complex ecosystems through experimental planting and habitat creation to benefit people and wildlife.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents

Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.

You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Botanical Body Care

This practical, creative, hands-on workshop is designed to show you how to create simple, effective yet luxurious bath and body products using botanical materials and fragrant, therapeutic essential oils that you can tailor for yourself and others.

Learn how to combine simple ingredients to make three effective, eco-friendly yet luxurious bath and body treats to take home, with further suggestions on ingredients, blending and adapting recipes at home to continue your sustainable self-care skills.

We will look at how to combine ingredients safely and for personalised effects, understand good basic knowledge of key essential oils, herbs and other botanical extracts. This session is ideal for anyone who is interested in eco-friendly skincare, natural products and wishes to deepen their connection to plant based ingredients, and those looking for homemade gift inspiration!

Together we will explore:

● The benefits and uses of natural, botanical ingredients and essential oils

● How to create effective, simple bath soaks, scrubs and hand cream to maintain healthy skin and boost wellbeing

● How to combine essential oils safely for cosmetic, therapeutic and fragrant effect

● How to adapt recipes and blends and further develop creativity at home to make effective skincare for personal use and gifts.

You will leave this session with increased confidence and understanding of how simple natural ingredients can be used in your daily wellbeing and skincare regime, plus create 3 skin and bath-care products to take home, in addition to comprehensive notes with further suggestions on experimenting.

Please bring along a pen and notebook if you wish to make personal notes

Meet Tanya (she/her)

Tanya (TIDHA, MIFPA) trained as a Clinical Aromatherapist, which led to further studies in natural perfumery and formulating. She now combines her clinical work with delivering events and workshops in aromatic blending, botanical skincare and perfumery; and provides conceptual fragrance ideas for events, heritage sites and public spaces. She has a passion for unusual ingredients, botanical history and use of plants in folklore. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @perfumemistress and find out more about her work on her website here https://www.theperfumemistress.com/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Practical Plant Propagation

In this workshop, we aim to pass on as much green-fingered know-how as possible, so that you have the confidence to 'go forth and propagate' in your own gardens and green spaces.

Discover all the tricks of the trade for propagating plants, from sowing taking cuttings from a range of plants, division techniques, and seed sowing, this course will give you hands-on experience and the confidence to nurture new plants into life at home, with very little expense and cost to the wider environment.

The session will cover the techniques and care requirements for:

● Softwood and tip cuttings

● Leaf and leaf section cuttings

● Division and root cuttings

● Hardwood cuttings

● Growing a range of plants from seed

As well as an introduction to the kinds of growing media, we’ll also cover the equipment and tools that are required for successful propagation.

Meet Alice (she/her)

Alice grows vegetables, fruit and herbs in central London rooftop gardens for fine dining chefs. She also manages a range of spaces for wildlife, from a pollinator garden on an industrial estate to private back gardens and cafe courtyards. She previously taught the Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills qualification at Walworth Garden.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Pruning Skills

This practical workshop is designed to clarify the technical skills for those wishing to prune their own plants at home. One of the more technical tasks at the turn of the gardening year, pruning can sometimes intimidate those new to gardening. In this Pruning Skills workshop, you’ll learn why pruning is such an integral part of managing a garden, as well as demystifying the skills and techniques required to succeed. Together we will examine, through examples, the basic approaches to pruning a range of different types of plant for different reasons, working with the plants in our beautiful South London garden. In this workshop, we will cover:

• Why prune? The benefits to plants, animal life, and gardeners!

• Safe use of tools and equipment, and their basic maintenance

• Practical pruning of herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees

• Pruning with purpose: flowers, fruit, health, and structure

• Integration into other garden practices: dead-hedging, composting and garden structures

Meet Jack

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma courses. He lives in South London and volunteers on a variety of community growing initiatives as well as experimenting and developing new regenerative growing methods, closing waste stream loops and building healthy soil.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

If you would like a more in-depth version of this workshop, we are also running it in a 2-day version.

Meet Vittor (they/them)

Vittor is a London-based artist and Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, where they work closely with students and the seasons to nurture both plants and community across the site. For the past two years, they have served as Plant Centre Supervisor and have recently stepped into the role of Garden Education Officer.

With a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University and a Level 2 Work-Based Horticulture Diploma, Vittor moves fluidly between the garden and the studio, using colour and plant life to tell stories of transformation, memory, and belonging. Their work invites slowness, attention, and connection.

Vittor’s passion for gardening began in childhood, learning alongside their grandmother and mother. Growing plants together became a way to connect with the landscape and with one another, weaving care, memory, and tradition into each season. These early experiences nurtured a lasting appreciation for how gardens hold stories, strengthen relationships, and root us in place.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Rethinking the Lawn: Creating and Managing Meadows

Transform your understanding of traditional lawns and discover the remarkable potential of meadows in this comprehensive workshop. From their ancient origins to their modern relevance in carbon capture and biodiversity, meadows are fantastic ecosystems and can offer a sustainable and beautiful alternative to conventional grass lawns. Join our expert facilitator as they guide you through the fascinating world of meadow creation and management, exploring how these diverse ecosystems can thrive even in the smallest urban spaces. Whether you're looking to replace a tired lawn, enhance biodiversity in your garden, or contribute to carbon sequestration efforts, this workshop will provide you with the knowledge and inspiration to rethink outdoor spaces. Through hands-on exploration and expert guidance, you'll gain practical insights into creating and maintaining meadows that work with nature rather than against it.

Areas that will be considered during this session are: 

- The origins and natural history of meadows - understanding their ecological importance
- Meadow management and development - from establishment to long-term care
- Carbon capture potential in soil - how meadows contribute to climate solutions
- Alternatives to traditional lawns - rethinking our relationship with grass
- Creating meadows in small spaces and urban environments - making it work anywhere
- Soil biology and its crucial relevance to meadow ecosystems
- Seed selection and sourcing - including examination of seeds from a 400-year-old meadow
- Practical maintenance techniques for sustainable meadow management
- Seasonal considerations - when and how to intervene in meadow development

The workshop will include the opportunity to examine seeds from a historic 400-year-old meadow and an activity that will enable you to take some home for your own space, gaining hands-on experience with the materials and techniques that make successful meadows possible.

Meet Michael

Michael is a Senior Gardener at Great Dixter, and an experienced outdoorsman and primitive skills practitioner. He has lectured on subjects of Rewilding, Habitat restoration as well as Foraging, and teaches in Wales, Scotland, Norway and Southern UK. Michael is involved in several biodiversity projects including the restoration of wildflower meadows within several communities around East Sussex, UK.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Food Growing

In this popular introductory workshop, we’ll cover all of the basics you need to begin growing your own fruit and vegetables. Whilst one of the most satisfying parts of gardening, getting started can seem daunting: over the years we’ve pulled together a balanced (practical and discursive) one day course that empowers you with guiding principles and hands-on advice so that you can learn to grow simple, delicious and sustainably-grown food. The workshop will include:

• What to grow: how can you get the most out of your space?

• When to sow, transplant and harvest: how to do it

• Growing with the planet in mind: Organic approaches, Seed suppliers, fertilisers and composting

• Problem-solving: sustainable approaches to pests, disease and damage

• Technical skills: seed-sowing, pricking out, potting on

This forward-thinking workshop is an opportunity to rethink our approaches to garden design, planting, and all traditional gardening practices. As gardeners and allotmenteers, we often forget we act as custodians not only of the land but also of its inhabitants.  While traditional gardening encourages us to 'sanitise' our spaces by removing a range of ‘threats’, this works to alienate our wildlife and contribute to its decline.

Meet Jack (he/him)

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma course. He lives in South London and explores building complex ecosystems through experimental planting and habitat creation to benefit people and wildlife.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents

Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.

You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

Meet Charlie (he/him)

Charlie (he/him) is a Peckham local who is passionate about both the community and the environment. With a background in health and social care management, he is invested in promoting community involvement and environmental issues through organic gardening. Charlie is dedicated to landscape and planting design within urban environments, and is currently teaching the next generation of horticulturalists as a Garden Education Officer here at Walworth Garden.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: The Science of Scent

Join us for a fascinating and hands-on workshop exploring the world of scent. Together we’ll uncover how our sense of smell works, why it is so important, and how aromas shape memory, mood, creativity and wellbeing.

You will be guided through smell, touch, and discussion to engage with a variety of familiar and exotic plants their botanical history and use in folklore, magic, medicine and popular culture. We will draw on fresh and dried plants, essential oils, fragrances, and a range of botanical books and references to understand this visceral, invisible sense!

During this interactive session, together we will demystify the science and art of smell, and:

• Learn about the science of olfaction and how our brains process scent

• Explore aromatic plants, herbs, spices, and essential oils

• Experience how smell connects to memory and emotion

• Create two aromatic, mood-enhancing products to take home

• Discover practical ways to use scent in gardening, cooking and daily life

Expect a relaxed, sensory-rich workshop blending science, storytelling, and hands-on activities - perfect for horticulture students, gardeners, and anyone curious about the power of smell.

No prior knowledge needed – just bring your nose and an open, curious mind

Meet Tanya

Tanya (TIDHA, MIFPA) trained as a Clinical Aromatherapist, which led to further studies in natural perfumery and formulating. She now combines her clinical work with delivering events and workshops in aromatic blending, botanical skincare and perfumery; and provides conceptual fragrance ideas for events, heritage sites and public spaces. She has a passion for unusual ingredients, botanical history and use of plants in folklore. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @perfumemistress and find out more about her work on her website here https://www.theperfumemistress.com/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Botanical Perfume Making

Plants have been used in many forms since antiquity in devotional rituals and celebrations, to fragrance the air, anoint, cleanse, heal, beautify and to stir the senses. Discover these origins and the remarkable role of aromatic plants in this immersive workshop, where you will enjoy a hands-on, interactive time embracing the theory and creative art of botanical perfumery. With this new knowledge, plus sampling and discussion, you will be guided on basic perfumery composition and blending in order to create your personal 10ml natural perfume rollerball blend to take home.

We’ll be covering:

• The origins and history of perfume

• Understand perfume vocabulary – the art of smelling and training the nose

• Perfume structure – Top, Middle, Base notes

• Difference between oil and perfume alcohol based fragrance blending

• Fragrance classifications

• Secrets of blending & dilutions

• Safety and storage

Meet Tanya

Tanya (TIDHA, MIFPA) trained as a Clinical Aromatherapist, which led to further studies in natural perfumery and formulating. She now combines her clinical work with delivering events and workshops in aromatic blending, botanical skincare and perfumery; and provides conceptual fragrance ideas for events, heritage sites and public spaces. She has a passion for unusual ingredients, botanical history and use of plants in folklore. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @perfumemistress and find out more about her work on her website here https://www.theperfumemistress.com/

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Fundraising for Community Groups

Join our in-house fundraiser to discover the many pots of money your group could be eligible to receive, and how to access them. Focusing on self-directed fundraising from trusts and foundations for project-based work (and what all this jargon means!), this session is ideal for those with little to no experience in fundraising, and anyone who volunteers or works with community groups (particularly gardening groups) and would like to begin supporting them further by bringing in funding.

We will be demystifying grant process in its full cycle, and covering:

• Searching for appropriate funds

• Selecting what to apply for

• Completing a successful application

• Common hurdles and pitfalls,

• What to do when you win a grant (and when you don’t!)

• Reporting back to the grant maker

We’ll be focusing mostly on gardening spaces and the people that work within them, but the general tips and tricks will be widely applicable, so this session with also be of interest to anyone who might like to explore a career in fundraising and/or the wider charity sector, but would like to know more about what this field entails.

You’ll leave with some helpful resources to move you forward, and ready to complete your first grant application. Handouts will be provided but you may want to bring a notebook and pen.

Meet Francesca

Responsible for all fundraising at Walworth Garden, Francesca has experience securing grants of all sizes for our charitable projects and capital works from a range of charitable trusts and foundations. Francesca also has an MA in the Anthropology of Sustainability, with a research focus on the intersections of environmental and social justice issues, and brings this knowledge to her fundraising work. She is passionate about ensuring funds reach small, grassroots organisations, and wealth redistribution.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Rooted in Change - Herbal Menopause

Menopause is a significant and natural life transition — yet it can feel daunting and overwhelming. This workshop invites you to reframe and embrace menopause as a powerful rite of passage, supported by the wisdom of plants and a balanced approach to nutrition.  Together, we’ll explore menopause and the hormonal fluctuations that occur throughout this phase. We’ll meet and connect with herbs through tasting, sketching, smelling, and meditating, while exploring their gifts to ease common symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, as well as brain fog, fatigue, and emotional shifts. We’ll focus on how to support your health and vitality with herbs and nutrition. 

You’ll gain hands-on experience crafting your own remedies, including tinctures, glycerites, balms, bath salts, and tea blends. This uplifting workshop is perfect for anyone navigating perimenopause or menopause, those interested in natural remedies, or anyone wishing to support and celebrate a loved one through this stage of life.

Meet Claudia

Claudia (she/her) is a Medical Herbalist, plant educator, maker of botanical remedies and founder of The Floating Apothecary, a herbal medicine practice based on the narrowboat she calls home. With a BSc (Hons) in Clinical Herbalism, she blends clinical practice, teaching and remedy-making to support health and wellbeing through the power of plants and nutrition. Claudia is particularly interested in the ways climate change is affecting medicinal plants, and in how herbal medicine can foster resilience for both individuals and communities. She is passionate to making herbal knowledge accessible and her work connects plant medicine with wider conversations around ecology and social justice.

@thefloatingapothecary

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Designing a London Garden

Dedicated to growing and gardening in London's unique micro-climate, this intensive one-day workshop will guide you through the essentials of making the most of the city's gardening potential. From initial site assessment to practical planting strategies, you'll learn to work with nature while being mindful of your environmental impact. Danny and our team have successfully created countless urban gardens and guided clients to make the most appropriate decisions, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience that will encourage you to consider your next steps when planning your own green space. Whether you're just starting your gardening journey or looking to revitalise an existing space, this workshop will energise and radicalise your thinking about creating your own distinct urban paradise.

Areas that will be considered during this session are:
● Site, aspect, boundaries, screening - satisfying nature's needs and our neighbours' aesthetic sensibilities
● Rising to the challenges of your own individual site
● Gardens as a contribution, rather than a drain on, resources
● Essential hard and soft landscaping decisions
● The Art of Planting - evergreen and deciduous - trees, shrubs, perennials, climbers - what, when, where and why for London's climate?

Participants are encouraged to bring along measurements of their gardens in metres and centimetres.

Meet Danny (he/him)

Danny (he/him) started his career as a maintenance gardener, later joining the RHS at Wisley to build community gardens. He was Education Manager at Walworth Garden for three years and now works as a gardener at Regent's Park University. Danny has a deep and long-standing relationship with plants, and loves nothing more than bringing their fascination closer to other people. He is constantly on the lookout for new and radical approaches to gardening and design, whether it be using alternative materials, unusual cultivars or simply fresh approaches to what a garden can be. Danny takes joy in teaching in the perfect classroom that is Walworth Garden where he specialises in our design courses and wildlife friendly approaches to gardening.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Wildlife Pond Making

One of the most effective things you can do for a garden’s ecosystem is create a wildlife pond, and we believe every garden should have one, no matter how small. It can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, and the rewards are endless. During this session you’ll learn how to create and maintain a wildlife pond for even the smallest of spaces, from something as simple as a bucket, to the benefit of your garden and local wildlife. You'll leave confident in installing and caring for one in your own garden.

This workshop will cover:

● The benefits of wildlife ponds for urban gardens

● How to construct a simple wildlife pond from simple, readily available materials such as buckets - as well as more elaborate liner ponds

● How to be sure your pond and garden are attracting and promoting wildlife

● How to maintain and care for your wildlife pond and keep it healthy

● Common pitfalls in pond building and maintenance

There will also be plenty of time for questions. Please note that we will not be discussing fish ponds.

Meet Jack (he/him)

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma course. He lives in South London and explores building complex ecosystems through experimental planting and habitat creation to benefit people and wildlife.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Scent-Based Tools for Everyday Balance

This workshop is designed to teach you about the power of scent to trigger positive emotional states within yourself. The aim is to give you a personal, portable and easy to use tool that can support you in your daily life in the way that you choose. 

We will learn about how scent, emotion and memory are interlinked and how they can be consciously connected to give us more control over our own internal responses.

We will discuss the concept of ‘anchoring’, why scent impacts us in the way it does, and practice ways of creating a positive link between a specific scent and a chosen emotional response. 

Meet Anna

Anna is a scent-cueing specialist whose work explores the impact of scent on emotional well-being and behaviour. With a background in the Science of the Senses, she has spent years studying the deep connection between scent and memory. In this workshop, Anna will help participants craft their own scent-based ‘anchor’ to reinforce positive emotional responses and foster a deeper sense of control.  

Price: £65/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘HALFSOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Scent-Based Tools for Everyday Balance

This workshop is designed to teach you about the power of scent to trigger positive emotional states within yourself. The aim is to give you a personal, portable and easy to use tool that can support you in your daily life in the way that you choose.

We will learn about how scent, emotion and memory are interlinked and how they can be consciously connected to give us more control over our own internal responses.

We will discuss the concept of ‘anchoring’, why scent impacts us in the way it does and practice ways of creating a positive link between a specific scent and a chosen emotional response.

Meet Anna

Anna Gilchrist is a scent-cueing specialist whose work explores the impact of scent on emotional well-being and behaviour. With a background in the Science of the Senses, she has spent years studying the deep connection between scent and memory. In this workshop, Anna will help participants craft their own scent-based ‘anchor’ to reinforce positive emotional responses and foster a deeper sense of control.

Price: £65/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘HALFSOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

If you would like a more in-depth version of this workshop, we are also running it in a 2-day version.

Meet Vittor (they/them)

Vittor is a London-based artist and Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, where they work closely with students and the seasons to nurture both plants and community across the site. For the past two years, they have served as Plant Centre Supervisor and have recently stepped into the role of Garden Education Officer.

With a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University and a Level 2 Work-Based Horticulture Diploma, Vittor moves fluidly between the garden and the studio, using colour and plant life to tell stories of transformation, memory, and belonging. Their work invites slowness, attention, and connection.

Vittor’s passion for gardening began in childhood, learning alongside their grandmother and mother. Growing plants together became a way to connect with the landscape and with one another, weaving care, memory, and tradition into each season. These early experiences nurtured a lasting appreciation for how gardens hold stories, strengthen relationships, and root us in place.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Container Gardening

This workshop is designed to share the methods to growing within the confines of containers, and transforming them into scaled-down gardens. We will decipher some of the skills, knowledge, and terminology to help you compose successful, long-lasting container gardens, from window boxes to small outdoor balconies and gardens.

This workshop will also be valuable to those who do have larger gardens to work with - one of the joys of pots and containers is that they can be moved! In bigger spaces, they can be brought into the fore to be celebrated, and then moved into the background while dormant, and we’ll also be covering how to manage this.

The session will explore:

● Types of containers, choosing plants that will work well in them, and grouping plants together

● High rise balconies and dealing with the exposure they might create for plants; artificial landscapes and how to deal with them for best effect

● Growing media - avoiding peat, what is available, what you can mix yourself, and what suits your plant choices

● Drainage, feeding, and other maintenance tasks to ensure ongoing success

Meet Danny (he/him)

Danny started his career as a maintenance gardener, later joining the RHS at Wisley to build community gardens. He was Education Manager at Walworth Garden for three years and now works as a gardener at Regent's Park University. Danny has a deep and long-standing relationship with plants, and loves nothing more than bringing their fascination closer to other people. He is constantly on the lookout for new and radical approaches to gardening and design, whether it be using alternative materials, unusual cultivars or simply fresh approaches to what a garden can be. Danny takes joy in teaching in the perfect classroom that is Walworth Garden where he specialises in our design courses and wildlife friendly approaches to gardening.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

If you would like a more in-depth version of this workshop, we are also running it in a 2-day version.

Meet Tracy

With an encyclopedic knowledge of plants and gardening, Tracy gives out wonderful advice to our community as a Walworth Garden Plant Centre Supervisor. She also shares her knowledge within our social and therapeutic programmes in gardening sessions for those with mental health difficulties and/or facing barriers to mental health care. As a former florist, Tracy’s creative skills with foliage are second to none.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Food Growing

In this popular introductory workshop, we’ll cover all of the basics you need to begin growing your own fruit and vegetables. Whilst one of the most satisfying parts of gardening, getting started can seem daunting: over the years we’ve pulled together a balanced (practical and discursive) one day course that empowers you with guiding principles and hands-on advice so that you can learn to grow simple, delicious and sustainably-grown food. The workshop will include:

• What to grow: how can you get the most out of your space?

• When to sow, transplant and harvest: how to do it

• Growing with the planet in mind: Organic approaches, Seed suppliers, fertilisers and composting

• Problem-solving: sustainable approaches to pests, disease and damage

• Technical skills: seed-sowing, pricking out, potting on

This forward-thinking workshop is an opportunity to rethink our approaches to garden design, planting, and all traditional gardening practices. As gardeners and allotmenteers, we often forget we act as custodians not only of the land but also of its inhabitants.  While traditional gardening encourages us to 'sanitise' our spaces by removing a range of ‘threats’, this works to alienate our wildlife and contribute to its decline.

Meet Jack (he/him)

Jack is a Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, teaching students on our Level 2 Practical Horticulture Skills Diploma course. He lives in South London and explores building complex ecosystems through experimental planting and habitat creation to benefit people and wildlife.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents

Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.

You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Fermentation: Creating Kombucha and Sauerkraut

This hands-on session is an opportunity to learn about fermentation, the benefits of fermentation and how to create ferments at home to support a healthier gut and reduce food waste. We will introduce the basics of fermentation and how fermented foods and drinks can help support a happy and healthy gut and mind, We will be sharing knowledge, skills and tips for participants on how to make a kraut using seasonal and local produce, pickling to reduce food waste as well as making a probiotic fizzy drink at home. This session is ideal for anyone who wishes to understand more about fermentation’s health benefits and for those who want to create ferments at home. No previous fermentation skills needed! Together we will cover:

• Health benefits of fermentation (‘gut-brain axis’)

• Safety and equipment needed to ferment at home

• Making a kombucha, first and second ferment

• Preparing and making a seasonal sauerkraut

• Reducing food waste through pickling

• Discussion about flavours and other ferments to try at home

You will leave this session with 3 ferments and the understanding and basic skills to continue at home.

Meet Candyce

Candyce Dryburgh is a baker, material researcher and self taught biologist. Her work focuses on using waste to investigate and create materials. Her passion is finding ways to reduce waste in the home by fermenting and also how to increase health through fermentation.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Digging into Soil

Did you know that there is more life in one teaspoon of soil than there are humans on Earth? Just a single teaspoon of healthy soil can contain over 8 billion microorganisms; these life-forms create an underground ecosystem that is fundamental to life as we know it. Often overlooked, it plays an absolutely vital role in our environment as a living, breathing system that supports the growth of plants, cycles nutrients, filters water, stores carbon, and even helps regulate the Earth's climate. This delicate balance of biology is essential for healthy ecosystems and for human survival yet it's under constant threat from erosion, pollution, deforestation, and unsustainable agricultural practices.

During this workshop we will be going down a worm-hole (pun intended) and digging deep into the subject of soil: what it is, how it is formed, how to manage it, and how to repair it. We will also be getting our hands dirty and testing soil samples for soil type, pH, and nutrients, and discussing the importance of soil biology and the necessity for living organisms to promote healthy soil.

This workshop will be mostly a theoretical and discussion based session, but there will be practical demonstrations and an opportunity to learn how to take and test soil samples.

You are welcome to bring along a small soil sample (100g or approximately a large handful) from you garden for testing. If you do so, please follow the following method for collecting a sample suitable for testing;

• Collect your sample from at least six inches below the soil surface

• Dry the sample (by placing it near a warm windowsill, or putting it in an oven on medium-heat until the soil feels dry to touch

(you may wish to collect several samples from across your site and combine these into one to achieve a representative sample of your site)

Meet Charlie

Charlie (he/him) is a Peckham local who is passionate about both the community and the environment. With a background in health and social care management, he is invested in promoting community involvement and environmental issues through organic gardening. Charlie is dedicated to landscape and planting design within urban environments, and is currently teaching the next generation of horticulturalists as a Garden Education Officer here at Walworth Garden.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Learning to Bud Graft Fruit Trees

Bud-grafting is something that few amateur gardeners seem to attempt, yet the principle is relatively simple. Like many things, it just takes practice and understanding of the theory behind the magic! Learn how to propagate apple and pear fruit trees by bud grafting in this practical workshop.

These skills are useful to anyone who wishes to propagate fruit and ornamental trees in their garden or allotment

● Learn the technical theory behind budding to propagate onto a variety of rootstock to produce upright, cordon, espalier and step-over trees

● Practice cutting and preparing your chosen bud wood

● Take away information on the choice of rootstocks appropriate for your garden

● Learn how to sharpen and maintain your secateurs and garden knives

● Gain practical bud-grafting experience

You will go away with your own bud grafted apple or pear tree. This course is suitable for those who, while new to grafting techniques, have some basic gardening knowledge and experience. Those who are studying a Level 2 or Level 3 course will find this workshop particularly useful. The course also covers the maintenance and sharpening of grafting knives.

The practical elements of the course will not be suitable for those who have mobility problems with their hands/fingers. We will be using very sharp knives which should be handled with great care.

Bring along your own secateurs and pruning knives if you have them.

Meet Sarah Foss

Sarah began her gardening journey in 2005, working with disabled people helping them to overcome ongoing mental ill-health by accessing gardening. She went on to run gardening projects and sessional tutoring for Age UK Merton and EcoLocal teaching, before completing the RHS Level 3 Diploma in Horticulture, and working as a Senior Tutor, delivering horticultural training to disabled adults, and teaching City and Guilds Practical Horticulture Courses to Level 2. Sarah has completed her RHS Master of Horticulture degree course with distinction and was the recipient of the RHS Chittenden award for coming top of her year group, she continues to pass on knowledge by teaching at EcoLocal, Sutton Parks Department, Imperial College London, Merton College and Walworth Garden. Sarah also works for the RHS as an examinations officer and assessor. In her spare time, Sarah looks after her own garden and allotment and enjoys cooking, sewing and yoga.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents

Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.

You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Queer Herbal Medicine

This discussion-based workshop is designed to explore how plants and herbal medicine can be supportive in exploring our own queer identities. We will walk through the garden to uncover stories of historical, literary and botanical links between herbs and queerness. We will then share a mystery tea together to explore ourselves through the discovery of a plant, using them as allies in learning about our own bodies. This will lead to discussing what is queer health and what role can herbal medicine play in it. This session is ideal for anyone who wants to interact with the herbal world through a queer perspective. 

Together we will explore:

• Literary and historical records linking herbs and people to various embodiments of attraction and gender, including myths and ancient recipes. 

• How botany breaks the binary and gives queer representation. 

• A blind tea tasting accompanied with writing, drawing and sharing our experience. 

• What is queer health and redefining care through a situated perspective. 

You will leave this session with many stories, and tools to continue your own queer herbal journey through observation, using the senses and art.

Meet Odhran (they/them)

Odhran is a medical herbalist living between London and France. Their practice involves the practical application of herbalism within local communities, researching herbal LGBT+ health, and the curiosity of seeing the world from non-human perspectives. They encourage the exploration of individuals’ subjective perspectives by involving all the senses, and by playing with the stories we learn and tell ourselves to make sense of the world. 

@mordicaherbs

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Sustainable and Resilient Succession Planting

This new workshop is designed as an opportunity to enhance your plant knowledge and to grow your confidence to successfully plan and maintain the succession of your planting within your garden. Succession planting in garden design is about planning the layout to ensure a continuous display of plants in bloom or something of interest. It involves carefully selecting and positioning plant varieties that will flower or showcase distinctive features at different times.

This session will give you an insight into the techniques in how you can create a dynamic display that changes with the seasons by integrating plants with varying flowering periods, foliage textures, and colours.

This workshop will be theoretical (classroom based) to learn about succession planting principles, practical (garden walk) to evaluate plants and sample plant combination in the garden and discussion based as an opportunity to view and discuss scenarios and to answer individual questions. This session will feature visual samples (photos) from the tutor’s garden projects showcasing expert succession planting for open discussion and question and answer opportunities.

This is a session we recommend to all with some gardening experience that would like to take the next step into creating a successful all year around every season display in their own or a communal garden. There will be a small practical exercise of creating a successional planting plan from a choice of plants to apply what has been discussed, to experiment with individual ideas and to take back as an inspiration for your own garden.

The aim of the course is for students to leave with an understanding on how to extend the season of interest in a garden for visual appeal but also for creating wider biodiversity and for the benefit of wildlife.

Together we will cover:

• Planning and evaluating

• Seasonal Interest

• Layered Planting

• Long-term Vision

• Biodiversity & Wildlife

We will share our tips on how to create and maintain a successional, biodiverse, and resilient garden with minimal use of resources to achieve maximum output for wildlife, wellbeing and enjoyment by welcoming life and colour into your space, through a design and installation that works for you.

Join us for this journey into the fundamentals of sustainable and resilient succession planting. We also encourage plenty of questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session.

Please bring along photos of the planting in your garden for the discussion session.

Please note this workshop refers to ornamental succession planting in a garden not the succession planting of vegetable gardening which is used to ensure a constant supply of fresh produce.

Meet Sophie (she/her)

Sophie, Deputy Head Gardener at the Inner Temple Garden takes a particular interest in biodiverse planting schemes for city greening focusing on sensible, resourceful, and sustainable horticultural practices. She graduated from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, followed by the Master of Horticulture with Distinction with the RHS. She also cultivates London’s only floating gardens in Bermondsey, a barge community of roof top gardens representing unique biodiverse resilient planting within a mild riverside microclimate. Sophie is passionate about the adaptation of horticultural practices as well as the creation of planting schemes for the current and future climate.

As a London gardener, Sophie is passionate about teaching and sharing horticultural knowledge, gardening skills and growing experiences with the community and to provide learning guidance and encouragement to anyone at any skill level to explore the pleasure and satisfaction in caring and developing their own or shared green spaces.

@innertemplegarden

@london.floating.gardens

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents

Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.

You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.

Workshop: Introduction to Gardening

One of our most popular workshops, Introduction to Gardening guides you through the approaches and essential knowledge that will help you to become a successful gardener. This is the first session we recommend to all with little or no gardening experience, and especially those hoping to begin gardening at home in their houses, balconies, or gardens. Join us in our award-winning and sumptuously-planted garden for this primary insight into the fundamentals of sustainable and future-facing gardening. We also allow (and encourage!) plenty of time for questions, and welcome discussion in shaping the session. This session will cover:

• Growing media, compost and soil

• The basics of propagation

• What to grow that's easy

• Gardening with nature

• Pruning

• Pests and diseases - avoidance tactics that are kind to the ecosystem

• Right plant, right place and aspect - considerations for planning

Please note that for those interested in learning to grow food, we have another course called ‘Introduction to Food Growing’.

If you would like a more in-depth version of this workshop, we are also running it in a 2-day version.

Meet Vittor (they/them)

Vittor is a London-based artist and Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, where they work closely with students and the seasons to nurture both plants and community across the site. For the past two years, they have served as Plant Centre Supervisor and have recently stepped into the role of Garden Education Officer.

With a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University and a Level 2 Work-Based Horticulture Diploma, Vittor moves fluidly between the garden and the studio, using colour and plant life to tell stories of transformation, memory, and belonging. Their work invites slowness, attention, and connection.

Vittor’s passion for gardening began in childhood, learning alongside their grandmother and mother. Growing plants together became a way to connect with the landscape and with one another, weaving care, memory, and tradition into each season. These early experiences nurtured a lasting appreciation for how gardens hold stories, strengthen relationships, and root us in place.

Price: £85/ Free for Southwark residents
Free places are available for Southwark residents aged 19+. Each resident can claim 1 place per academic year (Sept 25- Jul 26). To check whether you are eligible, please click here.

To claim your free place, click ‘Book Here’ below, and enter code ‘SOUTHWARK26’ under ‘Redeem Coupon’.
You will then be charged a £10 deposit in order to claim your place, this deposit will be refunded to you after you attend the workshop.

Please note that you will be required to fill in a Southwark Council form, including some personal information, in order to confirm your place on a workshop. Your place will not be confirmed until this has been completed in full.