The First Four Modules

The Soil
A healthy soil is the foundation of sustainable land use. This module shows you how to get to know the soil and understand it as a living ecosystem. We also look at how to work with the soil, including techniques such as composting, green manuring and preparing compost tea.

Topics in this Module:

1 Soil Fertility
What do we mean by a fertile soil, and what factors make one soil more fertile than another?

2 Soil Assessment
This topic shows you how to examine the soil and assess its fertility.

3 To Till or Not to Till?
Tilling means digging or ploughing. This topic gives reasons both for and against tilling.

4 Soil Care
A practical guide to working with the soil from a permaculture perspective.

Ecology
Natural ecosystems are the model for sustainable use of the land. In this module we look at how plants, animals, climate and soil interact to make a functioning ecosystem. Then we take this knowledge and see how it can be used in practical ways to make our work with the land both more productive and more sustainable. These twin themes run right through the module

Topics in this Module

1 Ecological Principles
Every ecosystem is gloriously unique but there are some common threads with run through them all. These are the ecological principles and in this topic we look at those principles which are most relevant to sustainable land use.

2 Abiotic Interactions
Abiotic means non-living and the main abiotic influences on plants and animals are soil and climate. As we have covered soil in the previous module here we focus mainly on how living things respond to climatic factors.

3 Biotic Interactions
Here we look at how plants and animals respond to biotic influences, that is those coming from other living things.

4 Human Influences
Understanding how people affect ecosystems is an essential step to making our place in them more sustainable. This topic describes the general patterns that commonly occur when people intervene.

5 Ecological Evaluation
While the previous three topics are mainly about observation, this one is about using the knowledge gained from those observations to assess the sustainability of a farm, garden or other area of managed land.

Organic Horticulture
This module provides an in introduction to growing fruit and vegetables the natural way. It’s applicable both to home gardening and to producing for the market on a small scale. It’s suitable for beginners but people with some gardening experience will also find it useful.

Topics in this Module

1 Plant Propagation
The most formative part of the life of any living being is the earliest part. This topic covers seed sowing, cuttings and other ways of reproducing plants.

2 Weeds, Pests and Diseases.
Nowhere is there more divergence between organic and conventional growing than here, where the conventional grower is most likely to reach for the crop sprayer. The organic approach is not to substitute chemical sprays with organically approved ones but to avoid the need to spray altogether.

3 Gardening Through the Year
This topic centres on an audio slide show in which our horticulture tutor, Jo Newton, takes you on a tour through the wheel of the year, full of gardening lore and experience. It also includes information on protected cropping, storage and crop rotation.

4 Fruit and Nuts
This topic will help you to decide: how to choose which fruits to grow, how to choose a suitable site or make the best use of the site you have, and what style of growing will suit you best. Nuts as a staple food have many ecological advantages, and an introduction to growing them in Britain is included.

5 Next Steps
Having covered the basics of organic horticulture, we look at some slightly more specialised aspects: seed saving, biodynamic growing and the biointensive system. All three are well within the scope of home gardeners and small-scale producers.

Sustainable Forestry
Woodland is an ecosystem which can have many ecological benefits while also providing us with some of the resources we need. This module show how we can bring both these aims together through techniques of sound ecological management.

Topics in this Module

1 Outputs
Whether you're planting a new wood or deciding how to manage an existing one, it's essential to have a clear idea of the possible outputs. Some of these are economic, others are social and ecological.

2 New Plantings
This topic looks at the design of new plantings. Choice of site, choice of species and the layout of the planting are the main themes and there are also key tips on how to plant trees successfully.

3 Woodland Assessment
Woods and plantations come in all shapes and sizes. This topic helps you to recognise what you've got - the essential first step before deciding on a management plan.

4 Woodland Management
Here we look at the various ways in which existing woodland can be managed. The topic covers both traditional coppice systems and high forest timber production.

5 Urban and Community Forestry
Much of the material in the previous topics applies as much to urban trees and woodland as it does to rural ones. Here we look at those aspects which are specifically urban.