[Hannah Weller]

Hannah Weller

27/01/2025 at 11:04 am #86266

Lovebrook Market Gardening Traineeship 2025
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Lovebrook is an ecological community wellbeing project, based in the beautiful South Downs village of Kingston. This ambitious, for-benefit project includes market garden, orchard, farm shop, veg box scheme, volunteer days, therapeutic work, laying hens and seasonal camping. We farm regeneratively with no dig beds, zero chemical inputs, and we incorporate low impact and permaculture principles throughout. Since 2023 we have offered a traineeship, alongside our community volunteer days. This is for participants who wish to undertake a commitment to a full season on the land, and deepen their knowledge of market gardening. Participants will learn from our head trainer, following a weekly structured curriculum, plus invitations for home study, weekly reflections and a final project. This course will make an excellent preparation for taking the next steps into employment in regenerative agriculture, or for people wishing to apply the knowledge to their own community projects or land based work. We follow the Future Farmers framework issued by The Landworkers Alliance, to inform our curriculum and guide our training.

Outline of traineeship:

* Weekly Fridays 9.30am-3.30pm. March 7th – Oct 31st 2025
* Optional once-monthly winter extension Nov, Dec 2025, Jan, Feb 2026
* Location: Lovebrook, The Street, Kingson, BN7 3NT
* The training will be a blend of hands-on practical training, group discussion and trainer-led sessions, along with neighbouring farm visits, and signposts to home study, research, and other extended learning opportunities.
* Each participant will also be guided to complete a finishing project, to prepare a design for their own market garden.
* General topics we aim to cover, specific to our site are:
Site selection and suitability – Soil health and fertility building – Crop rotation – Cultivation – Propagation – Crop production – Green manures – Record keeping – Weeds – Business management – Pests and diseases – Harvesting/packing – Planting plan – Seed Saving
* Our trainer Kate is also a fabulous flower grower, so cut flowers will feature as well as veg, herbs & fruit.

* Applicants should have some degree of knowledge or experience of growing already. Perhaps you have done some Woofing or community volunteering, maybe you are a keen home grower, or have an allotment. Most importantly, you want to take the next step towards incorporating regenerative agriculture into your community or your career.

* On completion of the course, participants will receive a certificate of completion, and a letter of recommendation, outlining what they have covered during the course

Costs:
We have generously received funding towards the course, which means we can offer it for free. We actively encourage applications from people who may be experiencing economic or other barriers to accessing training. Please only apply if you can commit fully to the whole course.

Application form link is here:https://forms.gle/VFAXWYg9kgPoD7qN7
Closing date for applications 3rd Feb 2025
For more info contact Hannah Weller: hannah@lovebrook.org