Growing Veg from Seed with Louise

Join us at 5pm for food and refreshments

There’s nothing like eating a vegetable you have helped to grow - and you don’t need lots of space or any fancy tools to do it. This week’s class host, Louise, is passionate about demystifying gardening and showing that all of us can grow our own fruit and veg. In this session, she will guide us to plant a vegetable seed in a temporary pot made from newspaper, which we can take home to sprout. The seedlings can then be planted in the ground or in planters (if you made one after Ernie’s class earlier in May, now is it’s time to shine!). There will also be space for sharing questions and ideas about growing at home and in our neighbourhoods. Everyone welcome.

Neighbourhood Trade School is based on the principle that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn. We invite each class host to choose items that they would find useful and delightful to receive in return for their time and experience in sharing a skill, so we invite you to explore which of our host's barter items you would like to bring along with you, if you are able to do so.

Louise's Barter List:

• Woodworking skills - how to make a hinged lid for a planter
• Ahead of the class, join Retrofit Balsall Heath Open Day on 18 May

Since getting an allotment four years ago, Louise has become passionate about showing that gardening is for everyone, and doesn’t require any unusual skills or specialist equipment. Louise is inspired by ‘growing our own’ as a way to access tasty, healthy and affordable food, cut food miles, reduce pesticide use and improve wellbeing, and has recently started teaching vegetable-growing classes to share this inspiration with others. Having previously worked in pastoral care in further education, Louise describes this work as being a form of pastoral care that looks after both people and the planet. She is a member of Balsall Heath Retrofit and Extinction Rebellion.

Neighbourhood Trade School is based on the principle that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn.

What if we could activate the potential in our homes, streets, libraries, playgrounds, schools and more as places to exchange learning together in a kind, joyful, noble and intergenerational way that is available to all of us?

We invite you to explore how exchanging skills and knowledge of many forms can make our neighbourhoods resilient to the challenges and opportunities we will face together, now and in the future. Discover what you’d love to share or learn more about, as we shape Neighbourhood Trade School together.

The Midland Sailing Club site is accessible from the footpath around Edgbaston Reservoir. You can walk or ride your bike, or reach the site via bus route 80, which stops on Icknield Port Road or 82, 87, 89, 11 which stop a short walk away on Dudley Road. We encourage arriving by foot or public transport where possible. If arriving by car, you can park inside the gates at the Icknield Port Road entrance.

Our Monthly Supper Club takes place in the main room upstairs. There is a lift up to the Midland Sailing Club, and please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements so we can assist you.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Midland Sailing Club, Icknield Port Road, Birmingham, United Kingdom