Course in development
Growing Skills
For anyone growing food in a small space who wants to get the hands-on techniques right — whichever of the three space courses you're following, or none of them yet.
Course in development. We're building the lessons for this course. You can explore the planned learning journey below, but lessons are not yet available.
What you'll be working towards
Confidence carrying out the practical techniques container growing actually depends on — sowing, transplanting, watering, feeding, supporting and harvesting — well enough to apply them to whatever you're growing, in whichever space.
How this relates to the space courses
Grow Food on a Windowsill, on a Balcony, and on a Patio each teach you where and what to grow for that specific space. Growing Skills teaches the techniques themselves — for example, a balcony lesson explaining when a seedling needs transplanting is intended to link directly to the relevant lesson here, rather than re-explaining the technique itself. You don't need to complete this course before starting or finishing a space course, and individual techniques are intended to be accessible on their own, as you need them — not as one compulsory sequence.
The planned journey
The techniques this course is being built around — not a required order, since you're intended to be able to reach any one of them on its own once this course exists.
- Using small-space toolsThe handful of tools that actually earn their space in a small growing setup, and how to use them.
- Sowing seedsGetting a seed to reliably germinate in a container, indoors or out.
- Transplanting seedlingsMoving a seedling on without setting it back — when it's ready, and how to do it without damaging it.
- Watering and feedingReading what a plant actually needs, rather than watering and feeding on a fixed schedule.
- Supporting plantsStaking, tying in, and giving a plant the physical support a container can't provide on its own.
- Pruning appropriatelyWhen pruning actually helps a plant, and when it's better left alone.
- HarvestingRecognising readiness and harvesting in a way that keeps a plant producing, where that applies.