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EUROPEAN GARDEN HERITAGE NETWORK – EGHN

“Best Practice in Garden Conservation” – Webinars and Workshops

Airial View of Vea Fagskole

The Erasmus+ project “Craft Skills for Garden Conservation” (CSGC) gives all people interested in heritage gardens upskilling opportunities. Join us for the first two webinars in February!

Heritage gardens encapsulate so much of the natural and cultural capital and require a huge amount of knowledge and skill. But both are in increasingly short supply. CSGC aims to address this problem by finding best practice in nine selected fields of Garden Conservation (as below) and by facilitating arenas for learning and sharing.

Read more about the project here.

During a period of three years, several activities will be arranged:
– nine all-day winter webinars will introduce one topic of Garden Conservation each and to prepare the following thematic workshop
– nine practical workshops to explore and to train the practical skills required
– five cross-cutting seminars/conferences for the dissemination and sharing.

Read more about the project and recent news on the project website of the project leader Vea – Norway’s green vocational college.

Three webinars (soil, lawns and meadows, trained fruit) have been organised so far and the recordings can be found on the project’s website.

Join us, by following the apply button on the project’s website, for the first three practical workshops during this summer:

 

Practical workshop ‘Soil Management in Historic Gardens’, 24.-25. May

The two days practical workshop is hosted by Norges grønne fagskole – Vea in May. The starting point is Olav L. Moen’s garden plan for Vea from 1924. Garden archaeology is first on the agenda by opening a 1920 – 1980 flower border searching for edges of the bed and gravel walk. A visit to Oplandske bioenergi, and Bergevika lime quarry and Hovelsrud garden on Helgøya is on the menu in the practical workshop – together with «Preparing lime, – hot mix», «How to make your own biochar» and the making of loam stacks by using 3-4 different recipes and more. Have a look at the program for more information.

The participation in the workshop is free, but everyone must cover their own expenses connected to travelling, board and lodging. Staying at Vea costs about 60€ per night, all included. Travelling expenses during the workshop are maximum 30€.

 

‘Lawns and meadow’-workshop at Gunnebo, 7.-10. June

On the 7th to 10th of June 2022 you may get the chance to visit beautiful Gunnebo House and Gardens, near Gothenburg, in Sweden – and join the second practical workshop in the Craft Skills for Garden Conservation-project. Gunnebo is hosting this four days workshop, with the topic ‘Lawns and meadow cultivation in Historic Gardens’ which is a follow up on the webinar earlier this year.

Lawns in historic gardens are rarely seen as of cultural or historical value. In fact they can often harbour rich seedbanks valuable for biodiversity whilst expressing the more intangible heritage of the traditional craft skills required to maintain them. Both physical and cultural aspects will therefore be considered alongside the environmental imperative to try to counter climate change.

 

‘Trained Fruit-workshop’ at Audley End, 30.-31. August

Audley End, not far from the city of Cambridge, is the venue for our Trained Fruit in Historic Kitchen Gardens-workshop. Their kitchen garden is over a hectare, with espaliered pears, condons, fan trained plums and figs and apples, – in other words – the perfect venue for our practical workshop in Trained Fruit. And after you have looked at the video, we are sure you want to join us for the workshop in August.

 

Overview of all activities:

Soil management in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 08.02.2022 (online); Workshop: 24.-25.05.2022 (Norway)

Lawns and Meadows in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 22.02.2022 (online); Workshop: 07.-10.06.2022 (Sweden)

Trained Fruit Trees in Historic Kitchen Gardens
Webinar: 15.03.2022 (online); Workshop: 30.-31.08.2022 (UK)

Ornamental Plants in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 15.11.2022 (online); Workshop: 20.-21.06.2023 (UK)

Trees in Historic Gardens in Climate Change
Webinar: 10.01.2023 (online); Workshop: 05.-06.09.2023 (Germany)

Hedges and Topiary Cultivation in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 24.01.2023 (online); Workshop: 12.-13.09.2023 (Sweden)

Management of Orangery Plants in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 07.11.2023 (online); Workshop: 05.-06.03.2024 (Germany)

Pathway and Stone Wall Management in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 21.21.2023 (online); Workshop: 07.-08.05.2024 (Sweden)

Ponds and Fountains in Historic Gardens
Webinar: 16.01.2024 (online); Workshop: 04.-05.06.2024 (Russia)

Participation in the webinars is free of charge. There might be small fees for the workshops to cover meals and local transport.

This is our partnership for this Erasmus+ project:

Norway:
Norges grønne fagskole – VEA (Project Lead)
EUROMASC 

Russia:
Summer Garden in St. Petersburg (EGHN partner)

Sweden:
Gunnebo House and Gardens (EGHN partner)
Craft Laboratory at the Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg

UK:
PlantNetwork

Germany:
Stiftung Schloss Dyck
European Garden Heritage Network

All partners contribute to the finance of the project, but implementation would not be possible without the funding by the Erasmus+ Programme.