Homes and GardensExcellent Advice on Better Homes and Lovely Gardens

You’ve been bitten by the gardening bug, and you’ve got it bad!  Your family and friends love the fresh produce and the healthy meals you’ve created. You enjoy the feeling of working close to nature, learning its rhythms and getting your hands more than a little dirty. Now your imagining how you can go even further with the whole “urban farmer” thing. Can you keep your own poultry? What about bees? How hard could it be?  And how could you learn?

Poultry Keeping: Don’t Be Chicken!

MyGardenSchool’s video course on poultry keeping, “How to Keep Hens in Your Garden,” is a four-weeks-long series taught by author and hen enthusiast Francine Raymond. In these lessons, she’ll teach you how to choose the right hens for your needs, garden size, and family. You’ll learn where to house them, what to feed them, and how to recognize when vet care might be necessary. Ms. Raymond keeps hens herself and is well-aware of the challenges new poultry-keepers experience and provides workable solutions for common concerns. Her course celebrates the natural link between your garden, the hens, and the table. Hens will eat many common garden pests and, with their appetite for seeds, keep the weed population down; their droppings make excellent fertiliser. The fresh eggs they provide are a healthy bonus, as is the benefit your family receives from interacting with them. For more information about this inspiring course, as well as a video preview, visit my-garden-school.com/course/how-to-keep-hens-in-your-garden.

The Buzz on Beekeeping

Beekeeping isn’t just for elderly detectives on the Sussex Downs. You can bring honeybees into your garden for natural pollination and the occasional honey treat. This course, presented by beekeeper Philip Chandler, emphasizes natural beekeeping, or keeping bees for themselves, rather than to produce honey on a large scale. The four-week series covers the natural history of bees, their complex societies, and how they interact with flowering plants, obtaining nourishment and conducting pollination.

You’ll learn how to construct a top-bar beehive using reclaimed materials and simple carpentry skills, and how to obtain and add bees, and how to manage and “supervise” them safely, and with the least possible interference. The course director recommends that students take advantage of local beekeeping societies to observe and learn more about beekeeping, hands-on, with experienced keepers. For more information and a preview, go to my-garden-school.com/course/introduction-to-natural-beekeeping.

After centuries of living as part of the natural world, we’ve gradually distanced ourselves from it.  MyGardenSchool.com provides expert-led, affordable courses on how you and your family can experience the joys and healthy benefits of living closer to nature, whether you live in an urban flat or a rural cottage. Visit our website to learn more!