Come and meet community gardeners from all over County Durham for a site tour, sessions on the basics of food growing, and a herbal tea-making workshop.

Our hosts from Spennymoor Youth and Community Association will give us a site tour of the Community Garden. 

We’ll be joined by Howard Leslie from Houghall, East Durham College, for a session on food growing skills for beginners. Howard will cover topics such as seed sowing, tool use and maintenance, veg garden crop rotation, maintaining soil health, crop protection and composting, as well as anything else you want to find out more about.  Josh and Amy from Food Durham / OASES will also be on hand to advise on getting the most out of your growing spaces.

We’ll also be joined by Lauren, market gardener at Abundant Earth, who will be sharing her knowledge on foraging, growing and drying herbs for making herbal teas.  Lauren’s growing experience, over the last 10 years, started with voluntary projects and community gardens before she started at Abundant Earth, 6 years ago, where she cultivates a herbal medicine garden. Join Lauren’s workshop to discover local, wild forageable herbs and herbs you can grow in your garden, as well as how to dry & store them, methods of using them and what they can help with. Have a go at making your own tea mix, including some of what is in season now: mint, chamomile, elderflower, rose, nettle, mugwort, clover, plantain, calendula, sage, rosemary, feverfew and meadowsweet, ladies’ mantle, raspberry leaf and lemon balm.  There will be herbs available for everyone to take home.    

Where: Spennymoor & Tudhoe Community Garden, DL16 6HW – parking available before 5.00 pm at Avuri Indian Restaurant, DL16 6HQ, a short footpath walk from the garden. 

Who’s it for?  For anyone involved in, or curious about, community food growing in County Durham, from novices to experienced growers, come and learn and share what we know.  

Further details:

Bring a mug for tea and any produce/seedlings/seeds you want to share/sell/swap. Also, feel free to bring a fold-out chair if you’d like to sit down for the event.

Please note, there are no toilet facilities at the site.

We advise sturdy shoes (no flip flops or sandals) and waterproof clothes/hats/suncream depending on the weather. 

In the event of a downpour, we can head into the polytunnel.

When you sign up, please inform us of any food allergies and anything else we need to be aware of.  

This event is being jointly delivered by Durham Community Action and OASES.  There is no cost to attend the event (thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund) but please do sign up to secure a space, as numbers are limited.

For any enquiries please email Amy: fooddurham@oases.org.uk