Just because you live in an urban jungle like London, it doesn’t mean that the joys of gardening are beyond your grasp. For many Londoners, time spent tending to plants is the perfect antidote to the stresses of city living. We take a look at green-fingered pursuits and course ideas to inspire you…

Gardening and agricultural pursuits are not just for country dwellers! The combination of being outdoors, doing physical work and seeing the results of your efforts can provide a satisfying release from city life and a sedentary office job. There has been increased interest in ‘green’ skills over the last decade, as many people realise the importance of maintaining our green spaces and the value of agricultural knowledge.

The UK’s obsession with gardening programmes such as Gardeners’ World continues unabated, and the Sunday scramble at garden centres across the country is testament to our green-fingered ambitions. And with much of our supermarket-bought food treated with pesticides and fertilisers, it’s reassuring to produce fruit, herbs and vegetables that you’ve grown with care and attention, without chemicals.
The popularity of gardening is proved by the fact that London’s allotments are getting extremely hard to come by – in some areas of the capital you might have put to your name on a waiting list for a few years. Why not use the waiting time to go on a course and learn all about growing, then practise on a smaller  scale before you commit to a full-on allotment? By the time you get your plot, you’ll be prepared with a better idea of how to manage the land and effectively plan your yearly planting.

If you take a course to learn all you need to know about gardening on a small scale, you can start planting almost anywhere. We’re not suggesting that you start to plant in your local park in the dead of night, or on motorway verges – although some so-called ‘guerilla gardeners’ have been known to do this – as all you need is a small sunny patch of ground and a little gardening know-how to make your horticultural dreams reality.

Home-grown
Imagine being able to grow fresh herbs to serve all your culinary needs. Need a fresh sprig of rosemary to add to your Sunday roast lamb, or a handful of mint for an impromptu pot of mint tea? Just think how wonderful it would be to stroll into your garden and pick exactly what you need. Cost-effective – and immensely satisfying, too.

Even if you’re not lucky enough to have a large garden or an allotment plot to call your own, a small patio space, balcony or even just a sunny window ledge can be all you need to start growing herbs for your kitchen. Fresh herbs are relatively easy to tend and grow, smell wonderful and can often be cultivated by even the most inexperienced of gardeners.

If you’re keen to grow herbs like chives, mint, basil, rosemary and thyme but don’t have a clue where to start, it might be worth investigating the array of gardening courses in London specifically aimed at the first-timer. There are lots of colleges who offer short gardening courses to cater for all needs. Capel Manor runs courses in gardening, garden design, aboriculture, animal care and horticulture.

The cash-strapped Londoner might be pleased to hear about a course run by South Thames College called Gardening on a Budget, which is aimed at new gardeners with limited funds. The course teaches the basics of sowing seeds, nurturing seedlings and maintaining plants, and shows you how to grow things as economically as possible. You’ll be able to reduce your food budget by growing salad plants, and provide healthy food for your family at the same time as saving money.

Get qualified
Want to take it further? You could enrol on a professionally recognised course like the Royal Horticultural Society’s range of qualifications. You’ll learn about plant taxonomy and structure, plant health, root systems, plant nutrition and propagation. It will help you to plan, establish and maintain a garden environment, and could even be a springboard to a new career.

Capel Manor’s Birkbeck-accredited garden design course will teach you about planting, design and technical drawing – and could set you up for starting a garden-design company. Kingston Adult Education’s courses include Garden Design for Beginners, Royal Horticultural Certificates in Principles of Garden Planning and RHS Practical Horticulture.

Garden inspiration
There are plenty of places to visit while you’re studying. The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, for example, offers the average Londoner plenty of inspiration throughout the year. They also run a range of courses from Botanical Illustration to Tropical Plant Identification, teach keen gardeners about creating the perfect pristine lawn, and run free walking tours.

You could also take time to visit some of London’s little-known gems like the gardens at Capel Manor, Hampton Court Gardens, the Geffrye Museum’s classic herb and period gardens, and the delightful Chelsea Physic Garden – England’s second-oldest botanic garden, which boasts a variety of medicinal plants and one of the oldest rock gardens in Europe.

So whether you are keen to plant a small edible garden on a budget, identify and propagate different plants, plant a garden to attract the UK’s native insect species, or earn a qualification and use it to change careers, you’ll find plenty of inspiration on our website.