Claire Ratinon

Claire Ratinon began her growing career on a New York City rooftop and now writes a regular Guardian magazine column on cultivating food organically. She has grown produce for Ottolenghi's Rovi, contributes to Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, and authored How To Grow Your Dinner Without Leaving The House — a celebration of what's possible from a windowsill or balcony.

Organic food grower, writer and gardening columnist for The Guardian. Author of Unearthed.

Course

Grow Your Own Food

Discover the joy of growing your own food, no matter how small your garden. In this hands-on course, organic food grower Claire Ratinon will equip you with the skills you need to embark on your own vegetable growing journey, teaching you how to grow organically, in tune with the rhythms of the natural world. Learn how to tackle every step of the process, from assessing your space and planning your growing season to raising healthy plants and composting, harvesting and container growing. Ideal for gardening enthusiasts and beginners who want to create an environment of bountiful biodiversity and year-round crops, in even the most modest of spaces.

24 Lessons

Included with membership

Lesson plan — 24 lessons

01 Getting Started with Food Growing

01 Meet Claire
02 An organic approach to growing
03 The importance of note-taking
04 What to consider before you start

02 Essential Tools and Garden Design

05 Claire’s essential toolkit
06 Designing your garden
07 Claire’s vegetable garden
08 How to choose what to grow

03 Seed Sowing and Plant Care

09 Sowing seeds
10 Raising plants
11 Planting out young lettuces
12 Supporting the growth of your plants
13 Taking care of your tomato plants
14 Growing in the greenhouse
15 Troubleshooting in the veg patch

04 Harvesting and Beyond

16 Harvesting - Part 1
17 Perennial fruits
18 Harvesting - Part 2
19 Composting
20 Growing your plants in containers
21 Companion planting
22 Seed saving
23 A note on weeds
24 Summary

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“Create Academy has been such a great resource. I'm in the middle of renovating a bungalow with a very large garden and the courses have offered a wealth of information to dive into and explore new ideas. I'm loving Ni...”

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