Grow Your Own Herbs Day Course 

with Melissa Harvey and Frances Tophill

Date: Sunday 28 th September 2025

Time: 10-4pm

Join us this Autumn for a one day course with Melissa Harvey and Frances Tophill and learn how to grow your own herbs.

About your facilitators

  • Melissa is a grower, teacher, composter, community herbalist and trainee medical herbalist. She has been based at the School Farm CSA site for over 10 years, and set up Wyse Worts plant nursery, growing and selling medicinal and culinary herb plants, in 2020. The aims of the nursery include encouraging more people to grow and incorporate herbs into their everyday lives, as well as to facilitate better connections between people and the more unusual medicinal plants they might take. Alongside this, she teaches plant and soil ecology on the regenerative land-based systems at the Apricot Centre, and works with Sustainable South Hams on community composting. 

  • Frances is a horticulturists and environmentalist with a passion for useful plants and their stories. With many years of experience in gardens, conservation projects and nurseries she has learnt the skills of propagating plants and nurtured a love for this activity that never fails to give hope for a greener future. She is also a presenter on BBC Gardener’s world, has authored a number of books and is a regular contributor to gardening publications. 

About the course:

Course Outline:   

This one-day course aims to give you a comprehensive overview of spring-time propagating herbs through seeds, division, stem and root cuttings as well as aftercare for new plants. We will explore some of the methods specific to propagating herbs, including looking at the different conditions that herb seeds need to germinate, some of the different composts, pots and modules you can use, and top tips on keeping your plants healthy. There will be opportunities to get some practical propagation experience and you will leave the session with a new collection of herbs for you to nurture and grow on.

Topics include:

  • Plant life cycles and growth forms

  • The wheel of the year in the herb garden

  • How to wake up seeds

  • Seed saving and storage

  • Vegetative propagation

  • How to take care of your newly propagated plants

The course will take place outdoors at the Community Herb Garden at School Farm CSA. We have outdoor sheltered spaces to keep us dry, including an outdoor kitchen/workshop space and a sheltered fire area. 

Materials and refreshments will be provided. Optional vegan lunch is available at an extra charge.

Cost and Booking: 

Ticket price includes all materials, including plants and seeds to take home. All profits go back into supporting our community herb garden.

We would like to acknowledge that similar full-day herb growing courses with this level of expertise are usually valued at £100–£150. We’ve chosen to offer ours at a lower price to keep it accessible to our community, while still fairly covering our costs.

Please choose the ticket price that feels right for you:

Standard ticket: £75

This is the regular price and helps us fairly pay our facilitators, cover admin, and run the workshop.

Supporter ticket: £90

If you are able to contribute a little extra you’ll be directly helping to fund concession places for people on low incomes, making sure our workshop is open to all.

Optional lunch: £5 |  hearty vegan autumn lunch with local sourdough bread. Unfortunately we do not cater for allergies. 

Concessionary places: We have a very limited number of concessionary places available for folks on low incomes and who cannot afford the full course costs, please get in touch if you are interested: hello@radicalplantfolk.com

However you choose to book, thank you — your support helps the garden grow, and we can’t wait to welcome you.