About the school

Less perfect gardens. More happy growers.

Loamstead is a small, independent gardening school on a walled plot at the edge of Pershore. We believe useful skills grow best when nobody is afraid to ask a question.

Hand-drawn map of the Walled Plot: the gate and car park on Wyre Road, the barn, compost bays, polytunnel, twelve teaching beds, a pond, the orchard and the boundary hedge, with espalier pears along the south wall — Fig. 03 · The Walled PlotTwo acres

A note from Eudora

I started with one pot, and rather too much water.

Before teaching, I spent ten years growing vegetables in a narrow rented yard. I tried seed trays on every windowsill, made compost in a borrowed bin and learnt that a failed crop is a useful note, not a verdict.

Loamstead began in 2014 as a few Saturday afternoons around a neighbour’s raised bed. When the old market garden behind the brick wall on Wyre Road came up for rent, we took it on, cleared the brambles with our first learners and built the beds you will work in today.

We still teach small groups, explain the why as well as the how, and send everyone home with something growing and a practical next step.

Eudora Wickmere

Founder and tutor

learners since 2014: 1,800
people in a group, at most: 10
acres behind the wall: 2
pesticides used, ever: 0

Our tutors

Three growers who like to explain.

How we work

Three things we stand by.

Use what you have

Good growing doesn’t need a shopping list of gadgets. We start with your space, your time and your budget, and we never sell you anything on a course.

Notice before doing

Watch the light, touch the soil, look at the leaves. A little observation is worth a lot of rushing, so every course starts with a slow walk round the plot.

Leave room for nature

We feed the soil, leave the nettles in one corner and lay our own hedge. A garden is a shared space, and the thrushes deal with our snails.

Come as you are.

Complete beginners, serial plant rescuers and quietly curious people are all welcome. You never need to know the right words.

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