The Patchworking Academy Students turned the tables on their tutors by setting them homework for the Summer School this year.

Running just half a day two days a week the Summer School gives the students the opportunity to tend and harvest their crops during August.

It also gives them the chance to learn new topics of their choice outside the curriculum of their City & Guilds Practical Horticulture Course.

But it also means the tutors had to study hard to learn about the students’ choices.

This summer they explored, amongst other things, Horticulture in the Amazon; the Anatomy of Plants; the Art of Composting; Plant Evolution; Hybridisation and Permaculture.

Planned for the future are Ecosystems; Plant Histories; Farming Practice and, maybe for the winter break, David Attenborough’s DVDs.

By the way – the students reaped amazing harvests from their plots, including tomatoes; carrots;, lettuce; corn, beans – beans and more beans.