Diana Cole of ACS Distance Education visits The Edible Garden Show and Good Life Live held at NAEC, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire
This month I attended the Edible Garden Show for three days from 11 - 13 March 2016. It is the UK’s ultimate ‘Grow Your Own’ event, and high quality products, home-grown produce, food and livestock were on show. There were also celebrities in attendance giving talks.
ACS Distance Education had a Stand in one of the Halls, and I (plus another two Horticultural colleagues) were publicising our distance learning courses (modules of 20 hours and 100 hours duration). ACS Distance Education was established in 1979 with the aim of providing a distance learning courses and has more than 3,000 students at the current time.
Students study these courses at home. The courses are supplied on a disc for a personal computer, or on-line. Both methods of study allow for course information to be printed out if desired by the student. Practical tasks are set for students to do which reinforces the learning, and short assignments are then completed.
I specialise in horticulture, garden design & landscaping, sustainability and permaculture so it was great to see gardening specialists Pippa Greenwood (a pest and disease expert) and James Wong (an expert in growing vegetables and other edibles) at the Show. They were giving specialist talks on their favourite topics. Along with Christine Walken, they were also there to record BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time (GQT) live at the Show (broadcast Sunday 20 March).
The Show’s subject matter was very relevant to the courses ACS Distance Education provides: Permaculture, Agriculture, Self Sufficiency, Horticulture, Horticultural Therapy, Herbs, Nature, Wildlife, Ecology, as well as Botany, Hydroponics, Environmental Studies, Eco-tourism,
Gardening and Animal Care.
ACS Distance Education offer over 600 courses on a wide variety of subjects, including Horticulture, Agriculture, Health, Fitness and Recreation. For March and April we have a great selection of courses on Special Offer to tie in with The Edible Garden Show and Good Life Live, please visit our Spring Special Offers on Distance Learning Courses page for more information on the offers which include:
HORTICULTURE I BHT101
PERMACULTURE SYSTEMS BHT201
SELF SUFFICIENCY I ASS100
HOME VEGETABLE GROWING AHT102
HOME GARDEN EXPERT COURSE AHT101
GOAT HUSBANDRY BAG223
SOIL MANAGEMENT CROPS BHT303