Review: Learning With Experts gardening course

I’ve spent the past few weeks back in school. Not the traditional behind the desk type and not struggling with French verbs or maths problems. I was being taught online by Learning With Experts and the subject was vegetable growing.

The school was set up three years ago by landscape designer Elspeth Briscoe but it extends to far more than just gardening with courses on photography, jewellery, antiques, floristry and even beer-brewing. They asked me to review one of their courses.

I was given a free choice of what to test from the Learning with Experts gardening range that covers everything from how to plant the perfect container, and working with spring bulbs to growing roses and creating a herb garden.

But it was the Self-Sufficient Veg Gardening that appealed; I may have started gardening with flowers but growing fruit and veg really has my heart and, despite years of practice, I knew I could do it better.

There are two versions of the courses: the basic ‘Peer’ version priced at £29 and the ‘Expert’, which is £109. In order to compare them, I completed both, although I must admit to ‘cheating’ a little by submitting more or less the same homework.

What I discovered

Some content is common to both Learning With Experts versions: the course structure and the videos by the expert tutor, in this case Grow Your Own guru Sally Nex. And so, some of my observations are valid for both.

I started badly. Each section comes with a video and some downloadable notes. I downloaded them, read them and then decided to watch the video only to find the two were identical scripts. Obviously, the written version was for easy future reference but that wasn’t clear at first.

Another niggle – minor but annoying – was the layout of the written version. The positioning of text and photos meant I often ‘turned the page’ only to start on the wrong column.

The videos can be difficult to play; comments from other members of my ‘class’ alerted me to the trick of right-clicking and opening it in a new tab. Thereafter it was easy.

So much for the niggles. On a positive note, the videos were friendly and engaging and, over the course of four weeks, covered the subject in depth: a guide to self-sufficiency; how to maximise your space; how to choose what to grow; plugging the ‘hungry gap’ over winter.

Admittedly, if you’ve been gardening for a while, a lot of it is obvious. The course does assume you know “how to chit a potato and when to sow runner beans” but I would also put knowing to dig in plenty of organic matter to open up claggy soils in the same bracket.

There were new things to learn though, particularly in the latter sections of the course. I liked the idea of continuing to add organic matter throughout the season and not just in spring, putting it between rows of seedlings and around newly planted crops. Obvious, really but sometimes we all need these things pointing out.

Likewise, all vegetable gardeners know about successional sowing so that you don’t have a glut and then famine. However, I had never really considered growing more than one variety of something such as sprouts to get a longer cropping period. And it never occurred to me to plant just three each of an early, mid-season and late variety.

I was also interested in the idea of forcing early crops of salad, radish and carrots in a cold frame over a hot bed of manure.

As part of our ‘homework’ – there’s an assignment after each video – we had to draw a scale plan of our vegetable plot. Mine is in three different areas and quite complicated so that took some time.

I wish I’d know about the GrowVeg website but that wasn’t suggested until the second assignment. Each section is ‘locked’ until you have completed the previous one, or a week has elapsed, whichever comes first. So, there’s no peeking ahead, which would have been useful in this case.

The free version of GrowVeg also allows only one plan and my plot was too complicated for that so for the rest of the course I concentrated on just one area of it. That said, GrowVeg is a great system that allows you to ‘place’ veg on your plan, works out how many will fit in at the right spacing and gives you cultivation tips and variety suggestions. I may well take out a subscription.

So, what’s the difference between Peer and Expert?

The main difference in the Learning With Experts courses is the feedback, which is reflected in the price. The Peer version, as the name suggests, is classroom feedback on your assignments from the other people on your course. That’s great in principle but, you are reliant there being other pupils, the extent of their knowledge and their willingness to comment.

There were two other gardeners on the course with me but both had started some time before and finished before I did. Despite having lifelong access to the course, neither reappeared to make any comments.

In contrast, the Expert course provides a written report by the tutor on each of your assignments. And it was detailed. I was quizzed about my soil type – Sally was surprised to hear I was on sand in the Cotswolds – asked to justify my veg choices and was given numerous suggestions of varieties and other things to try.

The verdict

The Peer course would be great for someone starting out, who needs guiding through the basics. However, if you want really expert advice at a more in-depth level, the Expert course is the one to go for. Both have the advantage of being done in your own time and at your own pace, although access to the tutor closes after a month on the Expert version.

As for me, I’m sizing up the photography course.

• I was given free access to the Learning With Experts courses in return for an unbiased review.

• For more information about the Learning With Experts courses, see the website.