Northumberland horticultural skills units

The horticultural skills unit has been offering a service to people since it opened in January 1985. Since that time, many plants have been grown and sold to the public and many people with learning disabilities have benefited from the service.

In 2011, a major investment within the unit saw our older glass houses being replaced with new ones, as well as the refurbishment of our main building. We now have a very pleasant, light, spacious and easily accessible building that can comfortably accommodate 20 to 25 people with level access to all areas.

This year, the horticultural skills unit is celebrating its 30^th anniversary with a series of events. Everyone loves the building, but it is how everyone gets along together that makes the unit such a great community to be a part of.

We offer people who have disabilities a safe and relaxing environment where they can make friends, enjoy themselves and be themselves without discrimination. We aim to maximise each individual’s potential and enhance their quality of life.

In 2014, the unit took over the Hepscott park garden café that opened in 2012. The café, along with our new glasshouses, home-grown plants and occasional activities for adults and children, has made the horticultural skills unit a popular place for members of the public to visit.

Each day begins with a morning meeting featuring all service users and staff. This gives a chance for people to find out what has been happening within the unit and to get involved in planning the work to be done that day.

People choose their own work and there is likely to be a wide range of horticultural and related work available. The main focus of the unit is growing plants for sale to the public. Most sales take place onsite, although we also sell at other locations.

The unit also makes its own compost from leaf mould, which avoids the use of peat.

Vegetables are grown on an allotment scale and there are several landscaped areas that are planted and maintained, including a small amount of grass cutting. The available work will change depending on the time of year, the weather, the rate of plant sales and the needs/interests of those working that day.

• ​16 day care places per day
• newly refurbished main building with excellent facilities
• three large heated cedar glass houses
• three polytunnels and cold frames
• allotment area
• landscaped areas, including:
  • the quiet garden
  • the Chelsea garden
  • the scented garden
  • wildlife pond
• signposted garden walk for public access
• woodland area with wormery, composting and willow fencing
• sheds for storage and workshops
• horticultural tools and machinery
• people carrier and crew cab van for garden visits / contract grass cutting
• large low loader trailer for carrying grass cutting machinery
• large collection of plants for sale to the public – all grown from seed and cuttings
• peaceful environment
• adjacency to the Hepscott park garden café

Potting shed:

• seed sowing
• taking cuttings
• pricking out seedlings
• washing pots
• ​writing labels

Greenhouses and polytunnels:

• moving plants
• watering plants
• checking and maintaining plants

Shop and sales:

• serving customers
• money handling / using cash register
• re-stocking sales area
• presentation

Making compost:

• piling dead leaves into compounds in the woods
• building and maintaining compost heaps
• sieving and riddling leaf mould
• sterilising leaf mould
• mixing leaf mould with sand and nutrients
• barrowing potting compost to potting shed

Growing vegetables:

• soil preparation: digging, raking, preparing a seed bed
• seed sowing outdoors, planting
• hoeing, weeding
• harvesting vegetables

Looking after gardens:

• grass cutting using a mower and strimmer
• planting flowers
• weeding flower beds

Out and about:

• visits to local gardens
• visits to garden centres
• annual holiday to visit gardens in other areas
• sales at markets and other venues
• annual cricket match

The horticultural skills unit is unlike an average garden centre.

It is a small, but busy nursery growing a wide range of plants from seed and cuttings, selling them on to members of the public.

We specialise in unusual, hardy perennials.

At the unit, customers have a chance to talk to the people who have grown the plants and to find unusual plants that they wouldn’t find elsewhere.

Customers can also walk around our garden trail, or even call into the garden café for a cup of tea or bite to eat.

We occasionally offer horticultural workshops and horticultural skills unit activities. 

2015 is the horticultural skills unit’s 30^th anniversary year and many of our events will have an anniversary theme.

October events:

• On Saturday 31 October, join us for our children’s pumpkin carving event. Design a scary pumpkin to be carved and take it away for Halloween. Cost £4. Please note, autumn perennials still for sale.

November events:

Dates and details to be confirmed.

December events:

• Our wreath-making workshop is Saturday 5 December. Find out how to make an attractive Christmas wreath using natural materials and take it home to add to your Christmas decorations. Cost £10.
• Join us for a festive treat on Wednesday 9 December - our Christmas fair. Our heated greenhouse will be decked out with ‘made in Northumberland’ Christmas specialties from our day services and local producers.

Manager: Clive Moon

• Email: Clive.Moon@northumberland.gov.uk
• Telephone: 07990793453

Assistant manager: Pam Robson

• Email: Pamela.Robson@northumberland.gov.uk
• Telephone: 07990793509

Address: Hepscott Park, Morpeth, NE61 6NF (Location Map)

• Telephone: 01670 623911
• Email: hepscottparkhsu@northumberland.gov.uk 

• Monday to Thursday (9am to 4.30pm)
• Friday (9am to 4pm)

Plant sales opening times:

• Monday to Saturday (10am to 4pm) 

Tynedale Horticultural Service (now operating at Minsteracres - see below) has been providing work experience in horticulture for people with learning disabilities since it opened at Ridley Hall in January 1994. Since then, many plants have been grown and sold to the public, a woodland trail has been built and many people have benefited from the service. THS used to be based at the Lodge cottage, and worked within the grounds of Ridley Hall.
We celebrated our 20^th anniversary in 2014 and this short film was made by FilmAble to mark the occasion:
 

THS is now at Minsteracres Retreat Centre

In October 2017, following the sale of Ridley Hall, THS was moved to the extensive grounds of Minsteracres Retreat Centre, just off the A68.
Here at Minsteracres we have found another safe and relaxing environment where people with disabilities can come and make friends, enjoy themselves and be themselves without discrimination. We aim to maximise each individual’s potential and enhance their quality of life.

Each day starts with a morning meeting, involving all service users and staff. This allows for people to find out what has been happening and to get involved in planning the work to be done that day. People choose the work they are going to be doing and there is likely to be a wide range of horticultural and related work available.

Because we have only been based at Minsteracres for a short time we are still finding horticultural and other work which we can be invovled in. We are growing plants for sale to the public, helping with vegetable growing in the walled garden, contributing to conservation work and woodland management on the wider estate, and helping with grass cutting and planting and maintaining flower beds around the main house. 

The work available changes according to the season and the weather. This winter we have been particularly busy with splitting and delivering logs and clearing snow.

We have only recently moved to Minsteracres (October 2017) and are still establishing the service there. This facilities page will be updated as our service develops.

• 10 day care places per day
• temporary walled garden buildings as a base, with office, kitchen & locker room, and meeting rooms, including a room with an open fire.
• share polytunnel and walled garden glasshouse
• Minsteracres gardens – lawns and flower beds around the main house
• Minsteracres estate, including woodland, with woodland trail
• sheds for storage and workshops
• horticultural tools and machinery
• crew cab van for garden visits
• large low loader trailer for carrying grass cutting machinery
• large collection of plants for sale to the public – all grown from seed and cuttings
• peaceful environment
• wildlife
• beautiful scenery
• Tynedale horticultural service is in a rural location and on top of a hill, with great views northwards towards the Simonside hills.

Plant production

• seed sowing in trays
• taking cuttings
• pricking out seedlings
• potting plants
• washing pots
• writing labels

Greenhouses and polytunnels

• moving plants

• watering plants
• checking/maintaining plants
• growing tomatoes, sweetcorn etc.

Plant sales

• sales – serving customers
• sales – using cash register/handling money
• sales at other community venues (Haltwhistle plant fair, Allendale fair)
• re-stocking sales area/good presentation

Growing vegetables

• soil preparation: digging, raking, preparing a seed bed
• seed sowing outdoors, planting
• hoeing, weeding
• harvesting vegetables

Looking after gardens

• grass cutting – using mower/strimmer
• planting flowers
• weeding flower beds

Woodland work

• cutting fallen timber
• tree planting
• trail building
• log splitting
• making kindling
• chipping waste timber

Making leaf mould

• piling dead leaves into compounds
• building and maintaining compost heaps
• sieving and riddling leaf mould

Out and about

• visits to local gardens
• visits to garden centres
• annual holiday to visit gardens in other areas
• sales at markets and other venues
• annual cricket match

Tynedale horticultural service is not like an average garden centre. It is a small lodge which grows a range of plants from seed and cuttings, specialising in unusual hardy perennials, and sell these to members of the public.

Customers calling in for plants can also have a cup of coffee in our small woodland garden.

Here, customers have a chance to talk to the people who have grown the plants, to find unusual plants that you wouldn’t find elsewhere and to receive a personal service.

We are open on Thursdays between 10am and 3.30pm, but do close during the winter period.

Manager: Clive Moon

• Email: Clive.Moon@northumberland.gov.uk
• Mobile: 07990793453

Assistant manager: Karen Hemming

• Email: Karen.Hemming@northumberland.gov.uk
• Mobile: 07990793619

Address: THS, c/o Minsteracres Retreat Centre, Minsteracres, Consett DH8 9RT 

• We are currently based in the walled garden. Enter Minsteracres grounds following the avenue of giant redwoods, and then turn sharp right on to a track that runs around the back of the walled garden.
• Telehone: 01434 344933
• Email: tynedalehorticulturalservice@northumberland.gov.uk

Service opening times:

• Monday to Thursday (9am to 4.30pm)
• Friday (9am to 4pm)

In 1996, the unit was run by Earth Balance but since September 1999, it has been run by Northumberland County Council. Since then, many vegetables and plants have been grown and sold to the public and many people with learning disabilities and mental health needs have benefited from the service provided.

The quantity of vegetables grown and sold has increased over the last few years and as a result now has a brown tourist sign on the main road, directing customers to Sleekburn HTU kitchen gardens.

The unit is a rural oasis hidden away from the main road and a lot of our first time visitors are surprised to find a slice of the countryside amidst a mainly rural area. 

The HTU has a pleasant, peaceful working environment and the sense of secluded space is part of the unit’s identity, however, the sense of community within the unit is just as important in making the unit a great place to work or visit.

It offers people who have disabilities a safe, relaxing environment within which to work, make friends, enjoy themselves and be themselves without discrimination. We aim to maximise each individual’s potential and to enhance their quality of life.

Each day begins with a morning meeting featuring all service users and staff. This gives a chance for people to find out what has been happening within the unit and to get involved in planning the work to be done that day. The main focus of the unit is growing vegetables and plants for sale to the public.

Sales take place on site and we are working on trying to increase the number of customers who visit us, but we also take our produce in our van at other locations, as well as sell to retailers. The available work will change depending on the time of year, the weather, the rate of sale, yields and the needs/interests of those working that day.

• 18 day care places per day
• purpose built, turf-roofed training building with excellent facilities
• two polycarbonate greenhouses
• three polytunnels
• large potting shed
• several acres of growing space for vegetables and soft fruit
• stable building and paddocks with two horses
• small ‘secret garden’ areas
• horticultural tools and machinery
• people carrier & crew cab van for garden visits / contract grass cutting
• large low loader trailer for carrying grass cutting machinery
• vegetables and plants for sale to the public – all grown without chemicals
• peaceful environment
• the unit is at the southern end of the Earth Balance site

Potting shed

• seed sowing
• taking cuttings
• pricking out seedlings
• potting plants
• washing pots
• writing labels

Greenhouses and polytunnels

• moving plants
• watering plants
• checking and maintaining plants

Field work

• rotavating (using tractor)
• soil preparation
• seed sowing outdoors
• hoeing
• weeding
• harvesting vegetables
• mowing and strimming

Vegetable sales

• weighing and bagging
• serving customers
• deliveries to retailers
• money handling / using cash register
• stalls and other venues

Equine care

• mucking out stables
• grooming
• exercising and moving between paddocks
• maintaining paddocks
• feeding and watering

Willow and crafts

• cutting willow
• weaving willow
• making Christmas wreaths

Looking after gardens

• Grass cutting using a mower and strimmer
• planting flowers
• weeding flower beds

Out and  about

• visits to  local gardens
• visits to garden centres
• annual holiday to visit garden centres in other areas
• sales at markets and other venues
• annual cricket match
• contract grass cutting

Sleekburn horticultural unit is a small, but busy market garden. We specialise in fresh, local, healthy vegetables, herbs and soft fruits grown in fields and polytunnels. We sell directly to the public on site and off site at fairs and other events.

We also sell to retailers and you can find out vegetables at Moorhouse Farm, Stannington and Morpeth. The vegetables we have available varies from week to week and customers can see where they have been grown and may have a chance to harvest your own vegetables from the field.

Manager: Clive Moon

• Email: Clive.Moon@northumberland.gov.uk
• Telephone: 07990793453

Assistant manager: Venita Kanwar

• Email: Venita.kanwar@northumberland.gov.uk
• Telephone: 07557614184

Address: Sleekburn Horticultural Training Unit, West Sleekburn Farm, Bomarsund, Bedlington NE22 7AD

• Telephone: 01670 530111
• Email: sleekburnhtu@northumberland.gov.uk

• Monday to Thursday (9am to 4.30pm)
• Friday (9am to 4pm)

Vegetable & plant sales opening times:

• Monday to Friday (10am to 4pm)