Kitchen Garden Forum

I have lots of holiday to use by the end of March. Has anyone been on a conservation holiday where you build dry stone walls etc.... ? Where do I find a holiday like that please ?

Hi Happymouse

Have a look at British Trust for Conservation Volunteers
www.btcv.org.uk

or

www.btcvcymru.org

Hope you'll still be a Happy m after wall buiding.

Cofion gorau

Alan

mouse they do things like that down here in devon
ill ask around

I think the National Trust also operate a scheme for volunteers although this may not necessarily be building dry stone walls but clearing overgrown land and streams, etc.

Hello Happymouse
I've been trying to persuade DW that this would be a good holiday but she remains very unconvinced! If you're interested in poultry and nursery work though it might be right up your street.

http://www.obanfarmpark.co.uk/holidays.html

John

Well, I just don’t know what to say. I am also having a holiday starting this Monday and shall be driving to Bristol Airport and catching a plane to Lanzarote. I must confess I shall not be looking to build any dry stone walls or clearing and laying any hedges, well at least I hope I won’t be. What ever you decide to do I hope you enjoy it.

Barney

Hello,

The National Trust do a Working Holiday scheme...it is in its 40th year this year.

Info can be found here;
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w- ... lidays.htm

I have been involved with hosting these holidays for about 12 years at my work location...and having been persuaded by a "young" lady from Sunny Sussex who led a holiday at work I have been on several of the holidays myself at other properties.

My first such holiday was a gardening one to Beningbrough in Yorkshire..."busmans holiday"

My next was to Ysbyty Ifan in N.Wales where we did some walling work and some brash clearance.
next was to Fountains Abbey and Studeley Royal in Yorks...some fallen tree clearance in the parkland, ragwort pulling, and a clean up after a wash through by floods.

Cragside was my next holiday..plenty of Rhododendron to clear and exceedingly big bonfires

Edale in the High Peak next...out on the moor spreading heather seed to help fill in areas lost to fires..and a bit of tree/scrub clearance on the road to Park Hall Moor..managed to get a look at a nearby derelict walled garden (not NT)....amazing sad sight of dereliction, but strangely facinating...the centre path beech hedge had become a line of c.12" diameter beech trees..

A return then to Wales..and a revisit to see some previous work we did.. and make a pathway down to Bishop Morgans house.

Last year I returned for more busmans holiday at Beningbrough again.

Holidays are run to suit different age ranges...I prefer the Acorn range as out of college holiday times it gives a good mix of ages...with some newcomers to the scheme alongside a few regular campaigners

I admit to being a chicken at joining in such holidays but I have greatly enjoyed them....some good work to do and usually a look behind the scenes with the keen folk who keep these historic sites operating.

Most of the group will not have met but some we will be regulars and may have come across one another on previous such events..

My biggest fear was joining in with the catering on a rota ....but I can do a mean bit of washing up and tatey peeling..even if I struggle at the controls of a cooker..so I tend to muddle through.

Give the holidays a try....I am pleased I did.

All the best,
Clive.

If you're looking for something a little more exotic, you could try www.earthwatch.org - and tell them that Kitchen Garden sent you!

WOW ! Exactly what I am looking for - thank you all so much. The Oban one sounds especially wonderful - itching to go back to Scotland too so perfect in every way. All the BTCV ones sound great too...

Have no personal experience of BTCV volunteering but one of my daughters spent most uni holidays on them a few years ago and really enjoyed them: good company, the great outdoors, doing something worthwhile (including clearing debris from a canal in the Midlands, building steps in the Lake Distriict, clearing scrub in Dorset and other jobs like that). Accommodation was sometimes a bit primitive but who cares after a hard day's work!

Hi - have you considered WWOOFing? (Working Weeks(ends) on Organic Farms) -just do a search on WWOOF and you will find lots of sites, both in this country and abroad. I once went on one, and learnt, among other things, how to milk goats and keep bees.

Thanks Lyn I will look them up too Wwoofing sounds great fun