Forest Food Gardens: The Theory and Practice of Food Growing (X5700E)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

Forest gardens are a social and ecological space for growing plants for food, medicine and more.

On this module, you’ll use the campus forest food garden to connect everyday growing to global challenges. You’ll also develop practical and creative responses for climate change and biodiversity loss.

You’ll participate in:

• gardening activities such as weeding, mulching and preserving food
• sharing stories about gardens and green spaces
• working online with students in the U.S.A, fostering intercultural and teamwork skills to support global citizenship
• exploring how local communities across the world work to improve their food systems
• connecting these methods to global challenges and solutions
• exploring how these methods, including forest gardens, fit into wider food systems
• exploring how these methods relate to issues in health, the environment, the economy, politics and society.

You’ll bring ideas from your own degree and work with others across disciplines, geographical and cultural boundaries. This is a space to think about how humans depend on each other, and on other species, to survive and thrive.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 44 hours of contact time and about 106 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.