GARDEN expert Charles Dowding will talk about growing winter veg at the Assembly Rooms in St Briavels on Friday March 15 (7.30pm).

A guest of the Brockweir, Hewelsfield and St Briavels Garden Society, Charles started growing organic vegetables commercially more than 30 years ago in an old orchard on the family farm in Somerset.

It was a marginal thing to do in the early 1980s, when farmers were still being encouraged to produce quantity rather than quality.

Consideration for the environment was minimal, and few people were keen to buy organic food. After market gardening in France and Zambia, he returned to the UK in 1997.

Since then, he has not only gardened very successfully but has written four highly praised books and many articles, as well as running inspiring courses at his market garden.

He will share the knowledge and expertise he has gained from the experiments he carries out, where vegetables are grown side by side on pairs of dug and undug beds – valuable information that increases understanding about soil and ways of treating it to increase yields, reduce pests and weeding and garden in greater harmony with nature.

Non-members are welcome (tickets on the door).