Plants that Changed History - Feel Good Gardens - Adult Learning

During the course we will take an in-depth, deep dive looking at one plant per session. What is it, where does it grow, what does its life cycle look like? This will involve some fieldwork as well as looking at plants in the classroom and pictures of how they change during the year. Where possible we will also look at how to grow them.

We will then look at some of the plants’ properties, and why each plant has had such a profound effect on human history.

You will discover why 3 common plants are intricately linked with our own human history: the oak, wheat, and the potato. These plants are everywhere—after this brief course, you'll see them very differently!

By the end of the course, you will be able to identify each plant, you will know where in the world it originates, and how long it takes to complete its life cycle. You will also have learned a range of botanical terms, and you might even be inspired to grow one or two of them!

You will also have learned about the profound relationship that each plant has with we humans and be able to cite at least 5 historical facts about wheat, the oak and potatoes.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Identify the oak, wheat, and the potato plants

• Learn what genus, or family, each plant belongs to

• Find out where in the world each plant comes from

• Discover each plant’s unique properties

• Discuss how you might have used each plant

• Experiment practically to gain insight at least 1 use of the plant

• Discover 5 intriguing and unexpected historical facts about oak trees, wheat and potatoes.

What you will need to bring to the course:

1) Warm layers suitable for the season and indoor/outdoor work, and suitable outdoor / waterproof shoes or wellies

2) Gardening gloves

3) Suggested Reading: The History of the World in 100 Plants by Simon Barnes; 50 Plants that Changed the World by Stephen A. Harris; The Glorious Life of The Oak by John Lewis-Stempel