How much would you pay for a gardening day school/course?

[muck lover]

I think I would rather divert funds to a wine or beer tasting experience!
I think there is an almost unlimited opportunity to spend money on your gardening hobby, for example you can shell out a fortune for wooden raised bed kits. You would think you couldn’t grow anything without those wooden sides. Not really true.
I’m also a bit unconvinced by a lot of the raised gardening table things we see for sale. But each to their own. What’s value/ worth it to one person is a rip off to another.
Even if I won the lottery I still wouldn’t pay that much for a gardening day- but that’s just me.

[mothhawk]

To add my three penn'orth, I've had a look at the cost of Mark's courses at Otter Farm and they are all around the £150 mark. So Sarah R is adding £35 per person for the privilege of having the course at her place.

[bikermike]

something can be too expensive without being a rip-off

surely it's only a rip-off when it's dishonest,

[mothhawk]

it's a case of what the market will stand, I guess. It depends where you are standing. I would not blow £350 on a pair of designer shoes, but some folk obviously do, or they wouldn't be for sale at that price.

edit - if I had money enough that £350 was loose change, I might consider spending it on a pair of hand-made, well crafted made to measure shoes, but never on a pair off the shelf simply for the label...

[rary]

Well it would appear that several Grapes don't like parting with money, I don't understand why that is, isn't it worth parting with some money to get a bit of knowledge, and a good feed

[SarrissUK]

There was a time I would've possibly thought to ask for money for a day like that for my birthday and chip in the extra that's needed myself. My circumstances have changed and I would no longer do that.
No matter what anyone think of their price, if not enough people find it worth the money, they'll have to reconsider their offering. And no, I certainly wouldn't pay that.

[rary]

On a more serious note, I would possibly pay up to £40. For a one day gardening course, but only if it was a limited number of participants with at least three gardeners for the information, as I doubt one gardener would be able to provide all the answer to the questions that would be asked????
No I wouldn't pay that either

[rary]

Funny you should say that, Bill, as, in my head, I imagined running my own course, there will be an opportunity to take a tour of the garden, meet the chickens and take home your very own seed collection selected for you personally. (all the old stuff I'll never grow).

Waddya reckon? £2.50.

And, what course could you run?

I take it you would be hoping that there wouldn't be too many attending your course if you are paying them £2.50 to attend

[Bill Door]

I can understand the various points of view. It is a difficult balance that has to be struck. We teach bridge, not for profit, and we will be happy to cover our costs. We have to hire a room/hall and then wait for people to come. We advertised a rate per session and then have to hope we cover our costs. We had made plans on how to get rid of any "excess" (pay for bridge nights at our local club; buy the next book for them; do an extra night or so to re-enforce the teaching; bring in "extras" to do a dummy play). It was stressful before we actually started. We have enough "students". Some will progress and others will probably return for "another go" before they join a club( they love the company and the "pandering" which is missing from their normal life). We still have to make sure they are learning enough at each stage and most importantly are enjoying it. It is surprising the number of people we see who "know" enough about bridge but find that their enough just isn't enough. So what I am saying is that someone has put a lot of thought, care and heart into the organising and running of these events. Most do it to build up a business and to do that they might have to make a loss at first. Some do it because it is their "love of life" and would do it for nothing if they could. Some give it a go and pack it in because they haven't put much thought into it.
You may be there for 6 hours but just think of all the prep work (equipment and the items needed to use for demonstrations) required for the event itself and the prep work needed for the food.

So the cost to your pocket maybe huge, or very affordable. Whichever it is it will always be your choice whether you go. If you do go I hope it is with a receptive mind and a half full glass. But whatever you do enjoy your gardening.

Bill

[bramble]

Personally I just would not pay that amount of money for someone talking to me for a day.
I can get all the gardening books so need from the library.
I can watch videos and tutorials on my computer.
I can ask for peeps advice and receive lots of it for free.
There are lots of other things I can think of to spend that kind of money.

[bikermike]

Personally I just would not pay that amount of money for someone talking to me for a day.
I can get all the gardening books so need from the library.
I can watch videos and tutorials on my computer.
I can ask for peeps advice and receive lots of it for free.
There are lots of other things I can think of to spend that kind of money.

Which of course is fine until the people doing it for free can no longer make enough money from their other sources to do the free things.

Everyone's time costs money. If you aren't paying it in cash, someone else is paying, it's one of
the person doing it in their free time
the person doing it out of profits from other activities as a sales pitch
the advertiser on you-tube who is paying for you to watch their adverts
the taxpayer in terms of subsidies/grants/education spend etc.

[veggiechicken]

We Moderate for Free (apart from a magazine subscription). How much time do you think we give up to keeping this forum running smoothly?
If people are willing to pay extra to listen to someone who has written a book or runs a garden centre, that's fine - let them. The "inflated prices" IMO, reflect the perceived benefits of going to an event in such a location, not the necessarily the quality of the information that is being passed on.
I'd like to visit Otter Farm to see for myself what is growing there but I'd rather support my local organic farmers and have a lunch of their home grown produce in their barn. I could dine for weeks there for £185 and learn a lot of more about hands on growing.
Each to their own!

[bario1]

I think the course is probably conceived as an 'experience', a potential gift idea, or at least a 'treat'... the location and 'celebrity' names make it a luxury product. Sure, you might find a similar day course run by your local agricultural college for £40, where you gain exactly the same knowledge and bring your own packed lunch... but that would be a completely different experience. Depends what you're looking for?

[ESBkevin]

Places head near parapit and the whistle blows.

I can see this from both sides, I fully appreciate the costs involved in putting on such one off events. Remember those involved aren't doing 2-3 hours work here, they have otherwise lost a productive day for a start. Additionally such 'courses' can only be run a small number of times a year. So this is just a top up income rather than the main thing. In todays gig ecconomy it is common for people to have many streams of income to make a living, musicians for example are masters of this type of thing.

Also the demand for such a course is very limited, this means that the few that want to go must pay to make it worthwhile to put on. Imagine setting up everything and bearing many of the costs only to have 4 people want to come.
But it is a lot of money for a day out, my guess is they would struggle to get more than about 6 participants for such a specialist subject.

[muck lover]

Going to contradict myself. I might be persuaded to pay that amount of money for a day with Charles Dowding.

Or even just to touch the hem of his robe.