Greenfingers: Gourmet Gardening Retreat
5-11 April 2025
The perfect active, conscious-travel holiday
Learn a skill, move more, eat well and make friends
Digital detox in glorious surroundings
Expert teaching, luxury accommodation, full-board & wine!
From £650 per person per week, full board, accommodation and activities
We had no idea what to expect but you surpassed it all! A great big thank you from us both! - Ruth & Paul
Gardening Retreat in France
Come and join us for a week of tuition by our Expert Gardener, Adele Pimley, in the grounds of our charming Manoir La Croix de La Jugie.
Greenfingers is the perfect break, for complete beginners to old-hands. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced, we’ll guide you step by step, allowing you to gain hands-on horticultural experience or perfect your technique.
After six glorious days you’ll have greenfingered confidence to prune, propogate and plan. You’ll feel wholesome and vigorous from plentiful outdoor movement and the pure countryside air.
Take all your new-found horticultural experience away with you to create your own green haven at home.
Gourmet French food
In the heart of the Limousin, our Manoir is surrounded by local producers and farms, creating delicious food. From cheeses, to pates, special cuts of meat and super fresh, organic vegetables, to (of course) natural and organic wines, cider from the famous Limousin apples and beer made with local chestnuts.
The gorgeous, rustic, South West France dishes of the region are the perfect complement to spending time in the stunning scenery and amongst all the growing plants, and you'll be treated at each meal to make up the calories you've lost in the garden. Foodies won't be disappointed!
Green Gym
If you're here to learn more about gardening, we’ve got you covered. If you just love getting active in the outdoors, our gardens are the perfect environment for you to keep fit and healthy.
Gardening is a moderate cardio-vascular exercise, burning 150-300 calories over just 30-45 minutes of hoeing, raking, weeding, digging and planting. All of which you'll have plenty of practise in! So if you hate lying around on a sunlounger on holiday - this is the week for you.
Digital Detox (if you like)
We're not banning screens, but many of our guests love the opportunity to tone down their screen time for a week; where better to do it that in the calming surrounding of the estate with its peaceful views of rolling hills? Wifi is available but limited, and it’s a nice excuse to create some headspace!
As well as all the activities on offer, there's also plenty of time to just enjoy the beautiful grounds and scenery, breathe in deeply, go for walks, curl up with a good book, savour a glass of wine by the fire or tramp over the Autumn hills with new friends or re-connecting with old ones.
Prices from £650 per person per week
Adele Pimley - Expert Gardener
Adele Pimley will be your gardening tutor. She has run a private gardening company for seven years. In her work she caters for private gardens and school groups, helping to maintain, restore, create, design and install their garden space or fruit & vegetable patch.
She is a fantastic teacher, with a super personality, great style, and she welcomes all your questions - big and small! She loves the gardens at the Manoir - they are the perfect backdrop for teaching gardening skills as the six acres offer lots of space for creativity and trying things out.
Adele trained at the RHS school Capel Manor.
Gardens & landscapes
The grounds are a mix of formal and natural. At present there is an established orchard, large lawn with various floating beds, box and lavender hedges, a parterre, several mature trees and a large field area. In the future we plan to establish a herb garden, a knot garden and an area of prairie planting, to name but a few. We hope that our guests will enjoy learning as well as creating these features.
You'll cover:
Pruning - fruit, roses, flowering shrubs, restorative pruning on overgrown shrubs, topiary;
Planting Design and Garden Planning - working on plans of your own garden and/or theoretical planting situations;
Propagation - seed sowing, cuttings, dividing herbaceous;
Planting - how to properly plant specimens;
Managing the herbaceous border;
Garden Visits;
Other Topics: fruit and vegetables, container gardening, new planting schemes, general gardening Q&A.
A Manger!
Who said that you can't mix work and pleasure? Here at La Jugie, you'll not only be inspired by the green landscape of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, with its rolling countryside and medieval villages, but you will also enjoy the beautiful Manoir.
We also use local ingredients and artisan products to create delicious, homely food for our guests, perfect to come into after a satisfying session in the garden. Kick of your boots and relax over hot stews, fresh veg, sticky puddings and of course, some French cheese and wine!
Greenfingers Garden Retreat - what you'll get
full board accommodation in the luxury surroundings of La Jugie
daily freshly cooked, delicious food, using local specialities and ingredients
expert gardening talks, demonstrations and Q&A
practical sessions to learn the skills you'll be taught
plenty of active time
syllabus will cover pruning, planting, sowing, propagation, planning, clearing and more
visit to local gardens or other sites of interest & buying trip to local garden centre
all equipment and seeds/plants provided
bring pictures and plans from your own garden for real life advice
relaxation time to enjoy crisp walks in the rolling hills or reading a book by the cosy fire
peaceful and calming environment to Digitally Detox (optional)
Daily Retreat Timetable
Each day will vary but an example schedule might look like this. We do, of course, take into account the weather!
8am breakfast
9am skills workshop or planning
10am-1pm practical session in gardens
11am elevenses
1pm lunch
2-4pm afternoon practical session in gardens or visit to local producer
4pm afternoon snack
4-7pm free time
7pm pre-dinner drinks
7.30pm dinner
Wednesday afternoon is a free session for you to explore, sit and read, or get to know the area, if you wish.
Greenfingers Garden Retreat pricing
5-11 April 2025
For this Greenfingers week, the pricing is as follows, to include everything except travel to France:
Shared twin or double room with ensuite bathroom - £900 per person (£1800 per couple)
Single occupancy double room with ensuite bathroom - £1350 per person
Shared double room with shared enormous bathroom - £750 per person (£1500 per couple)
Single occupancy double room with shared enormous bathroom £1100
Shared triple room with private bathroom - £650 per person (single bed), £710 (double bed)