Cottage Garden Design 100 Hours Course

There are 8 comprehensive lessons

1 Introduction to Cottage Gardens

• What is a cottage garden?
• Guidelines for using plants in cottage gardens
• Understanding plant names
• The Binomial System
• Writing botanical names
• Cultivars
• Monocotyledons Vs Dicotyledons
• Plant Families
• Pronunciation of plant names
• Principles and elements of Landscape Design
• Plant review worksheets
• Naming the Plant
• Describing the Plant
• Illustrating the Plant
• Example of a plant identification worksheet

2 History of Cottage Gardens

• Introduction
• The Miner's Cottage Garden
• Botany and medicine
• Plants in Medicine in Ancient Times
• Greek and Roman Medicine
• The Revival of Medicine in the Renaissance
• The Rise of Modern Medicine and Botany
• Alchemy Comes of Age
• Man Makes His Own Cures
• Plants Make Better Doctors
• The Accidental Miracles
• Medicines from Other Lands
• Protecting Our Priceless Heritage

3 Design Techniques and Drawing Plans

• Understanding Garden Rooms
• Tips for positioning garden features
• Frame Views
• The Design Procedure
• Landscape Graphics
• Scale
• What Paper and Pens to Use
• Lettering
• Plans and symbols
• Optional reading
• Pre-planning survey - Appraising the Site and Collecting Data
• Developing a Preliminary Concept Plan
• Developing a Final Plan

4 Plants for Cottage Gardens

• Mix Them Up!
• The Bones of the Garden
• Selecting woody plants
• Designing a flower bed
• Correct choice of colours
• Correct timing
• Choosing compatible plants
• Perennnials
• What is a flowering perennial?
• Types of Perennial Gardens
• Secrets of success
• Maintenance hints
• Designing a perennial display
• Getting the most out of your flower bed
• Colour themes
• Soil pH explained
• Cottage garden plants
• Blue flowering cottage plants
• Silver or grey foliage plants
• Shade tolerant perennials
• More cottage garden plants
• Large flowering plants
• Using bulbs in a cottage garden
• Garden borders
• Meadows (planting in lawns)
• Rockery gardens
• Woodland gardens
• Container growing
• Some suggested bulbs, corms and tubers
• Bulbs which grow in shade
• Scented plants
• Night scented plants
• Plants with fragrant flowers
• Fragrant foliage
• Climbers, creepers and twiners
• Shrubs for cottage gardens
• Herbs in the perennial border
• Perennials in wild flower meadows
• Maintaining herbaceous borders
• Some evergreen perennials and other perennials and suggested uses
• Supporting herbaceous plants
• Thyme
• Lavender
• Scented pelagoniums and geraniums
• Colourful year-round foliage
• Selecting annuals
• Why Use annuals?
• Types of annual plants
• Selecting annuals for different heights: Low growing (less than 30cm), Medium (30-60cm), Tall growing (greater than 60 cm)
• Scented annuals
• Scented foliage
• Colourful foliage
• Establishing annuals
• Annuals from seed, seedlings, containers
• Bedding plants

5 Planting Design in Cottage Gardens

• Shade Trees
• Benefits of shade trees
• Where to plant the shade tree
• Design elements
• Colour and garden design
• Using colour in the garden
• Landscape plans: site plan, concept plan, final plan, planting plan, other plans
• The design procedure
• Plant application
• Copying nature
• Creating landscape effects
• Companion planning
• Repellent plants
• Soil improving plants

6 Landscape features and components

• Garden features
• Walls and fencing for cottage gardens
• Garden art
• The history of sundials
• Furnishing the garden
• Paths
• General guidelines for path design
• Gravel and bark paths
• Barriers and walls
• Methods of training on a trellis
• Outdoor living areas
• A general comparison between materials used in outdoor furniture
• Garden structures
• Pergolas, pleached alleys and arbours
• Hedges
• Pools and ponds - Water garden design
• Water effects
• Water garden practicalities
• Plants for water gardens

7 Cottage Gardens Today

• Changes to cottage garden style
• How to make a courtyard more exciting
• Colourful year-round foliage
• Ornamental grasses
• Planning for perfection

8 Special Assignment - Design of a Complete Garden

This final lesson will draw together all that you have learnt during the course. It will demonstrate your

ability to design a complete cottage garden using all the resources and information you have gathered

prior.

• Coherence or Contrast
• Making garden beds - the variables
• Using ferns in shaded areas
• The landscape industry: costing work
• The cost of employing labour