Landscaping I 100 Hours Certificate Course

There are 10 lessons:

Introductory Notes

• Plant Collection
• How to Press a Plant
• Example of a Plant Identification Worksheet

1 Basic Design Procedures

• Horticulture and Landscaping
• Plants Change
• Plant Names
• Botanical Families
• Principles of Landscaping
• Design Elements
• Some Design Effects
• Pre-Planning Information

2 History and Styles of Gardening

• Formal Gardens
• Informal Gardens
• Natural Gardens
• Cottage Gardens
• Oriental Gardens
• Mediterranean Gardens
• Subtropical (Rainforest) Gardens
• Naturalistic Landscaping
• The Permaculture Garden
• Eclectic Garden
• More Styles
• The History of Gardening
• Roman Gardens
• Chinese gardens
• The Dark Ages
• Le Notre
• Rose
• Kent
• Capability Brown
• Loudon
• Repton
• Robinson
• Australian Gardens

3 Drafting and Contracting

• Concept Plans
• Scale Drawing
• Presentation Plan
• Computer Aided Design
• Drawing (Graphics): Scale, What to Draw on, Lettering
• Representing Plants on Landscape Plans
• Design Procedure
• Specifications and Contracts
• Example Layout of a Specification Example
• Knowing Your Work Inside Out Before Starting to Put Together a Specification

4 Basic Landscape Construction

• Drainage and Erosion
• Minimum Grades for Surface Drainage
• Space of Drains
• Walling
• A Rockery
• Steps
• A Guide to Mound Making
• Why Build Mounds?
• Shape Size and Composition
• Methods of Earth Shaping
• Obtaining Infill
• Some things to be careful of
• Play Structures - Design Considerations
• Function
• Cost
• Safety
• Gravel and Bark Paths: Some Guidelines
• Creating a Gravel or Bark Path

5 Surfacings

• Introduction: Gradients, Maximum Grades for Several Uses
• Surfacings
• Artificial Surfacings
• Types of Artificial Surfacings
• Substrates
• Performance Considerations
• Paving
• Extra Comments

6 Furnishings and Features

• Introducton
• Garden Furniture
• Furnishing a Garden
• Outdoor Tables and Chairs
• Choosing Appropriate Furnishings
• Colour of Furniture
• Garden Art
• Framing the View
• Paintings
• Pots
• Statues
• Sculpture
• Water
• Lighting
• What to Light?
• Layout Considerations for Play Structures
• Height from which a child needs to fall to sustain concussion
• Fountains and Water Displays
• Skate Facilities
• Types of Facilities
• Skate Surfaces
• Skate Safety

7 Park Design A

• Park Components
• Differences between Park and Home Garden Design
• Ornaments
• Walls, Fences and Windbreaks
• Enclosed Gardens and Walls
• Gateways and Gates
• Windbreaks
• How Do Windbreaks Work?
• The best windbreaks
• What is Recreational Landscaping?
• Why Parks are Sometimes Under Used
• Park Design Criteria
• Functional Criteria
• Aesthetic Criteria
• Social Acceptance
• Financial Criteria
• Types of Play Landscapes
• Community Participation - How to Make it Work

8 Garden Design

• Introduction
• Example of Home Garden
• Practical Concerns
• Bringing the Outside in
• Considering the type of room and view you get
• Buildings
• Courtyards

9 Design Procedure

• The Design Process
• Groups of Elements
• Components in a Recreational Landscape
• Landscaping Barrow Gardens
• Components in a Recreational Landscape
• Water Garden Design
• Water Effects
• Use of Water Plants
• Formal and Informal Ponds
• Practicalities
• Water Quality and Quantity
• Safety

10 Park Design B

• How to Make Trails
• Planning a Trail
• Types of Trails: Fitness Trails, Sensory Trails, Environmental Trails, Mangrove Trail, Cryptic Puzzle Trail,
• Sporting Facilities
• Gradients for Turfed Playing Surfaces
• Dimensions of Sporting Facilities
• Outdoor Multi-Purpose Courts
• Court Elements
• Specifications
• Usage
• Fun and Fitness Trails
• Motorised Vehicle Parks: Landscape Impact, Noise Pollution, Fuel Crisis, Safety, Types of Motorized Vehicle Parks

Practicals:

• Explain the complete range of principles, elements and concepts used in landscape design.
• Visit and analyse a broad range of landscape styles, themes and components.
• Perform methods utilised to develop concepts and to create affects.
• Identify, record and utilise pre-planning information for the purpose of design development, and to use a checklist as a guide for surveying a site for a proposed design.
• Perform site survey and client interview with the site owner/manager.
• Explain the significance of effective client liaison, in a specific landscape job.
• Identify historical influences on landscaping.
• Explain the influence on modern garden design, of work by three garden designers who have been prominent in world garden history.
• Develop and compare the appropriateness of three design options for one specific landscape project.
• Draw an extensive range of different landscape symbols on paper, covering soft and hard landscape features.
• Transpose two different landscape drawings, reducing the scale by a specified amount.
• Draw a plan for a landscape, using legible graphic techniques.
• Determine site preparations required for a specified landscape site, including:
  • clearing/cleaning
  • earthworks.
• Explain the legal requirements for cleaning up after a landscaping job in your locality.
• Determine suitable timbers for construction of four different types of garden structures.
• Compare the suitability of different materials for surfacing paths, including:
  • Asphalt
  • Concrete
  • Local gravels
  • Local mulches
  • Timber
  • Ceramics.
• Collect, catalogue and determine appropriate use for different items of garden furniture.
• Design a paved area for a garden surveyed, including: scale drawings and construction instructions.
• Prepare a plant collection of at least eighty different plants incorporating:
  • Pressed plant specimens
  • Scientific and common names
  • Cultural details
  • How to use each of these plants in different landscape situations.
• Evaluate established landscapes based on:
  • Costs
  • Maintenance
  • Function
  • Aesthetics
• Develop detailed planting designs, including plant lists, for three landscape plans, to satisfy given job specifications.
• Analyse and compare the landscape designs of numerous selected homes and public parks.
• Develop and prepare concept plans for landscape areas such as:
  • Outdoor living area
  • Kitchen garden
  • Courtyard
  • Childrens playground
  • Entry to home
  • Neighbourhood park
• Draft a series of four conceptual plans, showing stages in the design of a home garden surveyed.
• Prepare a professional standard landscape design for a client in the learner's locality, including:
  • A landscape plan drawn on tracing paper.
  • Materials specifications, including types and quantities.
  • Budget details.

The quality of this course is second to none, from the in-depth learning you will get to the expert individual mentoring you will receive throughout your studies. The mentors for this course are:

Susan Stephenson

BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.

City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)

Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction.

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design. She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills. Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

In 2010, Susan authored a complete module for a Foundation degree (FDSC) in Arboriculture.

Susan holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

Steven Whitaker

Diploma in Garden Design (Distinction) – The Blackford Centre, Gold Certificate of Achievement in Horticulture, Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture, Level 1 NOCN Introduction to Gardening, – Joseph Priestly College, BTEC Diploma in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Operations (Merit), Trainer Skills 1, & 2, Group trainer, Interview and Selection Skills – Kirby College of Further Education

Steven has a wealth of Horticultural knowledge, having ran his own Design and Build service, Landscaping company, and been a Head Gardener. His awards include five Gold awards at Leeds in Bloom, two Gold awards at Yorkshire in Bloom and The Yorkshire Rose Award for Permanent Landscaping. Steven has worked with TV’s Phil Spencer as his garden advisor on the Channel 4 TV Programme, “Secret Agent”.

He is qualified to Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture and has a Diploma in Garden Design which he passed with Distinction. Steven’s Tutor and Mentor was the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Award-winning Garden Designer, Tracy Foster. He also works for a major Horticultural Commercial Grower in the field of Propagation and Craft Gardening. Steven lives in Leeds where he is a Freelance Garden Designer and Garden Advice Consultant.