Practical Horticulture I 100 Hours Certificate Course

There are 10 lessons:

1 Soil Analysis

• Soils Analysis: Testing Your Soil,Good Soil Structure
• Simple Soil Test
• Naming the Soil: Percolation Rates, Drainage Problems
• Soil Temperature: How to Improve Soils, Soil pH
• Methods of Measuring pH
• Another Way to Measure Organic Matter in Soil
• Terminology
• Soil Structure Graph

2 Seed Propagation (including seed identification)

• Growing Plants From Seed
• Flowering annuals
• Hygiene
• How to Sow Seeds in Containers
• Germination
• Preparation of Seed Beds in the Field
• Selected Plant Species
• Seed Propagating Media
• Terminology

3 Vegetative Propagation

• The Techniques
• Classification of Cutting Types
• Equipment
• Procedures for Taking Cuttings
• Types of Cuttings: Stem Cuttings, Softwood Cuttings, Semi-Hardwood Cuttings, Hardwood Cuttings, Variations, Herbaceous Cutting, The Cuttings, Heel Cuttings, Nodel Cutting, Basel Cutting, Cane Cuttings, Leaf Bud Cuttings, Leaf Cuttings, Root Cuttings, Bulb Cuttings
• Terminology

4 Potting up and After Care of young plants

• Transplanting Between Pots
• Stop Roots Growing into the Soil
• Drainage Holes
• What is a Perched Water Table
• Potting up a Plant: There are lots of different situations where potting up is required, Pricking out or tubing seedlings, Setting out Cuttings, Potting a small plant into a larger pot

5 Planting

• How to Prepare Soil for Planting
• How to Prepare Soil in a New Garden Bed: Calculating Soil Quantities
• No-Dig Garden Beds: Container Plants
• Weeds
• Problems With Containers
• How to Maintain Plants in Pots
• Types of Pots: Plastics, Fibreglass, Pottery and Terracotta, Wood
• Bare Rooted Plants
• Staking
• Planting: Basic Planting Procedure, Fertiliser
• Hints for Planting: When to Plant? Time of Planting, Plant Variety, Area or Locality
• Drainage
• Improving Infiltration of Water into the Soil
• Improving Surface Drainage After Construction
• Provision of Sub-Service Drains
• Layout of Drains
• Outlet
• Gradients
• Distance Between Drainage Pipes
• Depth of Drains
• Types of Drains
• Laying the Drain
• Surface Drainage
• Some Points to Remember When Designing a Drainage System
• Terminology

6 Maintenance of Established Plants

• Pruning in the Home Garden: Removing Dead or Diseased Wood, Controlling the Type of Growth, Flower or Vegetative Buds?, Controlling the Plants Shape & Size, Rejuvenating a Plant
• The Basic Rules of Pruning
• Getting Pruned
• Selecting your Secateurs: By-pass secateurs, Anvil secateurs, Parrot-beak secateurs
• Why are Plants Pruned in Water
• General Principles
• How to Do It
• Pruning Tools
• Some Example of Winter Pruning: Crepe Myrtles, Hydrangeas, Raspberries, Fuchsia, Kiwi Fruit, Grevilleas, Pollarding
• Plants That Resond Well to Pruning
• How to Prune a Rose
• Clean Out Your Dead Wood
• Wood Rots
• Dead Heading
• Is Annual Pruning Enough
• What is Compartmentalisation?
• What About Wound Treatments?
• Pruning in the Home Orchard: Before Pruning, Points To Consider When Pruning, Pruning Tomatoes, Root Pruning, How to Trim a Hedge, Training

7 Practical Plant Identification

• Plant Names
• What is the Difference Between Families

8 Pest and Disease Identification

• Pests
• Diseases
• Diagnosis of Problems
• Find Out What The Problem Is
• Conducting an Inspection
• Tell-Tale Symptoms: Wilting, Yellow Leaves, Look to see if damage is distributed evenly over the plant, Look to see if damage has only just happened....or is past?
• Is There More Than One Problem? When you look for a problem, always remember; you might be looking for several answers (not just one).
• Develop A Sysyematic and Logical Approach to Inspecting the Plant
• Diagnosis of Plant Disorders
• What Insect is It?
• Difficult to Diagnose Problems: Options
• Integrated Pest Management Systems (i.e. IPMs)
• Weeds: Weed Identification
• Common Terms

9 Weed Identification

• Choosing the Right Lawn
• Turf Varieties: Bent Grass, Creeping Bent, Chewings Fescue. Creeping Red Rescue, Tall Fescue, Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Ryegrass, Annual Ryegrass, Couch, South African Couch, Queensland Blue Couch, Kikuyu, Buffalo Grass
• Lawn Mixes
• What to Grow Where
• Bulbs: How to Grow Bulbs, Bulbs in subtropical and tropical areas
• Indoor Plants
• Potting

10 Risk Assessment

• Identifying Risk in the Workplace
• Workplace Policy
• Identifying Hazards
• Risk Control Methods
• Chainsaw Use & Safety
• Save the Back - Use the Head! Hard Work Solutions: Manually Lifting Objects, How to Lift, Other Ways of Lifting, Using Machines to do the Heavy Work
• Earthworks
• A Rotary Hoe
• A Cat
• A Brackhoe
• A Dozer
• An Experienced Operator Makes all the Difference
• Cleaning
• Sharpening Tools
• Secateurs and Branch Pruning Tools
• Shovels and Spades
• Saws and Chainsaws
• Protecting Tools from Rust
• Maintaining Timber Handles
• Maintaining Plastic Handles
• Storage

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.