Venue
Study from the comfort of your own home.
Times
Start when you wish, and work at your own pace. A guideline is issued to each student for assignments/exercises but there are no stringent deadlines.
Dates
Study At Your Own Pace
Details
This “Confidence Builder” selection of short courses offers keen gardeners a hands-on way to learn about nurturing soil, caring for the whole garden, growing your own produce, and improve your current plant selection to get the results you’re after. Fun, informal, well-priced and flexible, and can be easily integrated into our Homeowners’ and Premier Garden Design programmes.
Who Benefits
Our short, hands-on programmes help gardeners to improve their gardens with clever plant selection, well-nurtured soil and sustainable maintenance practice.
Outcome
In a short time, these workshops give participants the confidence and knowledge to start experimenting and enjoying their garden, providing a strong foundation for further learning.
Content
Designing with Plants
In this workshop we revisit some of the concepts covered in our design programme where we explain how different categories of plants will benefit your outdoor space and how to make the most of exciting texture and colour, while taking advantage of the plants’ individual light conditions.
The course will assist you tremendously with plant choice and combinations as well as how to create that WOW factor in your garden by instilling atmosphere, creating habitats to attract wildlife and much more. As a stand-alone course it will be of tremendous help to experienced gardeners who are looking for some new inspiration.
(Note from Principal : Fortunately I cut my teeth on northern hemisphere plants so I know them as well as I know South African plants. Irrespective of the hemisphere in which you live, plants fit into the same categories, most have common family connections, and they all create the identical effects in a garden!)
Nourishing your Garden
In this short course you will learn how to improve your soil’s health and how to maintain a consistent, healthy environment for your plants – making and using compost, alternative methods of creating an instant growing medium, no-dig methods, the importance of mulching, understanding the wide range of organic and inorganic fertilisers (pellet, granular and foliar) on the market, vermiculture and best watering practice.
Most importantly, the purpose of this course is to help you to understand the essence of healthy soil and to encourage ongoing organic practice for your entire garden.
Practical Garden Maintenance
This extended course is based on the garden maintenance section of our Premier Garden Design & Maintenance programme and will assist you to manage your garden year-round, including the topics contained in ‘Nourishing your Garden’, a seasonal programme, lawn care and pruning. You will refer back to the course material for years to come.
Growing your own Produce
This course will give you the opportunity to brainstorm the size, design and content of your vegetable garden with loads of tips on using natural and eco-friendly principles.
The curriculum demonstrates how to choose the ideal site/s for your fruit, vegetables and herbs, as well as how to enrich the soil and make an informed selection each season of crops to suit your family’s needs, the season and, in particular, your climate.
We also discuss which crops are heavy, medium or light feeders and whether crop rotation is as crucial as we were once taught. You will also learn how to grow seedlings and some sage (pardon the pun) advice for growing herbs.
Options
Time and/or financial constraints
These short courses give gardeners the knowledge and skills to nurture and enhance their outdoor spaces. You choose the topics that interest you most, and the courses are priced to be accessible to younger learners and students from around the world.
Easier payment methods
Students from around the world will find it easy to enroll by using PayPal, a trusted payment method, or a direct electronic transfer. As the material is delivered by PDF to your email, there is no further postage cost or worries associated with the parcel not arriving!
Virtual Coaching
We will provide you with virtual coaching on a digital platform that suits you – Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp, etc. - so there is no reason why you should not feel quite comfortable studying in your home environment.
Do I Need Previous Experience?
Not at all. Work at a comfortable pace and ensure that you are in regular communication with your tutor, should you need assistance.
Course Enquiries
You can submit your form in two ways:
1) Download the form, complete it, and upload it to the onlne form on this page. (Note: If you do not have Adobe Acrobat we suggest using PDFGear, which is a free program)
2) Download the application form, complete it and email it to info@schoolofgardendesign.com
We will be in contact with you shortly after the forms are submitted, but should you not hear from us within 48 hours please send a follow up email to the address above.
On application, you will be requested to pay a 20% non-refundable deposit.