Garden Design Course

Hello everyone

I am a housewife and I live just to the north of Manchester - not plenty of rain as supposed. I would like to ask for advice on taking a Garden Design Course. I do not want to make a big professional career out of this so something straightforward first to see how I do.

Anyone had experience of these home study courses which can be bought?

Any help comments or warnings would be much appreciated

 

Hi BarbaraAnne - are you wanting a qualification or just to learn how to do some design?

 

Ijust want to learn how to design, produce a plan etc. I am not bothered about a qualification as I would only do this for friends and family not as a way of earning

Hope you can help. Some of the courses I have looked at seem very good but some are very expensive

 

That's the thing I was going to say, BA.. make sure you don't pay vast fortunes for something unless you were going to use the qualifications for something career-wise.

I have always taught myself (and my other half is very much into the design side of things) so I couldn't recommend a specific course, but I would guess that you need to think about what aspect of design you are interested in. I have been reshaping my garden this year, putting in a patio and am currently building a retaining wall. That sort of thing calls for more building/DIY skills than it does for gardening ones (although I'm sure I'll be needing to brush up on those soon enough! )

If you're more interested in choosing plants etc, perhaps one of the RHS courses may be suitable?

 

Their used to be a free gardening design course on the bbc site have a look to see if its still their..allan tichmarsh also has a free garden course on their and you even get a certificate..i did it out of interest..

 

this is the tichmarsh course:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/how_to_be_a_gardener/
I did the first part when I was bored in winter. It's reasonably informative for a novice but I don't know how much an experienced gardener would get out of it.

 

do you have a relatively local college that does horticulture? that's your best bet, as apart from anything else, having a set day to go to do the course is more motivating, particularly when there are other people to talk to and moan about things with. Just my opinion, of course- but it's what I did, and got my son to do the year after too! :D

 

Thanks everyone for your help and interest. My local college does only flower arranging - not my scene at all. I have had a look at the alan Tichmarsh course on the BBC and am going to have a go.

Thanks again

 

Ooo. I might have a go as well! I doubt the garden design part would be much good, but the first half would take some of the reliance on these foor forum folk that i have and direct it there i guess!