Garden Maintenance

Become a Professional Gardener

• Learn how to create healthy gardens year round!
• Learn to maintain plants and gardens
• Build the skills needed to be an effective gardener
• Increase your employability and opportunities for work in garden maintenance

Comment from a Student:

"All feedback from the tutor I had was very constructive and helpful.” David Painter, ACS student

"This is the first correspondence course I have done and I have thoroughly enjoyed it and I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU. I appreciate everyone's effort in such a professionally-run organisation with seamless administration. The office staff's happy can-do attitude, their fast responses to all queries, tutor Shane Gould's quick turnaround in assignment marking and his supportive and motivational feedback and last but not least, the sound subject guides. Most importantly I hope my thanks and appreciation can be communicated to all the staff who have supported me long the way of my learning! I work full time and study on the weekend but really don't stop thinking about what gardening solution I need in order to answer my assignments every day of the week. Thank you for such a great learning experience and I cant wait to start the second half of my course!!" Skye, ACS student

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction Planning and managing a garden.
   • Cost of Maintenance
   • Expensive and Less Expensive areas of a garden
   • Planning
   • Garden Checklists
   • Analyzing Maintenance of Parks and Gardens
   • Organising Garden Maintenance Staff
2. Garden Furnishings and Machinery
   • What Tool for What Job
   • Overview of Machinery
   • Mowers and How to Mow
   • Aerators, Chippers, Mechanised Sprayers, Chain Saws, Brush Cutters, etc.
   • Tractors
   • Tool Maintenance
   • Engine Troubleshooting
   • Outdoor Furniture -plastic, timber, metal
   • Protecting Furnishings -paints, stains, preservatives
3. Feeding Plants
   • Symptoms of Nutritional and other Problems
   • Conducting an Inspection of Plants
   • Soil Characteristics and identification of Soil Issues
   • Review of Plant Nutrition
   • Choosing the Right Fertiliser
   • Diagnosing Nutritional Problems
   • Improving soils
4. Weed Control
   • Nature and Scope of Weed Problems
   • Natural Ways to Control Weeds -suffocation, burning, cultivation, etc
   • Common groups of weeds and options for treating and recognising different weed varieties.
5. Weedicides
   • How Weeds Spread
   • Types of chemicals found in weedicides and suitable weedicide
   • Which chemical would control the weed.
   • Chemicals and the Law
6. Natural Pest Control
   • Scope and Nature of Natural Controls
   • Cultural Controls
   • Mechanical Control Methods
   • Physical Control Methods
   • Methods for controlling selected insects
   • Companion Planting
   • Common Environmental Problems
   • Tolerance Levels in different plants
   • Biological Controls
   • Natural Sprays
   • Buffer Zones
   • Mulching
7. Chemical Pest Control
   • Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
   • Ways of Applying Chemicals
   • Safety with Chemicals
   • Understanding Pesticides -toxicity, LD50, Persistence, etc.
   • Specific chemical treatments and a summary of pesticides.
8. Turf Management
   • Common Turf Problems
   • Turf Pests
   • Chemical Damage
   • Establishment and Maintence of Lawns
   • Mowing, Fertilizing, Aeration, etc
   • Turf varieties, appropriate turf for specific areas, low and high maintenance turf.
9. Irrigation
   • Importance of Water
   • Water Loss from different soils & Improving Water retention
   • Understanding Water Dynamics in soil
   • Irrigation -types of systems
   • Planning an irrigation system
   • Using an irrigation system
   • Controlling slippery surfaces
10. Maintenance of Plants
    • Why Prune
    • Before Pruning
    • Time of Pruning -does it matter?
    • What to consider when pruning
    • Removing Dead Wood
    • Controlling shape and size
    • How to prune different types of plants

Aims

• Select and maintain tools and equipment appropriately for use in garden maintenance.
• Describe maintenance requirements for garden structures such as furniture, gates and fencing.
• Maintain appropriate nutrition requirements for healthy plant growth.
• Control weeds in a garden.
• Use weedicides in a safe and effective way.
• Control pests using non chemical methods.
• Use chemical pesticides safely and efficiently.
• Maintain lawns in a healthy and well maintained condition.
• Describe options for managing water in a garden.
• Determine actions that should be taken to maintain a variety of different plants.

Learn What to Do and Why You Do it

As you progress through this course, you will develop an understanding of what needs doing and why; in order to keep a garden healthy and looking good. As your understanding builds, so does your ability to apply that understanding in a sensible and properly considered way, in order to achieve the best garden maintenance outcomes.

This is a course that teaches the  fundamental things which any gardener should know. It is an ideal course for anyone contemplating setting up a "garden care/services business. It's also a perfect training course for gardeners working in a parks department, on a golf course or in any similar situation.

HOW WILL YOU BENEFIT FROM THIS COURSE?

• Build self confidence to do jobs you may have avoided in the past
• Fast track business or employment opportunities in gardening
• Save time -no time and money lost traveling to college
• Take control over when, where and speed of your studying
• Support from a team of experienced professional horticulture tutors who have worked across both Australia and the UK
• Learn to understand garden maintenance. Make better decisions, be more productive and effective in all you do.
• Build connections with industry and become aware of new products, ideas, techniques and opportunities.
• As a graduate, receive free career and business advice from our horticultural staff -yours for the asking.

Employment Prospects

• Start a lawn mowing or garden care business
• Buy an established gardening business
• Get a gardening or groundsman job
• Acquire knowledge and skills that will make you more attractive to employers or clients
• Work in a plant nursery, landscape or other gardening business
• Work in allied trades, horticultural sales or marketing