Landscaping I

Discover How to Create Gardens - learn how to design gardens with this great course!

A great introduction to landscaping

• Learn to design a garden, and draw landscape plans.
• Study garden design and planning
• A great starter course for garden designers or landscape contractors.
• Start a business, get a job, expand your skills.

Landscaping I course student – David Painter says of the course

“It gave me an insight into a subject that I have been interested in for a long time. Plus it helped me in my current job with a local landscape/nursery company.......It was done in a way which was very easy to understand, and this helped when you hit a subject which was hard to get to grips with.”

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Basic Design Procedure A. - collecting pre-planning information, landscape elements, principles, etc.
2. History of Gardening ‑ garden styles and themes, famous designers, garden influences.
3. Draughting & Contracting - drawing techniques, specifications, details.
4. Basic Landscape Construction - timber, steps, retainer walls, pathways, playstructures, etc.
5. Surfacings - concrete, asphalt, gravels, mulches, grasses, gradients, etc.
6. Furnishings & Features - chairs, statues, figurines, birdbaths, skateboards, safety, etc.
7. Park Design A - good/bad park design characteristics, recreational landscaping.
8. Home Garden design - good/bad garden design characteristics.
9. Design Procedure B - development of concept plans and detailed planting plans.
10. Park Design B - development of park design, fun & fitness trails.
    • Plus A Special Assignment - comprehensive landscape design development.

Aims

• Create visual effects through the use of different landscape design concepts.
• Determine pre-planning information required to prepare a landscape design.
• Determine an appropriate garden style for a landscape, to satisfy specifications for a design project.
• Illustrate a landscape design through a plan, using legible graphic skills.
• Determine different hard landscape features, including earthworks, surface treatments and furniture, to incorporate in a landscape.
• Prepare planting designs for different landscapes.
• Design different types of landscapes, including domestic gardens and public parks

What You Will Do

• 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 in your locality.
• 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 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 uses.
• Evaluate established landscapes based in:
  • 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
  • Children's 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.

Learn to Create All Sorts of Gardens

• Functional
• Aesthetic
• Within budget

Anyone can dig a hole and plant a plant; but all too often, planted plants don’t thrive, and sometimes they die; simply because they were not planted and tended in the best way.

There are tens of thousands of different plant cultivars that are grown and planted by people every year around the world. Every different type of plant has the potential to perform better, if the soil is treated, and the plant is planted and cared for in a way that is appropriate to that situation. To get the best result, you need to know the differences between different species and cultivars, choosing appropriately for the situation. You also need to understand the options available for planting method.

What You Could Use This Course For

This course is a solid introduction to landscaping. It serves as an ideal foundation for people wishing to work in landscaping. It will not lead to a construction license but should provide basic skills needed to undertake small scale landscaping projects which do not require council approval.  

It could serve as a platform for further study or be taken in conjunction with other modules to enhance your learning experience. People who should take this course are those working in or wishing to work in:

• Landscape construction
• Landscape design
• Garden design
• Garden maintenance
• Garden restoration or conservation

It could also add to the skillset of people wanting to start a landscape business, or be of value to people wishing to renovate a home garden.

Phone (International) +44 (0) 1384 442752, or (UK) 01384 442752, or

Email us at info@acsedu.co.uk, or use our FREE COURSE COUNSELLING SERVICE.