HOME LANDSCAPING  AHT103

(Landscaping & Maintaining a Beautiful Garden)

 

This course is designed to teach you how to design (or renovate), and maintain, a home garden. It is suitable both for beginners and for experienced gardeners who want to develop a solid understanding of the principles and procedures underlying the design and development of garden areas. 

 

COURSE AIMS

Understand the design procedure and the principles of landscape design

Develop knowledge of garden styles through history and apply this to your own designs

Develop skills in graphical techniques for plan drawing

Develop knowledge of soil properties and their relevance to home horticulture

Understand the principles and practices of basic landscape construction

Develop knowledge of pests and weeds, and their management in home horticulture

Develop skills in planting and pruning for home gardens

Develop knowledge of lawns and surfaces appropriate to home landscaping

Develop knowledge of landscape furnishings and other features appropriate for home gardens

Utilise skills developed during this course to develop a landscape design for a home garden

 

COURSE STRUCTURE

There are ten lessons in this unit as follows:

1.       Designing Gardens

            - the basics of design concepts through to understanding how to use them.

2.       Styles of Gardens

            - formal, informal, natural, and other themes.

3.       Drawing Plans ‑Designing Gardens

            - learn how to draw basic landscape features and garden designs.

4.       Understanding Soils

            - clays, loams, sands - how to identify them and treat them for better plant growth.

5.       Basic Landscape Construction

            - what is involved to build basic structures like steps, walls, paths, etc.

6.       Weeds & Pests

            - how to identify and treat garden weeds and pests.

7.       Planting and Pruning

            - techniques to plant, prune and care for garden plants.

8.       Lawns, paving and other surfacing

            - care for various surfaces

9.       Garden Features

            - how to select and use garden features in a landscape.

10.  Developing "YOUR" Garden - Special Project

 

WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS COURSE

Find a site to be landscaped and record pre planning information required to design the landscape; 

Photograph or sketch a plant of three gardens representing three different styles, and discuss any historical influences on the design;

Using the pre planning information collected earlier, produce a design for an un-landscaped area;

Test the drainage of a soil sample and comment;

Explain how you can tell if a plant is suffering a nitrogen deficiency;

Contact your state government's forestry department to discover what timbers are suitable for different uses in landscaping, what timbers need treatment with preservatives and which do not; 

Draw a design for detailed construction of some garden structure) and describe how you would go about building and installing the structure in a landscape;

Explain the difference between a systemic pesticide and a contact pesticide;

List the plants in your garden which require regular pruning, and how and when you would prune each;

Contact several quarries in your area to find what is available and the prices;

Draw a sketch plan of a site in your garden and a plan for a garden bed on that site;

Prepare a full landscape plan (including plant lists) for developing your garden.

For each lesson, prepare plant review sheets with descriptions of 6 different plants.

 

Click here for more details or to enrol.