One of the courses we offer that is most popular with our students is the Home Garden Expert course
For anyone interested in gardening, who wouldn’t want to be an expert?
- Did you know that the world’s largest marrow was the size of a baby elephant, weighing in at 256 lbs?
- Or that the world’s largest leek was 4 foot 5.5 inches long?
- Or that the world’s heaviest apple weighed over 4lbs? An apple that size would definitely keep the doctor away.
- Or the world’s largest cauliflower grew to six feet long? That’s a lot of cauliflower cheese!
- Or that the largest mushroom can grow to around 3 feet wide and weigh 20kg? And that’s a lot of mushroom risotto!
You might not be interested in growing the world’s largest vegetables, but you might be interested in gardening. And you would be joining a lot of other people -
- It is estimated that worldwide, over 71 million households enjoy gardening.
- In the UK, 2/3 of the population visit a garden centre at least once a year.
- In recent research, Australia came out top with 45% of the population gardening at least once a week, with many gardening daily. China was second at 36% with America, Mexico and Germany showing over a third of their populations gardening regularly.
- Research during the COVID-19 pandemic found that 2/5 of people with their own garden or balcony were growing their own food. In 2022, it was estimated that 42% of people were still growing some of their own food.
- The 35 – 44 age group is currently the group where gardening is the most popular. However, gardening became increasingly popular with young people during the pandemic, with 83% of 18 – 34 year olds in the Uk saying that gardening was “cool.”
- Research in the United States found that 14% of young people regularly garden.
- Gardening is not just for young people. 51% of people over 65 state that they regularly garden.
Gardening is therefore very popular.
Why take up gardening as a hobby?
There are many, many reasons to start gardening. Here are just a few –
- It is a great hobby. It enables you to be productive, growing your own fruit, vegetables or plants. And getting great exercise at the same time.
- Spending time in the garden is also good for our physical health, encouraging us to breathe fresh air and engage in physical exercise.
- You can start sweating within five minutes of gardening, so it’s great for your physical health.
- It doesn’t just improve our physical health though. The charity MIND found that many people benefitted from spending more time in their gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Gardening is good for the environment. Growing your own fruit and veggies means that you are producing your own food. You are not driving to the shops as much to buy food, reducing your carbon footprint.
- This is also good for our self-worth and self-esteem – growing our own food.
- Gardening can be relaxing. Spending time with nature is good for relaxation, but it can also improve our attention and focus.
- Spending time in the garden enables us to spend time with nature.
In the words of Alfred Austin,
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”
Whether you want to start off as a complete beginner or are already fairly knowledgeable about gardening, our Home Garden Expert course will help you to develop this further and become – an Expert!
We offer a 100 hour distance or online learning course called the Home Garden Expert. The course covers –
- Plant identification
- Plant culture
- Soils
- Nutrition
- Pests
- Weeds
- Landscaping
- Propagation – breeding plants
- Lawns and turf
- Indoor gardening
- The kitchen garden
If you would like to learn more about gardening, then why not become an expert!
Home Garden Expert course
We also offer a wide range of other gardening and landscaping courses and ebooks to suit your needs.
An old Chinese proverb states – “Life begins when you start a garden.”
So why not get started?