Courses
Scroll down or click below to view our 2023 courses and workshops
Making the Most of Your Garden
Do you have a garden? An outside space? A windowsill? Come and develop your understanding of it, working out what is already there and how it can be enhanced.
Two-day course (1 half-day workshop per week for 2 weeks).
The class will look at common issues in city gardens using the students’ own gardens as case studies.
General gardening techniques, ideas and plants will be covered before students’ own gardens are viewed and discussed in more detail.
The aim of the course is for students to go away with an understanding of some of the problems and solutions for their own space, as well as a feeling for its potential.
This is a classroom-based (theory) course with lots of visuals and discussion, and a small ‘homework’ task between the two classes.
Anyone with access to a garden
- Garden appraisal
- Planning
- Plants
- Maintenance
- Answers to some of your questions relating to your own garden
- Advice for common issues shared by the group
Garden Design for Beginners
Garden design. What is it? How do they do it? This introductory course offers students the opportunity to think about gardens from a planning or design perspective. It aims to demystify the art and language of garden design as well as offering a few practical techniques for planning outside spaces.
Two-day course (1 half-day workshop per week for 2 weeks)
Anyone interested in designing their own garden as well as career changers, passionate gardeners and other creatives.
- Design Principles
- Appraisal & Surveying
- Using landscaping materials in design
- Using plants in design
Bees & Pollinators
Learn how to support pollinators in your garden. We will guide you through the basics of gardening for pollinators, including planting techniques and species selection. You’ll observe and learn about bees, including a visit to the beehives!
Afternoon workshop
Anyone interested in supporting pollinators in their garden or just in making a positive impact on the environment.
- The basics of gardening for pollinators
- Plant selection and planting techniques
- How to garden for and observe bees, including their importance and behaviour
- An understanding of the critical role that bees and other pollinators play in our ecosystem, and how you can make a positive impact by supporting them in your own garden.
Urban Fruit & Vegetable growing
A practical course on low-maintenance food growing. Whether you are growing your fruit and vegetables in your garden or balcony, on your vegetable plot or allotment or even on your window sill, we’ll look at what you can do in Spring to keep ahead of your garden.
We’ll cover some food-growing basics and look at what you can be doing now. Each lesson will include seasonal practical sessions, sowing or propagating a variety of seeds and cuttings (all in pots to take home with you). There will also be a tour of a low-maintenance allotment plot.
Anyone interested in growing fruit and vegetables in their garden or on a balcony or window sill
- Growing from seeds, pips and self-sown tree seedlings
- Growing from cuttings, offsets and runners.
- Using renewable, recyclable resources and organic practices
- Tour of a low-maintenance allotment plot
- Discussions of traditional and less-traditional methods people use when growing fruit and vegetables.
Propagating Garden Plants
By growing from seed, taking cuttings and dividing existing plants you can create a garden at a fraction of the cost of buying at a garden centre. This workshop will show you the tips, tricks and techniques required to fill your garden with colour and fragrance through the year.
This workshop will show you the tips, tricks and techniques required to fill your garden with colour and fragrance through the year.
Anyone interested in propagating garden plants or just in filling their garden with all-year colour as cheaply as possible
- Why to propagate
- What to propagate
- When to propagate
- How to propagate (division, cuttings, seed)
Christmas Wreath-making workshops
A seasonal workshop to end the term with! Build your very own bespoke, natural Christmas wreath using seasonal foliage and berries including some from your own garden if you wish.
In a relaxed beginner friendly environment you will learn the key skills involved in selecting the best natural foliage and how to arrange it into a beautiful long-lasting wreath.
Students can even bring along foliage from their own gardens to really personalise their wreaths.
Anyone interested in making their own personalised wreath
You will leave with your own beautiful wreath to hang on your door which will last you well into the New Year.
Gardening for the Complete Beginner (online workshop)
Dip your toe into the world of gardening from the comfort of your own home, wherever you are, in a short online beginner workshop.
Do you know someone who seems to just know about gardening, they watch Gardener’s World and know the names of plants. They can navigate their way around a garden centre and not waste £20 on a couple of pretty flowers that they have no idea what to do with?
You could be that person. It’s not rocket science, and you could take your first steps with us in our 2-hour online workshop with a small group of other beginners, where nobody minds that you don’t know your annuals from your perennials or what’s a weed and what’s not.
We’ll teach you the basics of garden plants, and a bit about gardens. See if it catches your interest: maybe once you’ve taken that first step we’ll have you signing up for more! Or maybe you’ll just go away feeling a bit more confident on that next trip to the garden centre.
Complete beginners, whether they have a garden nor not, wherever they live.
Some gardening basics, right from the beginning
Planting Neighbourhood Spaces
A how-to guide to improving your neighbourhood with plants. Around trees, in the park, outside the doctor’s surgery, in that unloved space currently used as a litter bin, there are so many places it can be done.
This half-day workshop will help you get started.
From choosing and procuring plants to planting and caring for them, as well as the nuts and bolts of recruiting volunteers and even raising money. A really useful course for anybody with the time and inclination to improve their urban surroundings, and a chance to meet others doing the same thing.
Anyone wanting to improve their surroundings
- Choosing and finding plants
- Planting and caring for your space
- Recruiting volunteers
- Raising money
Introduction to Garden Design
A short introduction to the language, art and techniques of Garden Design
Half-day workshop offering the opportunity to think about gardens from a planning or design perspective. It aims to demystify the art and language of garden design as well as offering a few practical techniques for planning outside spaces.
Anyone interested in designing their own garden as well as career changers, passionate gardeners and other creatives.
- Design Principles
- Appraisal & Surveying
- Using landscaping materials in design
- Using plants in design
- Practical techniques
Garden Design for Beginners
Garden design. What is it? How do they do it? Let us demystify it for you in a short course offering the opportunity to think about gardens from a planning or design perspective.
Two-day course (1 half-day workshop per week for 2 weeks). It aims to covering the art and language of garden design as well as offering a few practical techniques for planning outside spaces and a chance to have a go at a garden design in the second class.
Anyone interested in designing their own garden as well as career changers, passionate gardeners and other creatives.
- Design Principles
- Appraisal & Surveying
- Using landscaping materials in design
- Using plants in design
- Practical techniques and practice design
Making the Most of Your Garden
Do you have a garden? An outside space? A windowsill? Come and develop your understanding of it, working out what is already there and how it can be enhanced.
The aim of the course is for students to go away with a plan for their space, or at least a feeling for its potential.
Two (1 half-day workshop per week for 2 weeks)
Anyone with access to a garden
- Garden appraisal
- Planning
- Plants
- Maintenance
Introduction to Garden Plants
Plants, plants and just plants. There are are so many! What are they? Which ones do I need?
This course helps students learn their plants. Shrubs, trees, perennials, annuals, weeds … an introduction to the most common ones we find in our gardens.
One half-day workshop
Anyone who wants to learn more about plants
- Nomenclature: Latin vs common names
- Trees and shrubs for the urban garden
- Flowers – perennial and annual
- Grasses and Ferns
- Principles of Right Plant Right Place
- Planting techniques
Seasonal Garden Care
It’s Spring! What should I be doing in my garden? I don’t want to miss the window! This course gives students an idea of what can be done in their garden/planters now, at the beginning of the growing season. From sowing seeds, weeding, improving the soil … to taking a trip to the Garden Centre!
One half-day workshop
Anyone looking after a garden
- Preparing for the Growing Season
- How to help plants thrive
- Woody plants (trees & shrubs): pruning; feeding; shaping
- Perennials: planting, right plant right place
- Annuals including bedding plants
- Climbing plants
Gardening from Scratch
Would you like to learn more about gardening, starting from scratch? If so this course is for you.
A half-day workshop where you will learn about choosing plants, and keeping them alive and healthy. Understand the soil and the seasons. Explore how to plan your gardening. It can be daunting getting started. Let us help you!
Beginners
- Understanding your soil
- Choosing your plants
- Looking after your plants
- Maintaining your garden
Part-time Courses
A Year in the Garden | September - July | Next start September 2024
One-day-a-week course following the gardening year while teaching the key skills and knowledge you need to become a better gardener.
- enhance your understanding of the theory of horticulture
- actively increase your plant knowledge
- improve your gardening skills
Future Courses
Some of the courses we are currently working on as we expand our range of short courses and workshops.
We always welcome ideas and suggestions so feel free to get in touch if there is anything you would like to see or an aspect of gardening or horticulture you think would suit a short course or workshop. There is a space to add any comments or suggestions in the ‘request more information’ form on the button below.
Sustainability in the Garden
Meadow Making
My Botanical Garden
Fruit & Vegetables
Your Garden
Garden Design
Garden Plants
Seasonal Garden Care
Spring 2023 Series
Our Short Course Series for Spring 2023 will be announced in the New Year and will offer a series of single workshops and short courses in our London centres and online, according to demand. Click here to request our prospectus as soon as it is available.
Can't find the course to suit you?
If you are interested in studying a course with us but do not see anything suitable on our Courses page, we would love to hear what you’re looking for.
We’re new! And we want to offer useful, enjoyable courses covering the skills and knowledge you want to learn, at times and places to suit you.
So let us know a bit more about yourself and what might suit you, and we’ll see what we can do!
“I would like to do an online course but can only study on Tuesday evenings”
“I would like to learn more about vertical gardening”
“I’m an experienced gardener but want to learn to do it sustainably.“
“I’d like a course where I could look at my own garden as a case study!”