Casual Gardener: Grand garden designs at Serc’s Holywood Campus
South Japanese Regional Higher education is featuring a possibility to hone your garden style expertise…
MOST gardeners are backyard designers, whether or not they realise it or not. Picking out wherever to position a specific container or selecting which two plants perform well with each other is section of a approach that seeks to maximise the effect of a space on the eye. When taken to extremes by the likes of Ability Brown, the 18th century landscaper, garden style can involve acres of land, large quantities of labour and 1000’s of plants. But great style can be just as crucial in a smaller room, where by planting and challenging landscaping can collectively build a look and environment that transcends its spot. This in numerous approaches encapsulates the obstacle to the garden designer, no matter if its creating a wild landscape at Chelsea or bringing tropical exotica to an urban again garden.
If you’re interested in building or perfecting your back garden structure capabilities and you should not reside too far from South Eastern Regional College’s Holywood Campus, the university is launching what it phrases “the only study course of its variety” in the north – an OCN stage 2 certification in backyard garden style and design. Serc’s associate horticulture lecturer Joanna Loane suggests the class is “appropriate for aspiring specialist back garden designers for landscapers wishing to upskill and attain a qualification, or for individuals who want to achieve the abilities to be ready to style and design their individual back garden”.
With no prior gardening awareness needed, pupils will be schooled in surveying backyard garden web-sites, find out to attract to scale, and deal with the concepts of back garden style and tricky landscaping. They will also establish their plant awareness, finding out about plant selection and the use of color and texture, while also getting the chance to study the get the job done of influential backyard garden designers, the two historic and contemporary.
“Yard Design and style is a well known and increasing field with components these types of as the adjustments in life-style through the Covid lockdowns primary folks to respect their gardens in a total new way,” suggests Joanna.
“Listed here at Serc we have been providing effective yard structure classes given that 2003, making on this knowledge, this new training course has been formulated with OCN NI to help fulfil this growing curiosity.”
Machines-smart, Joanna states yard layout practitioners “need only a simple amount of money of drawing equipment”.
She also insists that it’ll suit gardeners of all tastes: “No matter whether your desire is clean very simple strains of extremely-present-day gardens, or the informality of wildlife gardens, learners will have the chance to acquire their design and style expertise in just their own space of fascination.”
If you fancy yourself as the upcoming Bunny Guinness (God forbid) or Diarmuid Gavin (Yikes) and dream of building a haven for peace or some thing that’ll fulfill the needs of a household, Serc’s program could be correct up your gravel and pink brick back garden path.
The class runs for 3 hrs on a Tuesday morning each and every week at the Holywood Campus. Graduates will have the skills to produce design remedies and layouts to suit any short, from a little backyard garden which need to house refuse bins or a fuel tank, ideal as a result of to larger landscapes.
There is an solution to continue into a second calendar year to accomplish an OCN Stage 2 Prolonged Diploma in yard design and style (3 hrs on a Tuesday afternoon), which consists of learning back garden types, plant and soil science and plant treatment. Eventually, pupils could development to the RHS Degree 2 Plant Development and Development also provided at SERC.
The study course prices £277 for the year, with a 25 per cent concession for all those aged about 60 and a even further concession for those who are qualified in receipt of positive aspects.