Garden Design Short Course (evenings)

Garden Design Short Course (evenings)

8-week* evening course: Sep - Nov 2026 (Wednesday evenings)

Weds 30th September - Weds 25th November

6pm - 8pm

*held over 9 weeks with one-week break for October half term (28th Oct)

Cost: £450** (includes all materials and equipment); payable in two instalments:

• Registration Deposit: £100 (paid on enrolment)
• Balance: £350 (invoiced before start)

Whether you're considering a career change, working as a gardener and wanting to add to your skills, planning your own garden or just interested in dipping your toe into Garden Design to see what it's all about, our Garden Design Short Course will introduce you to the main elements of Garden Design and take you through the basic stages of designing a garden from initial appraisal to a useable plan.

A friendly and informal course which is informative, practical and full of useful details and techniques, the course is a great way to learn the basic principles in order to design your own garden or your clients’ gardens, or to try out Garden Design before committing to a full diploma.

The eight-week course is held over ten weeks with two four-week lesson blocks and a half term break during which you will have an assignment to complete at home. The course will introduce you to the following:

• Garden design principles and styles
• Equipment and materials for getting started in Garden Design
• Key techniques and skills (eg appraisal, measuring, drawing to scale)
• Coming up with ideas and concepts for a garden
• Creating a garden design on paper
• Choosing materials and plants
• Making sustainable choices

You’ll work on an actual garden as a case study during the course.  It can be your own garden, a friend or client’s garden or a community or public garden (or we can provide a case study garden for you to work on). Over the course of the term you’ll come up with a set of basic scale plans for that garden and work on a design for it.

The course will be led by our Director of Studies Dr Mima Taylor and will take place on Wednesday evenings in termtime in the Autumn 2026 term in our convenient Station Hall classroom in Herne Hill. The classroom is moments from Herne Hill Station (10 mins direct train from central London stations)

Adults only; open to all levels;

Please note that Station Hall is on the first floor and is accessed via an external metal staircase with no lift.