Open Learning Course, self paced home study
Learn how to effectively maintain a garden while reducing the amount of time, labour and costs involved.
Proper garden maintenance will cost you both time and money. Fortunately, there are shortcuts to help you have a good-looking garden without spending a huge amount of time or money on your property.
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
-
Introduction Planning and managing a garden.
-
Cost of Maintenance
-
Expensive and Less Expensive areas of a garden
-
Planning
-
Garden Checklists
-
Analyzing Maintenance of Parks and Gardens
-
Organising Garden Maintenance Staff
-
Garden Furnishings and Machinery
-
What Tool for What Job
-
Overview of Machinery
-
Mowers and How to Mow
-
Aerators, Chippers, Mechanised Sprayers, Chain Saws, Brush Cutters, etc.
-
Tractors
-
Tool Maintenance
-
Engine Troubleshooting
-
Outdoor Furniture -plastic, timber, metal
-
Protecting Furnishings -paints, stains, preservatives
-
Feeding Plants
-
Symptoms of Nutritional and other Problems
-
Conducting an Inspection of Plants
-
Soil Characteristics and identification of Soil Issues
-
Review of Plant Nutrition
-
Choosing the Right Fertiliser
-
Diagnosing Nutritional Problems
-
Improving soils
-
Weed Control
-
Nature and Scope of Weed Problems
-
Natural Ways to Control Weeds -suffocation, burning, cultivation, etc
-
Common groups of weeds and options for treating and recognising different weed varieties.
-
Weedicides
-
How Weeds Spread
-
Types of chemicals found in weedicides and suitable weedicide
-
Which chemical would control the weed.
-
Chemicals and the Law
-
Natural Pest Control
-
Scope and Nature of Natural Controls
-
Cultural Controls
-
Mechanical Control Methods
-
Physical Control Methods
-
Methods for controlling selected insects
-
Companion Planting
-
Common Environmental Problems
-
Tolerance Levels in different plants
-
Biological Controls
-
Natural Sprays
-
Buffer Zones
-
Mulching
-
Chemical Pest Control
-
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
-
Ways of Applying Chemicals
-
Safety with Chemicals
-
Understanding Pesticides -toxicity, LD50, Persistence, etc.
-
Specific chemical treatments and a summary of pesticides.
-
Turf Management
-
Common Turf Problems
-
Turf Pests
-
Chemical Damage
-
Establishment and Maintence of Lawns
-
Mowing, Fertilizing, Aeration, etc
-
Turf varieties, appropriate turf for specific areas, low and high maintenance turf.
-
Irrigation
-
Importance of Water
-
Water Loss from different soils & Improving Water retention
-
Understanding Water Dynamics in soil
-
Irrigation -types of systems
-
Planning an irrigation system
-
Using an irrigation system
-
Controlling slippery surfaces
-
Maintenance of Plants
-
Why Prune
-
Before Pruning
-
Time of Pruning -does it matter?
-
What to consider when pruning
-
Removing Dead Wood
-
Controlling shape and size
-
How to prune different types of plants
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
-
Select and maintain tools and equipment appropriately for use in garden maintenance.
-
Describe maintenance requirements for garden structures such as furniture, gates and fencing.
-
Maintain appropriate nutrition requirements for healthy plant growth.
-
Control weeds in a garden.
-
Use weedicides in a safe and effective way.
-
Control pests using non chemical methods.
-
Use chemical pesticides safely and efficiently.
-
Maintain lawns in a healthy and well maintained condition.
-
Describe options for managing water in a garden.
-
Determine actions that should be taken to maintain a variety of different plants.
TIPS FOR GARDEN CARE
HOW TO GET MORE OUT OF HOEING
Torpedo Hoes are very flexible tools, with cutting edges both on the back and front of a long blade that comes to a point at each end. The blade will cut weeds when pushed, or when pulled through the soil and turned on its end, the point can be used to chip at a weed and get into smaller areas compared to other types of hoes. The blade shape can vary from one brand to another, but once you get used to this type of hoe, you can become very efficient at weeding.
Plants growing on Buildings
It looks great to have a climber growing up the wall of a house. It also helps insulate the building, but it can cause problems. Any plant will keep the house wall moist, and this can lead to wood rots and mould (spores of which many people are allergic). Some types of plants can grow into cracks then push bricks or wood apart as they slowly grow in size. In warm or hot climates the problem can be more severe. Avoid plants such as Ivy (Hedera helix), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus sp.), Creeping fig (Ficus pumila), or trim them at least every 6 months. Any plants on buildings, in any location should be inspected regularly to ensure they are not damaging the building
COPPER SPRAYS
Copper is a natural fungicide, and is a relatively soft option if you are worried about chemicals. It will control a wide range of fungal diseases including Black Spot on Roses and Peach Leaf Curl. There is a wide range of copper-based sprays available . All are effective in their control of disease, though they may vary a little in how you use them and what they cost. Whatever you choose to use, it will be good value for the money you spend.
Some plants would benefit with a copper spray NOW. These include:
Roses –To stop black spot developing (even if you don’t have black spot, you are likely to get it over summer in most parts of Australia
Peaches & Nectarines – Controls leaf curl and shot hole
Beans –Controls a range of problems including rust blights and leaf spots.
Tomatoes -Controls leaf spots, canker and blight
Hippeastrums - Reduces damage caused by red blister disease
Fruit Fly Trap
Fruit Fly is a big problem throughout some parts of the world. A Fruit Fly Trap involves an attractant and a poison. Male flies are attracted inside the trap, then killed. Without males, the flies cannot breed, so the population declines.
Stop Erosion
Gravel and pebble paths can be easily eroded by heavy rain. If you have this problem, try using one of the various grid products (made from concrete or plastic) which are now available. They are laid over the path surface, then filled with fine pebbles. The grid consists of lots of small pockets, a couple of centimetres across. Heavy rain will not erode the surface, but it will soak in through the pebbles.
Hint: Ensure the soil below the grid drains reasonably well. If it is hard clay, treat it with lime, gypsum or a clay breaker chemical periodically for the first few years to improve water penetration.
Wrapping Aerial Roots
Some plants, such as this Ficus, produce aerial roots. Under normal conditions, these roots are in humid air, but during an abnormally dry season, if the air becomes too dry, these roots may suffer or even die. Aerial roots here have been wrapped in hessian which can be occasionally moistened, minimising the effect of dry air.
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Why Choose This Course
- Unique course materials (developed by our staff) and more current than some colleges (many reviewed annually); as a result, ACS graduates can be more up to date.
- We work hard to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field (It’s more than just serving up a collection of information –if all you want is information, buy a book; but if you want an education, that takes learning to a whole new level).
- Start whenever you want, study at your own pace, study anywhere
- Don’t waste time and money traveling classes
- We provide more choices–courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you; a huge range of elective subjects are offered that don’t exist elsewhere.
- Tutors are accessible (more than elsewhere) – academics work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day. Answering emails and phone calls from students are top priority.
- We treat students as individuals –don’t get lost in a crowd. Our tutors communicate with you one to one.
- Extra help at no extra cost if needed. When you find something you cannot do, we help you through it or will provide another option.
- Support after you finish a course –We can advise about getting work, starting business, writing a CV, etc. We can promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Graduates who ask will be helped.
- Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.
About ACS
ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia). Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.
Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world.
In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses.
A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia
How You Study
- As soon as you enroll, we send an email to explain it all.
- We direct you to a short orientation video (downloadable over the internet) to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
- You are either given a code to access your course online, or sent out a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
- Work through lessons one by one, each lesson typically having four parts:
- An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
- Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
- Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
- Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
- Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
- We provide access to and encourage you to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
- We provide a "student manual", that is a quick solution to most problems that might occur
Recognition
- ACS has a highly respected international profile: by employers and academics alike. People are more aware of us than many other distance education schools –just do a search for “horticulture distance education courses” and see what comes up on the internet; or search for ACS Distance education on Facebook or Linked in, and see how many connections we have compared to other colleges.
- Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
- ACS has been educating people around the world since 1979
- Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
- Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
- A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.
Extra Books or Reference Materials
- The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
- Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
- Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month.
- See www.acsebook.com for ebooks (available in pounds stirling). We also sell books through our Australian bookshop (selling in Australian dollars) at www.acsbookshop.com
Click here to visit the ACS online bokstore and view many titles related to this field of study
ACS Distance Educatin is a College of Horticulture offering horticulture courses, as training for horticulture jobs through home study gardener courses for a career in horticulture.
