WHAT IS LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Landscape Design is a multifaceted skill. It allows you to take a vision or "feeling" and transform it into a workable plan. It isn't just making a place look nice, nor mass planting, but is also about suiting the landscape to the climate, land and setting that you have to work with. An understanding of plants, soils, timbers, climate, and other landscape materials are pivotal to the success of a good landscape design.
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
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Basic Design Procedure A. - collecting pre-planning information, landscape elements, principles, etc.
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History of Gardening ‑ garden styles and themes, famous designers, garden influences.
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Draughting & Contracting - drawing techniques, specifications, details.
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Basic Landscape Construction - timber, steps, retainer walls, pathways, playstructures, etc.
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Surfacings - concrete, asphalt, gravels, mulches, grasses, gradients, etc.
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Furnishings & Features - chairs, statues, figurines, birdbaths, skateboards, safety, etc.
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Park Design A - good/bad park design characteristics, recreational landscaping.
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Home Garden design - good/bad garden design characteristics.
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Design Procedure B - development of concept plans and detailed planting plans.
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Park Design B - development of park design, fun & fitness trails.
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Plus A Special Assignment - comprehensive landscape design development.
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
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Create visual effects through the use of different landscape design concepts.
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Determine pre-planning information required to prepare a landscape design.
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Determine an appropriate garden style for a landscape, to satisfy specifications for a design project.
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Illustrate a landscape design through a plan, using legible graphic skills.
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Determine different hard landscape features, including earthworks, surface treatments and furniture, to incorporate in a landscape.
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Prepare planting designs for different landscapes.
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Design different types of landscapes, including domestic gardens and public parks
What You Will Do
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Explain the complete range of principles, elements and concepts used in landscape design.
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Visit and analyse a broad range of landscape styles, themes and components.
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Perform methods utilised to develop concepts and to create affects.
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Identify, record and utilise pre-planning information for the purpose of design development, and to use a checklist as a guide for surveying a site for a proposed design.
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Perform site survey and client interview with the site owner/manager.
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Explain the significance of effective client liaison, in a specific landscape job.
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Identify historical influences on landscaping in your locality.
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Explain the influence on modern garden design, of work by three garden designers who have been prominent in world garden history.
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Develop and compare the appropriateness of three design options for one specific landscape project.
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Draw an extensive range of different landscape symbols on paper, covering soft and hard landscape features.
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Transpose two different landscape drawings, reducing the scale by a specified amount.
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Draw a plan for a landscape, using legible graphic techniques.
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Determine site preparations required for a specified landscape site, including:
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clearing/cleaning
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earthworks.
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Explain the legal requirements for cleaning up after a job in your locality.
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Determine suitable timbers for construction of four different types of garden structures.
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Compare the suitability of different materials for surfacing paths, including:
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Asphalt
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Concrete
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Local gravels
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Local mulches
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Timber
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Ceramics.
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Collect, catalogue and determine appropriate use for different items of garden furniture.
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Design a paved area for a garden surveyed, including: scale drawings and construction instructions.
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Prepare a plant collection of at least eighty different plants incorporating:
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Pressed plant specimens,
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Scientific and common names
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Cultural details
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How to use each of these plants in different landscape situations uses.
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Evaluate established landscapes based in:
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Costs
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Maintenance
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Function
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Aesthetics
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Develop detailed planting designs, including plant lists, for three landscape plans, to satisfy given job specifications.
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Analyse and compare the landscape designs of numerous selected homes and public parks.
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Develop and prepare concept plans for landscape areas such as:
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Outdoor living area
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Kitchen garden
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Courtyard
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Childrens playground
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Entry to home
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Neighbourhood park
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Draft a series of four conceptual plans, showing stages in the design of a home garden surveyed.
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Prepare a professional standard landscape design for a client in the learner's locality, including:
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A landscape plan drawn on tracing paper.
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Materials specifications, including types and quantities.
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Budget details.
The secret to good garden design is a plan.
When starting a design, first carefully examine the existing garden. Unless you have a brand new house on an undeveloped block, you will have to consider what is already on site. Things to look for include:
- Easements, caveats and utilities – are there legal restrictions on what you can do and where you can build? Look for gas, electricity, phone and water connections.
- Buildings and hard surfaces – are there sheds, paved areas, garden beds, etc?
- Topography and access – is there a slope or a change in levels? Can vehicles or pedestrians move freely?
- Orientation, seasonal issues – does the house shade parts of the garden? Do deciduous plants let in light during winter? Does one part of the house or garden get hot in summer? etc.
- Climate – where are the prevailing winds? When and how much does it rain? How often do you get frosts? etc.
- Soil, drainage – do you have clay or sandy soil? Are there wet spots in the garden?
- Atmosphere – is there any noise or air pollution?
- Vegetation – are there existing trees or shrubs you want to retain?
- Re-usable materials – are there any pavers, timber, etc. on site?
- Local area – what are the surrounding gardens like?
- Are there likely to be any future building works (extra rooms, new garage, etc.)?
This course will bring you to a point where you can produce a landscape plan. For most garden designers or landscape contractors, this is a great place to start your learning!
SUGGESTED READING
books written by our principal John Mason and the staff
click on a book for details or to purchase
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
Learn How to Design a Garden or Landscape by Home Studies -Garden School Landscaping Training Program -UK Horticultural College
