Start you Career as a Gardener, Garden Designer or Horticulturist here.
Student Comment: "I have found the course material to be comprehensive and informative and have learnt a lot and really enjoyed my year of study. The office staff at ACS have always been helpful and efficient and quick to respond to requests or queries. My tutor, Adriana, was encouraging and supportive, as well as being really thorough in the way she marked my assignments. I had not studied for 20 years before I started my RHS Certificate 2 in Horticulture and the feedback and reassurance I received from my tutor made all the difference." Katherine Parry, Australia - RHS Certificate II in Horticulture course (now referred to as Foundation Certificate in Horticulture).
- Learn to grow plants, feed, water, protect and prune them
- A course for anyone starting out in gardening or horticulture; seeking a job, starting a business, or already working in the industry
- Understand the science that underpins all horticulture, and the system that makes it easier to identify and remember plant names
"This is the best entry level qualification under 200 hours that you are likely to find anywhere".
Quote: John Mason, Garden Magazine Editor, author (45 books), Professional Horticulturist (40 years), Fellow Institute of Horticulture
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
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The Plant Kingdom (part a)
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The Plant Kingdom (part b)
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The Plant Kingdom (part c)
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Plant Propagation
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Outdoor Food Production
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Garden Planning
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The Root Environment and Plant Nutrition
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Protected Cultivation
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Horticultural Plant Selection, Establishment and Maintenance
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Horticultural Plant Health Problems
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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Demonstrate a broad range of horticultural knowledge; communicate clearly and coherently in writing on horticultural matters; and relate horticultural science to its practical application.
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Understand the classification of higher plants and appreciate the internal structure of higher plants.
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Understand the external structure of higher plants
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Develop an understanding of the principles and main practices of plant propagation in horticulture.
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Understand the fundamental physiological processes within the plant including photosynthesis, respiration, water movement, pollination, fertilisation, seed formation and germination.
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Develop an understanding of the principles and main practices of plant propagation in horticulture.
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Understand basic cultural operations and production methods necessary to obtain outdoor food crops.
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Understand basic surveying and design principles and apply them to basic garden design and planning requirements.
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Develop an understanding of the constituents, properties and management of soils and growing media.
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Develop an understanding of environmental control and plant cultivation in greenhouses and other protected environments.
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Develop an understanding of plant selection, establishment and maintenance of a range of ornamental plants.
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Develop an understanding of pest, diseases and weeds that affect horticultural plants, and the cultural, biological, chemical and integrated systems used to control those problems.
Tips for Better Gardening -from our tutors
PROBLEMS TO WATCH
There are some mistakes which people commonly make with plants. If you can avoid these, you will be going a long way towards getting the best from your backyard.
*Don't plant the wrong size plant.
Think carefully about how tall and wide plants grow, particularly the larger plants. Don't always believe what you read on a plant label, as these only give very general information, and the plant might do something quite different in your locality. Always refer to two or three different books to see what they say before planting large trees. If the plant is said to grow 12 metres tall, you should look at something 12 metres tall so you have a clear idea of what that height is.
*Don't overplant.
Too many large plants too close together will compete with each other either becoming straggly and unattractive, or with one growing strongly and the other weak.
*Avoid tall trees close to buildings which will drop leaves in gutters.
*Deciduous and fruiting plants can drop large amounts of fruits, berries or leaves onto the ground at certain times of the year, creating slippery paths or messy lawns.
*Avoid plants which have damaging roots.
Roots can damage pipes, ponds, fences, paths and foundations. These problems are most likely if the soil becomes too dry and the roots need to seek moisture, or if large or vigorous plants are planted too close to these things. By mulching around plants, you can keep the soil moist, and by thinking about where you put vigorous plants, these problems are minimized.
FOUR RULES
By doing the following you will usually get best results and the least problems from plants:
1. Always prepare the soil before planting anything. Digging in well rotted manure a week or two before
planting. If the soil is very hard or a clay, lots of compost or organic material such as woodshavings
should be dug in a month or more before planting.
2. Always plant trees in a garden before smaller plants. The location of trees will affect the small plants
much more than the small plants affecting the trees.
3. Almost all plants will grow better on soil that is slightly mounded. Unless you have perfect drainage,
always mound up soil in garden beds.
4. Mulch all plants to keep the soil moist and the weeds from growing. The best mulching is usually mulch
mat material (available from nurseries) covered with a layer of pine bark, wood chip or some similar
organic material.
DURATION
Nominally 120 hours, though we believe only students who already have some prior experience could complete it within this time frame. Most students should budget on spending 150 hours or more doing this course if they hope to be successful when sitting final exams.
THE EXAMS 2 exams
This course was developed and run as the RHS Certificate II up until July 2010, when it was replaced by the RHS due to changes in the UK accreditation system. Due to popular demand from students, we continue to offer this as a "foundation certificate" examined and awarded by ACS Distance Education in Australia (It no longer holds any endorsement from the RHS).
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
