Foundation Certificate In Horticulture

Distance Education -Houndation Tradesman Gardener Training Course

Fast Track Your skills as a Competent and Qualified Gardener

• Over 170,000 words and hundreds of illustrations
• Some of the best qualified teaching staff in the industry
• Training that has been tried and proven effective for over 30 years in more than 100 countries
• This course gives you a foundation and framework upon which to build a career or business in gardening. It doesn't teach you everything you might need (that takes decades), but it puts you in a position to start working effectively and continue learning faster and better on the job 

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).

• Online Course
• Alternatively, study by Distance education using paper based notes or a CD 

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. The Plant Kingdom (part a)
2. The Plant Kingdom (part b)
3. The Plant Kingdom (part c)
4. Plant Propagation
5. Outdoor Food Production
6. Garden Planning
7. The Root Environment and Plant Nutrition
8. Protected Cultivation
9. Horticultural Plant Selection, Establishment and Maintenance
10. 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

• Demonstrate a broad range of horticultural knowledge; communicate clearly and coherently in writing on horticultural matters; and relate horticultural science to its practical application.
• Understand the classification of higher plants and appreciate the internal structure of higher plants.
• Understand the external structure of higher plants
• Develop an understanding of the principles and main practices of plant propagation in horticulture.
• Understand the fundamental physiological processes within the plant including photosynthesis, respiration, water movement, pollination, fertilisation, seed formation and germination.
• Develop an understanding of the principles and main practices of plant propagation in horticulture.
• Understand basic cultural operations and production methods necessary to obtain outdoor food crops.
• Understand basic surveying and design principles and apply them to basic garden design and planning requirements.
• Develop an understanding of the constituents, properties and management of soils and growing media.
• Develop an understanding of environmental control and plant cultivation in greenhouses and other protected environments.
• Develop an understanding of plant selection, establishment and maintenance of a range of ornamental plants.
• 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.

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

Two exams, 1.5 hrs each

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).