Landscaping Foundations (I)

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Basic Design Procedure A. - collecting pre-planning information, landscape elements, principles, etc.
2. History of Gardening ? garden styles and themes, famous designers, garden influences.
3. Draughting & Contracting - drawing techniques, specifications, details.
4. Basic Landscape Construction - timber, steps, retainer walls, pathways, playstructures, etc.
5. Surfacings - concrete, asphalt, gravels, mulches, grasses, gradients, etc.
6. Furnishings & Features - chairs, statues, figurines, birdbaths, skateboards, safety, etc.
7. Park Design A - good/bad park design characteristics, recreational landscaping.
8. Home Garden design - good/bad garden design characteristics.
9. Design Procedure B - development of concept plans and detailed planting plans.
10. Park Design B - development of park design, fun & fitness trails.
    • 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.

• Create visual effects through the use of different landscape design concepts.
• Determine pre-planning information required to prepare a landscape design.
• Determine an appropriate garden style for a landscape, to satisfy specifications for a design project.
• Illustrate a landscape design through a plan, using legible graphic skills.
• Determine different hard landscape features, including earthworks, surface treatments and furniture, to incorporate in a landscape.
• Prepare planting designs for different landscapes.
• Design different types of landscapes, including domestic gardens and public parks

• Explain the complete range of principles, elements and concepts used in landscape design.
• Visit and analyse a broad range of landscape styles, themes and components.
• Perform methods utilised to develop concepts and to create affects.
• 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.
• Perform site survey and client interview with the site owner/manager.
• Explain the significance of effective client liaison, in a specific landscape job.
• Identify historical influences on landscaping.
• Explain the influence on modern garden design, of work by three garden designers who have been prominent in world garden history.
• Develop and compare the appropriateness of three design options for one specific landscape project.
• Draw an extensive range of different landscape symbols on paper, covering soft and hard landscape features.