COURSE DESCRIPTION The Planting What Where short course is designed for home gardeners and aspiring garden designers, delivering a complete and practical learning experience with exercises you can easily do at home. You have flexibility to learn on your schedule. Whether you’re just starting out or already working in the industry, this course offers essential skills: the ability to select the perfect plants for the right place.   WHAT THE COURSE COVERS – 13 LESSONS   LESSON 1 PLANT SELECTION 

• Introduction – criteria for plant use
• Planting strategies
• Inspecting plants before purchase
• Know your plants -Annuals

  LESSON 2 PLANT ESTABLISHMENT METHODS

• Ways to help plants get established
• Trickle irrigation
• Mulches
• Tree guards
• Techniques for planting sloped areas -pocket
• planting, slope serration, wattling
• Planting arid sites -direct seeding, spray seeding
• Rehabilitating damaged soils in the home garden
• What can go wrong
• Improving soil in a new garden
• Lime loving plants
• Fertilisers
• Salinity, pH, etc
• Problems with dogs and cats
• Know your plants – Fruit trees

  LESSON 3 DETECTING PROBLEMS

• Pests
• Diseases
• First: conduct an inspection
• Second: take note of the environment
• Third: identify the problem
• Fourth: treat the problem
• Review what you have been learning
• Solutions for wet areas
• What can cause wet areas in your garden?
• Problems with wet areas
• Overcoming problems with boggy or wet areas
• Know your plants – orchids

  LESSON 4 PLANTS FOR WET/ BOGGY SITES

• How to keep the soil wet all year
• Plants that grow in permanently wet soil
• Plants that tolerate wet in winter and drier soil in summer
• Creating a bog garden
• Construction of water gardens
• Plants for water gardens
• Review what you have been learning
• Gardening in the Shade
• Ferns

LESSON 5 SHADE 

• Considering shade problems
• Plants suited to full shade
• Ferns for varied levels of shade
• Shade trees
• Where to plant the shade tree
• Deciduous or semi deciduous trees
• Evergreen shade trees
• Know your plants – perennials

  LESSON 6 WINDBREAKS HEDGES AND SCREENS

• Why use screening plants
• Hedges
• Hedge plants for different situations
• Windbreaks
• Know your plants – ornamental trees

  LESSON 7 PLANTS FOR DRY GARDENS

• Introduction
• Gardening in dry conditions
• Overcoming dryness
• Dry pots
• Growing dry loving plants in moist soil
• Selecting drought tolerant trees
• Drought tolerant trees for various situations
• Design and planting a fire break
• How to arrange plants
• Distances from buildings
• Considerations – winds, vehicular access, fire resistant plants
• Fire resistant plants
• Know your plants – succulents

  LESSON 8 COASTAL GARDENS

• Dealing with salt
• Creating wind breaks
• Hardy seaside plants
• Know your plants – palms

  LESSON 9 TREES AND SHRUBS 

• Evergreen trees
• Cool conifers
• Deciduous trees for autumn colour
• Shrubs in the landscape
• Examples of long flowering plants
• Shrubs that flower in autumn
• What flowers in winter
• Living Christmas trees
• Know your plants – shrubs

  LESSON 10 FITTING MORE IN A SMALL GARDEN 

• How to fit more in a small garden
• Small trouble-free plants
• Space-saving decoration
• Go up
• Expand your garden
• Colours
• Design your garden to appear bigger
• Know your plants -climbers

  LESSON 11 PLANTS FOR VARIOUS SITUATIONS 

• Frost hardy plants
• Hardy plants for inner city gardens
• Plants for pets
• Long narrow areas
• Know your plants – indoor plants

  LESSON 12 LAWNS

• Choosing the right lawn
• Turf varieties
• Lawn mixes
• What turf to grow where
• Know your plants – grasses and grass like plants

  LESSON 13 LIVING GARDEN ART 

• Living art
• How to make a hedge
• Miniature/tabletop gardens
• Using junk in living gardens
• Know your plants – bulbs and rhizomes

    COURSE FEATURES

• 20-hour, self-paced course
• Fully online, flexibly paced
• Optional practical tasks throughout
• Automated self-assessment tests
• “Certificate of Completion” on achieving a 60% pass rate on a final assessment

  WHO SHOULD STUDY THIS COURSE? This course can be equally valuable to both amateurs or professionals.  Professional engineers, architects, planners, developers, and sometimes even landscape professionals, often choose plant species that will eventually damage pipes, foundations or pavement; cause allergic reactions to people living around them, or simply not grow well and die young.