Greetings from the University Centre Eden. My name’s Toria Glover and I am the HE programme manager for the HND and HNC Garden and Landscape Design courses. Having had a very practical and hands on experience with Horticulture it’s now a real pleasure to both practice and teach Garden and Landscape Design.

Developing a horticultural career in Cornwall has been the absolute dream, from working at some of the gorgeous National Trust gardens to creating planting plans for some exciting Cornish projects to finally (currently) working as a garden designer for a company in London alongside lecturing garden and landscape design modules.

 From my experience, getting practically stuck into the horticultural world through volunteering is a great way of getting to know more about your role within this ever-expanding subject area. Exploring your interests through conversations with professionals provides a great opportunity to identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as developing an understanding for the professional standards and expectations of the industry.

Volunteering and or working alongside studying is no easy feat and it’s important to strike a balance between academic, working and personal life. This course does however provide you with a great opportunity to develop practical horticultural skills by working with the Horticultural team of the Eden Project through the Practical Horticulture module.

The main aim for this course is to provide an inclusive environment that enables any keen/budding garden designer to peruse their designing ambitions. With a diverse student demographic ranging from practicing landscapers to people with children and or individuals just starting their horticultural journey, this course has been developed to give everyone the knowledge and skillset to establish a confidence within the garden and landscape design industry.

Being situated in Cornwall we are blessed with a bounty of horticultural innovations that explore a great variety of exciting garden and landscape design features seen throughout the gardens across the county so take the time to investigate, enjoy and be inspired by this beautiful landscape.

Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to meeting you all in September.

Useful Kit

Please be advised you will need approximately £100-£125 to cover essential equipment (drawing/design equipment) with no need to purchase in advance. However, should you want to get ahead or practice see below a list of useful equipment. Please note that there are lots of opportunities (online and possibly on campus) to purchase the following second hand.

Drawing

·      Tracing paper (A3)

·      Sketchbook (A4/A3)

·      Notebook (A4)

·      Scale ruler (1:1, 1:100, 1:20, 1:200, 1:5, 1:50, 1:25) – most used in industry

·      Sketching paper/pad (A4/A3)

·      Compass

·      Drawing pencils (9B-H) - Can buy a set

·      Drawing pens (fine liners 0.1mm - 0.7mm) - Can buy a set

·      Colouring pencils (generic set)

·      Rubber/putty rubber

·      Set square

·      Masking tape

Modelling: *Models can be made from any materials the following are suggested ideas

·      Foamboards

·      Modelling clay 

·      Cutting mat

·      Scalpel

·      Metal ruler

Suggested sites/brands

·      Staedtler

·      Derwent

·      Faber-Castell

Desirable items

Although the campus has an IT suite consisting of desktops with all the relevant design software, the use of a personal laptop might prove useful to practice the implementation and development of design software/programmes when at home and or over holidays. Please note that a personal laptop is not a mandatory item but some students have found it useful to have their own laptop so they can develop their designs from home.

Design software: All software is available on desktops at Eden Project University Centre. However, if you have your own computer and would like to get used to using the design software over the summer, free trials are available for the following:

·      SketchUp

·      InDesign (Adobe)

·      Photoshop (Adobe)

Printing

You will also need to budget for reprographic/printing costs in the region of £125-£200 per annum to complete necessary portfolio work (A2/A1/A0 sized items). You will be given printing credit for printing smaller items (A4/A3) on campus.

Practical work

Further, for practical work you will require sturdy steel toe-capped boots (approximately £20-50), a pair of secateurs and good quality work gloves. We also strongly recommend wet weather attire for outdoor use.

Read 

Books: Some of these feature on the reading lists provided at the beginning of the academic year but for a good introduction have a look at...

Austin, R., 2002. Elements of Planting Design. Wiley  

Dunnett, N., 2019. Naturalistic Planting Design. China: Filbert Press 

Hitchmough, J., & Fieldhouse, K., 2004. Plant User Handbook: A Guide to Effective Specifying. Oxford: Blackwell Science

James, M., 2016. RHS: How to Plant a Garden. London: Mitchell Beazley

Thomas, H. and Wooster, S., 2008. The complete planting design course: Plans and styles for every garden: Mitchell Beazley

Bloom., 2023. What Gardeners Grow: Volume 6: 600 plants chosen by the world’s greatest plants-people: Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd

Magazines:

Have a flick through the Society of Garden Designers ‘Garden Design Journal’ (magazines)

Watch

For some good introductory tutorials watch 'The middle-sized Garden' on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMiddlesizedGarden

Investigate what the leading Garden and Landscape Desginers have been discussing in the Beth Chatto Symposium 2022: https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/the-beth-chatto-symposium-2022/symposium-2022-videos.htm

Listen

A couple of good podcasts to listen to in the background that give you some interesting snippets of what's going on in the world of Horticulture and Garden and Landscape Design...

Grow, cook, eat, arrange with Sarah Raven and Friends: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CH4wQcyQ0yYWlWT07B51B?si=99cd958822004c5b

Cultivating place - Conversations on Natural history and the human impulse to garden: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qzmnihvrGg81Dp9w7CsXc?si=0bc0f2d3119b467a