Do you have ideas for your garden but struggle to know how to turn them into a successful design?

This practical and highly visual two-day course introduces the essential principles of garden design, helping you understand how to organise and shape outdoor space with confidence.

Led by former architect, experienced tutor and Garden Designer Catriona Rowbotham, with assistance from award winning Garden Designer Penelope Hill Smith, and lecture from award winning Garden Designer Richard Miers, the course focuses on the fundamentals of designing garden space. Through a combination of lectures, demonstrations and hand drawn exercises, students will learn how to analyse a site, work with scale drawings, and create balanced and functional garden layouts.

Working from a typical London garden plan, students will develop their own design brief and produce a final concept plan over the two days. The emphasis throughout is on understanding space, proportion and layout rather than planting design, making this an ideal introduction for complete beginners as well as keen gardeners who wish to understand the principles behind successful garden design.

Topics covered include:
– Understanding different garden styles
– Setting a design brief
– Basic surveying methods
– Drawing plans to scale
– Analysing soil and aspect
– Using grids and geometry in garden design
– Solid and void design principles
– Practical space planning
– Path and patio sizing
– Defining spaces with materials and structure
– Focal points, sculpture, lighting and water

Students will work through a series of guided practical exercises using tracing paper, grids, and scaled plans, with individual support from the tutors throughout.

By the end of the course, you will have developed a clear understanding of the design process and produced your own conceptual garden layout.

Places limited to 24.

Course notes are included and a light lunch is provided each day