General Horticulture Courses

Designed originally in conjunction with a garden department manager of a major retail chain store; this course has been very successful in training both staff and managers of retail nurseries and garden centres across the world.

It continues to be updated at least annually, and continues to be used by small nurseries through to major chain stores across the country.

Many garden managers have risen from being casual staff to full time managers and this course helps with the skills needed to make that change. If you are a budding Horticulturalist with basic skills, this will help you climb to the top of the ladder!

Learn how to effectively maintain a garden while reducing the amount of time, labour and costs involved.

Proper garden maintenance will cost you both time and money. Fortunately, there are shortcuts to help you have a good-looking garden without spending a huge amount of time or money on your property.

We usually think of garden maintenance as a summer priority when lawns, weeds and plants grow vigorously but even in winter a garden may deteriorate without regular maintenance.

Plants that are fed well are healthier, resist disease and pest problems, and generally require less maintenance. If a plant is unhealthy, it may be because of a lack of good nutrition, but it can just as easily be because of something else. Healthy plants resist pest and disease problems.

Heat, cold, wind, rain, frost, shade, pollution and other environmental problems can have disastrous effects on plants. Plant varieties vary in their tolerance of these conditions, for example the heat which might kill one plant may simply slow the growth of another. Some plants are very adaptable others not.

This is a comprehensive well-rounded course that offers the horticultural marketing manager or small business owner what they need to be successful in this essential component of business management.

This subject covers the theoretical and practical importance of marketing in the horticultural industry, including topics such as advertizing, promotions, signs, customer relations, pricing strategy, labelling, transport, product presentation, and more.

• This course has been developed by professionals in both Australia and the UK, with the aim of being relevant throughout the world.
• This is a module in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Master of Horticulture

The ideal course for the beginner, this is a basic, yet thoroughly practical course which gives you a sound broad technical grounding in horticultural principles and practices. A section of each lesson involves plant identification. YOU WILL LEARN:

• To identify, propagate and care for 80 different types of plants.
• The systematic way plants are classified.
• Structure and parts of a flower.
• To identify different leaf shapes.
• Different ways to control weeds.
• Simple soil tests.
• Making propagating and potting mixes.
• Identifying pest and disease problems.
• How and why to prune different plants.
• Drawing a simple garden sketch plan.
• To plant or repair a lawn; and lots more.

Water is essential to plant growth and is often the major limitation to productivity. Irrigation is now playing a more important role in horticulture as well as home gardens than ever before.

Irrigation can enable plants or turf to be grown in a dry climate where it would not otherwise be possible.  It can supplement the existing rainfall and improve growth rates by extending the growth period of the plant, or it can ensure that there is adequate moisture during critical periods when the plant is growing most rapidly. The value of irrigation can vary greatly from year to year depending on the distribution of rainfall during the growth season.

Irrigation at appropriate times can also improve the quality of turf or the general health of garden plants.

The following topic areas are covered:

• Ways to optimise water efficiency
• Scheduling irrigation for crops & pasture
• Drainage system design
• Operating irrigation controllers
• Managing system maintenance
• Managing fertigation
• Evaluating irrigation designs
• Design of different systems

This is a course for the trained or experienced manager. It is a component of the 2nd year studies in the RHS M.Hort.

Learn to:

1. Discuss appropriate management strategies to ensure the long term survival of plants and garden features.
2. Identify and evaluate sources of funding and associated issues.
3. Identify and discuss the issues concerned with the presentation of a site to visitors.

A designed landscape can be described as parks, gardens or grounds that are pre-conceived, designed and constructed for artistic effect. Parklands, woodlands, water and notable formal and informal gardens are included. Some may have significant wildlife, archaeological and scientific interest; they are also often the grounds in which buildings of historical significance are situated.

An outstanding and extensive, globally focused, foundation course.
Organic growing has increased in popularity over the past ten years due to the increasing awareness of safety in the garden and on the farm and the desire to produce food that is free from chemical inputs. For decades, farmers and growers have relied upon chemicals to control pests and diseases in order to produce crops for sale. Unfortunately it is only recently that we have become aware that many of those chemicals can sometimes cause health problems to humans, as well as long-term damage to the environment such as soil degradation, imbalances in pest-predator populations can also sometimes occur. As public concern grows, these issues are becoming increasingly important. However the organic grower or gardener should understand that not all organic practices always guarantee a healthy environment, over-cultivation for example can also lead to soil damage. Organic growing practices should aim to ensure quality of both the environment in which we live and of the produce we grow in our gardens and on our farms.

Government, nursery and private positions are more demanding then they ever were; employers are becoming increasingly selective choosing personnel with broad horticultural knowledge and less emphasis is placed on the 'learn on the job' approach of years gone by. Education is imperative if you expect to compete in this field and those that have the knowledge will also have the best chance of reaping the rewards.

A sick plant may have one or several causes at the same time.

There are thousands of possible causes which can contribute to a plant's problems. More often than not, there are several factors involved. Minor diseases or environmental problems may weaken the plant, making it susceptible to some more major (obvious) disorder. When you inspect a plant for problems, you should systematically consider all of the things which might possibly be going wrong. This course provides the foundation for inspecting diagnosing and treating all types of problems.

Learn how to beat the bugs - a course designed for the professional horticulturist.
Plant pathology (also known as phytopathology) is the study of plant disease - it is a combination of science knowledge and science application.

This course develops your understanding of all types of plant diseases (fungal, viral, bacterial, non-infectious); their life cycles, and ways they can be controlled both with and without chemicals.

It is a must for horticulturalists who want to boost their plant health and prevent damage by pests and diseases.

Know how to protect your plants

 Understanding the life cycles of insects and weeds and learning how to identify them is important in the protect of plants from disease and insect and the spread of weed species. l

Learn to be a Horticulturalist with the best practical skills! A practical approach to horticultural education.. How do you learn the practical side of horticulture by distance education? Although all ACS courses are practically and well as theoretically focussed - this course was developed for those people who feel that they will gain more from a course that places MOST of the learning experience on learning theory - through practice. There are lots of practical horticultural tasks to develop your skills and knowledge covered in this course. So if you are a student that prefers practical learning, then this course is the ANSWER, and it really does work! Best taken online, or on CD, where you can make full use of interactive learning tasks and coloured photography on the computer. This course has been written to satisfy curriculum developed by the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK (Advanced Certificate and Diploma level).

Take the next step in your career: develop practical skills in the management of a variety of horticultural situations required of the horticultural manager or the management of your own business that you would normally learn working under the supervision of a horticultural expert. A step on from Practical Horticulture 1 but a course that can be taken in its own right by those with fundamental horticultural knowledge.

Following is an excerpt from lesson 1.

Work planning and project management is an important aspect of the type of work that would be generally carried out by the professional horticulturist. It may be in diverse areas within the horticulture industry i.e. a planting program, plant sales program, landscape project, re-vegetation project, sports or turf management, irrigation and drainage systems implementation, production planning (crops and nursery), conservation of natural resource areas, conserve a heritage area and so on. Project management may be under the broad direction of superiors in certain situations however self directed application of knowledge that has substantial depth is expected at this level.

Some supervision is required for this course by an independent horticultural expert such as your work manager or other expert. The course contains all the tips to develop excellent practical skills in the management of a variety of horticultural situations. It covers subject areas such as: horticultural calculations, propagation management, hard and soft landscape management, planning - identifying needs for management of horticultural sites, identifying plant tissue and much more.

This course will help you to stay ahead of the competition and fulfill your managerial or business aspirations.

Learn to grow crops or other plants in a greenhouse, shade house or other protected environment

This course not only provides a credit in ACS qualifications, accredited through IARC; but it also prepares you to sit for RHS modules and acquire credits in the RHS advanced certificate or diploma.

Become a professional plant propagator and make a career for a lifetime! Why do some seeds germinate easily, and others don't?. How should seed be stored? How should seeds be treated to encourage germinate? How do you get seedlings to survive?Seed propagation can be complex, but doing this course will lay a foundation for working more effectively with all types of seed, to achieve better results wherever you live.

You can grow just about anything when you know how to propagate your own plants. It is a valuable part of saving money for your landscape and nursery business. A skill you will have for always.

Soil management - the basis for healthy plants and conservation for future generations.

The Soil is a living biological ecosystem that must be managed to the benefit of the crop and to the broader ecosystem of the region. The reason we investigate soil and its characteristics it to understand it in relation to plant growth, how to manage and manipulate it without causing damage, how to improve it generally or how to modify it for the growing of specific crops. Good soil conditions are critical to the healthy growth of most plants.

Nutrient levels, pH, salinity, depth, texture (properties of sand and clay), structure (form and arrangement), porosity (air space), consistence (the ability of soil to withstand rupture) and even colour can affect plant growth independently or interdependently.

Over eight lessons this course will develop an understanding of physical and chemical properties of soils, the ability to carry out simple tests and determine soil characteristics, and to decide ways of treating a soil to improve its ability to grow plants.

This course provides a credit in ACS qualifications, accredited through IARC, and also prepares you to sit for RHS modules and acquire credits in the RHS advanced certificate or diploma.

The course is specifically designed for ornamental gardens, landscaping, container growing, and turf situations.

Learn about effective weed control

In horticultural practice, if weeds are to be controlled, it is critical that they are accurately identified when young. However, weeds are notorious for their diversity and resilience. These two characteristics have made weeds attractive as garden plants in countries to which they are not native.

Young weeds are far easier to control than older and more established weeds. There are many different ways of controlling weed growth, and the effectiveness of each technique is related to the varieties of weeds being controlled. Some chemicals, for instance will effectively kill certain weeds when they are in the early stages of growth, but will not control other types of weeds. You may need to be able to distinguish between types of weeds to determine whether the chemical will or will not work.

Managing a production nursery involves more than just propagating and potting up plants. Even the small nursery must be able to not only producer plants, but do it at a pre determined cost, then sustain those plants before and during marketing..

The nursery industry currently has a real need for people with skills and knowledge in managing production plant nurseries! This course provides a solid grounding for developing those skills. Learn how to manage people and define your target market for optimum performance!