Home Garden Expert Course

Online Gardening Course for home gardeners -100 hours covering everything to be an excellent gardener. Subsidised, lower course fee offer.

Course Code: AHT101
Fee Code: SOS2
Duration (approx) Duration (approx) 100 hours
Qualification Statement of Attainment
Get started!
BECOME THE MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE GARDENER IN YOUR FAMILY!
 
Subsidised study -enrol today pay $548.90 for almost $400 in extra value
 
NORMALLY $748 (incl. goods & services tax -gst)
 
Enrol Today and Pay $548.90 (incl gst)
 
or two payments of $297 (one now; the other due in 2 month from now) (incl gst).
 
plus the following ebooks as an added bonus:
Growing & Knowing Annuals ($32.95)
Growing & Knowing Bulbs ($32.95)
Growing & Knowing Perennial Plants ($34.95) 
Landscaping with Australian Plants ($34.95)
Trees and Shrubs ($24.95)
Plant Pests and Diseases ($34.95)
Total value = $195.70 
 
 
 

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

  1. Basic Plant Identification & Culture
    • Plant names-common and scientific
    • Recognising groupings of plants into families and genera
    • Planting
    • Understanding cold in the garden
    • Protecting new plantings
    • Different potting needs
    • Hanging baskets
    • How to select the most appropriate plant
    • Transplanting from pots
    • Basic planting procedure
    • Best time to plant
    • Planting bare rooted plants
    • Mulching
    • Tools & equipment.
    • How to cut with secateurs
    • Aims of pruning
    • Pruning terminology
    • When to prune
    • Pruning methods
    • Pruning in the home orchard
    • Review of 16 different plants
  2. Soils & Nutrition
    • Soil texture and structure
    • Different soils for different purposes
    • Terminology
    • Water, air, temperature of soil
    • Nutrient elements
    • Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sulphur
    • Minor elements
    • Deficiencies and toxicities
    • Feeding plants
    • Factors affecting fertiliser application
    • Organic fertilisers; manures, rock dusts, seaweed
    • Ways to apply fertiliser
    • Soil chemical properties
    • Soil building
    • Improving texture, fertility, etc
    • Total salts
    • Acidity and alkalinity
    • Composting
    • Drainage
    • Review of 16 different plants
  3. Pests & Weeds
    • Identifying problems
    • Preventative measures
    • Types of problems -parasitic and non parasitic, pest, disease, environmental etc
    • Chemical vs natural controls
    • Common problems and treatments used for them, both natural and chemical
    • Safety with chemicals
    • Plants to improve soils -cover crops
    • Biological control
    • Weed identification
    • Types of weeds
    • Types of weed problems
    • Weed control methods
    • Review of 16 different plants
  4. Landscaping
    • Types of gardens -formal, informal, natural
    • Cottage gardens, Mediterranean, Japanese, naturalistic, permaculture
    • History of Gardening
    • Design principles or concepts -line, texture, colour, balance etc.
    • Using paving, stone, gravel, etc
    • Selecting landscape materials
    • Moving earth
    • Using timber
    • Rockeries
    • Drainage -surface and sub surface
    • Designing a home garden, step by step, through to drawing the plan
    • Creating user friendly gardens
    • How to use colour
    • Creating a natural style
    • How to use plants
    • How to create a garden room
    • Native gardens
    • Traditional (European style) home gardens.
    • Hedges and Mazes
    • Review of 16 different plants
  5. Propagation
    • Methods -asexual and sexual
    • Equipment, cold frames
    • Seed treatments -acid digestion, stratification, scarification, etc
    • Soils, soil mixes, propagating media
    • UC mixes
    • ph
    • Types of media and components -rock, stone, synthetic, organic, soil
    • Growing plants from seed
    • Hygiene
    • How to sow into containers
    • Germination
    • Pricking out seedlings
    • Cutting propagation
    • Types of cuttings, hardwood, softwood, herbaceous, nodal, tip, etc
    • Cutting treatments -hormones, wounding etc
    • Managing parent plants
    • Cutting propagation for a range of specific plant genera
    • Setting out cuttings
    • Potting on cuttings
    • Review of 16 different plants
  6. Lawns
    • Value of lawns
    • Lawn shape and design
    • Ways of establishment -seeding, turfing, rough mowing
    • Laying a new lawn
    • Turf grass varieties -couch, fescue, rye, bent, kentucky,
    • Lawn problems -nutritional, environmental, pest, disease, weeds
    • Lawn renovation -topdressing, dethatching, aeration, etc
    • Turf maintenance practices -rolling, spiking,slicing, drilling, etc
    • Watering lawns
    • Review of 16 different plants
  7. Indoor Gardening
    • Why some indoor plants do not perform
    • Caring for plants -growth rates, dormancy
    • General rules to follow
    • Choosing the right pot or container
    • Hydroponics
    • Bonsai
    • Greenhouses
    • Shadehouses
    • Heaters
    • Other ways to grow plants -epiphytes, terrariums, water gardens
    • Selecting indoor plants for different light and other conditions
    • Hardy indoor plants
    • How to maintain indoor plants in pots
    • Problems with potted plants and solutions
    • Groups or types of indoor plants -foliage, flowering etc
    • Review of 16 different plants
  8. The Kitchen Garden
    • Getting started
    • Choosing what to grow
    • Planning a cropping program
    • Getting the best from a Vegetable plot
    • Crop rotation
    • Use disease resistant varieties
    • Timing
    • Special techniques -green manures, no dig beds, raised beds
    • Minimising water use
    • Making compost
    • Varieties and seeds
    • Raising and transplanting seedlings
    • Directory/review of how to grow most common vegetables (this is an extensive study)
    • Harvesting
    • Establishing a home orchard
    • Deciduous Fruit trees
    • Pollination needs
    • Review of common temperate and sub tropical fruits from grapes to mangoes and apples to citrus
    • Nuts -review of most common types
    • Berry Fruits -review of most common types
    • Using excess harvest -preserves etc
    • Herb cultivation
    • Review of most common herbs
    • Harvesting herbs
    • Designing a culinary herb garden
    • Companion planting
    • Using herbs -garnishes, soups, pot pouri, etc
    • Poisonous plants
    • Cultivating annual flowers
    • Review of 16 different plants



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