LANDSCAPING II

Add To Existing Landscape Design Knowledge

Basic landscape design is concerned with how to do things like how hard landscape features are made and selecting plants to suit the location. When you have mastered that it is logical to want to expand on that knowledge and learn more about different groups of plants and how to use them, how to overcome problem areas and greater detail of hard landscape construction options.

Discover how to blend hard and soft features

• Learn about hard and soft landscaping components
• Find out how to create specific garden effects
• Learn to choose the best living and non-living materials to create advanced garden designs

Lesson Structure

There are 12 lessons in this course:

1. The Garden Environment
   • The ecosystem
   • Microclimates
   • What do you want in a garden
   • Components of a garden
   • Landscaping with water
   • Choosing a construction method for a water garden
   • Making a pool with a liner
   • Other types of water gardens
   • Water garden effects
   • Creating a waterfall
   • Cascades
   • Fencing and safety
   • Plants for water gardens
2. Landscape Materials
   • Tools
   • Tool maintenance
   • Garden clothes
   • Construction materials
   • Concrete and cement
   • How to mix concrete and mortar
   • Reinforcing, rodding, expansion joints
   • Gravel and mulched paths
   • Outdoor furniture
   • Timber: types, stains, paints, preservatives
   • Plastics, Metal, Ulpholstery
   • Furniture design
3. Using Bulbs, Annuals and other Low Growing Plants
   • Annuals
   • Scented annuals
   • Coloured foliage
   • Flower bed layout
   • Bedding schemes
   • Selecting annuals according to height
   • Annuals in containers
   • Bulbs
   • Scented bulbs
   • Amaryllis
   • Gladioli
   • Narcissus
   • Dahlia
   • Hyacinth
   • Iris
   • Ranunculus
   • Using Herbs
   • Types of herb gardens
4. Landscaping with Trees
   • Introduction
   • Successions
   • Fast growing trees
   • Choosing plants
   • Trees in the landscape
   • Problems with trees
   • Plant applications for trees, shrubs, ground covers
   • Trees with damaging roots
   • Trees with narrow canopies
   • Aesthetic criteria for planting design
   • Procedure for planting design
5. Ground Cover Plants
   • Introduction
   • Ground Covers: conifers, climbers, creepers, ornamental grasses
   • Low grasses to grow
   • How to build raised beds
   • Grevilleas
   • Thryptomene
   • Brachysema
   • Chorizema
   • Ardenbergia
   • Kennedya
   • Herbs: Thyme, chamomile, mint, alpine strawberry, etc
   • Landscaping with ferns
6. Walls and Fences
   • Introduction
   • Getting the style right
   • Different fences
   • Plants to grow on trellis
   • Espaliers
   • Garden arches
   • Choosing the rich arch
   • Timber and metal arches
7. Paths and Paving
   • Introduction
   • Where to use surfacing
   • Paving: different types of materials
   • Selecting materials
   • Concrete
   • Gravel
   • Asphalt
   • Edging
   • Edging materials
   • Maintaining an edge
   • Aesthetics
8. Treating Slopes and Other Problem Areas
   • Erosion control
   • Helping plants establish on a slope
   • Drip irrigation, mulches, tree guards
   • Pocket planting, slope serration, wattling, spray seeding, etc
   • Shade
   • Plants suited to shade
   • Ferns and shade
   • Windbreaks, hedges and screens
   • Gardening in coastal areas
   • Design and planting a firebreak
   • Fire resistant plants
9. Garden Features
   • Colour
   • Complementing colours
   • Outdoor living areas: Patios, seating, garden structures, pool areas, pool surrounds
   • Rockeries
   • Drystone walls
   • Wet walls
   • Garden buildings and structures
   • Siting garden buildings
   • What to build
   • What to do with the floor
   • Planting around a garden building
   • Protective structures
   • Types of greenhouses
   • Decorative planters
   • Choosing and siting a planter
   • Garden lighting
   • Lighting trees, paths, ponds etc
   • Letterboxes
10. Designing for Low Maintenance
    • Introduction
    • The cost of garden maintenance
    • What costs
    • Expensive to maintain areas or features
    • Less expensive to maintain areas
    • Gardening in dry areas
    • Overcoming dry soils
    • Drought tolerant plants
    • Hardy plants for inner city gardens
11. Developing a Landscape Plan
    • The site planning process
    • Site analysis
    • Design concept
    • Master plan
    • Keeping it to scale
    • The importance of space
12. Management of Landscape Projects
    • Introduction
    • Mistakes to avoi
    • Earthmoving
    • Importing soil
    • Workplace safety

Aims

• Determine the resources required for a landscape development, including materials and equipment.
• Determine appropriate plants for different locations within a landscape.
• Determine the appropriate design and construction for landscape features, including walls, fences, pavers and buildings.
• Determine treatments for problem areas in a landscape, including slopes and hostile environments.
• Analyse maintenance requirements for a landscape.
• Develop a landscape development plan, in accordance with a client brief, and in liaison with the client.
• Plan the management of landscape projects.

What You Will Do

• Determine landscape materials readily available in your locality, including: soils, gravels, mulches and timbers.
• Differentiate between landscape applications for different types of timber.
• Compare a range of materials in terms of function and aesthetics, including various types of mulches and different types of gravels.
• Determine applications for five different specific items of machinery in landscape construction including a chainsaw, an earth moving machine, a rotary hoe and a tractor.
• List minimum equipment required to construct different landscapes in accordance with project specifications.
• Determine criteria for selecting plants to be planted in specified locations.
• Explain the impact of trees in two specific landscapes, on both the environment and aesthetics of those landscapes.
• Determine different herbaceous plants, to grow in three different specified locations within the same garden.
• Prepare a design for an annual flower display bed.
• List different groundcovers suited to plant in different situations, including full shade, half shade, full sun and hanging baskets.
• Prepare a planting design for a 100 sq. metre area of garden, using only groundcovers and trees.
• List trees suited to each of the following cultural situations, in your locality: waterlogged soil; sandy soil; heavy soil; saline soil; fire prone sites and near drainage pipes.
• Explain local government regulations which are relevant to landscape design and construction.
• Develop design criteria for different garden structures, in specified situations, including: a pergola, swimming pool, steps and a garden seat.
• Compare the design and construction of different types of barriers, including walls and fences.
• Design a fence for a landscape designed by you, including: construction detail drawing(s), materials specifications and a cost estimate.
• Compare specific surfacing materials, in landscapes you visit, including paving products, stone and gravel.
• Design a set of steps, including construction detail drawing(s), materials specifications and a cost estimate.
• Design a set of retaining walls, including construction, drawings, materials needed and a cost estimate.
• Compare different types of garden buildings observed by you, including sheds, gazebos, car ports and garages, in terms of cost, durability, aesthetics and maintenance required.
• Determine different methods to treat a specified erosion problem.
• Determine landscape preparations required for different soil types including clay, sand, shale, rocky soil and loam.
• Describe interim stabilisation techniques, including hydromulching and jutemaster.
• List plant species which will adapt well to problem situations.
• Determine plants suitable for each of a range of different soil types, including: clays, sands, acidic soil and alkaline soil.
• Develop landscape plans, including illustrations and written instructions, for several difficult sites.
• Determine landscape features that contribute towards the reduction of maintenance requirement on a landscaped site.
• Compare the weekly maintenance requirement of a specific low maintenance garden, with that of a specific high maintenance garden.
• Compile pre-planning information for a an existing landscape, which owners require to be redeveloped in order to reduce the maintenance requirement.
• Prepare a detailed landscape design to achieve low maintenance.
• Develop a ten week maintenance program, for a specific landscaped area visited by you.
• Compare copies of landscape briefs for projects advertised in the tenders column of a newspaper.
• Develop a "client" brief, through an interview with a potential landscape client.
• Survey a landscape site to confirm details in a client brief.
• Develop alternative concept plans for a landscape, in accordance with a client brief.
• Determine the preferred option, from several concept plans presented to a client at a tape recorded meeting.
• Prepare a detailed landscape design, conforming to decisions made during a discussion of alternative concept plans.
• Prepare a quotation, based on a specified landscape plan.
• Analyse the design of a landscape in comparison with the "Brief".
• Prepare a work schedule according to both specifications and plans.
• Monitor the progress of landscape work on a project, by keeping a logbook or work diary.
• Assess standard of work carried out on a completed landscape project, against landscape plans for that project.
• Select appropriate equipment, including tools and machinery, for a specified project.
• List occupational health and safety regulations when dealing with machinery and equipment, which is relevant to a specified project.
• Schedule the supply of materials and equipment for a project, in a logbook.
• Develop contingency plans for a landscape development which addresses different possible irregularities including bad weather, security problems, weekend watering.
• Explain how to finalise a specified project prior to handing over.
• Explain the importance of monitoring a contract, through a specified project.
• Develop guidelines for supervision of construction for a specified landscape project.

Plant selection is an important part of any landscape design work. If you don't choose your plants carefully your design is unlikely to be successful and the effects of poor plant selection may be expensive to rectify, for example the cost of removing a very large tree from a small garden. When selecting plants to be included in your landscape designs you should consider the following factors:

Pre planning considerations including the site characteristics ie: slope, soil etc, as well as the location of services and buildings, local by laws and owners preferences

Use what particular task or tasks do you want the plant to fulfill ie: shade, appearance, windbreak etc

Climatic considerations which plants are best suited to the particular climatic conditions in which the landscape is situated. This includes the frequency, strength and duration of rainfall, winds and frosts as well as temperature and humidity levels.

Growth characteristics how big does it grow and how quickly, does it have invasive roots that are likely to block drains or lift footpaths, buildings etc, is it deciduous so that it provides shade in summer and allows light through in winter, could the plant become invasive ie: a weed?

• Longevity how long is the plant likely to live?
• Safety do the plants have thorns or prickles that may cause injuries, can it cause an allergic reaction, are parts of it poisonous, is it likely to drop branches, is it likely to burn easily (ie Eucalypts)?
• Maintenance does it require pruning, staking and regular feeding, does it drop leaves or fruit that may need to be swept or raked etc?
• Hardiness is it prone to attack from pests and diseases, is it readily affected by pollutants etc?
• Availability and cost are the plants you desire readily available, what do they cost are substitutes readily available?

Before purchasing any plants you should carefully inspect them:

1. Roots Should be light coloured (if necessary, remove from pot to
   inspect). Avoid shriveled, rotting or blackened roots...these indicate
   that the plant has been stressed and is in an unhealthy state.
   Also avoid roots which are spiraling...these indicate that the plant
   is po tbound.
2. Foliage should be unmarked with lush new tips. Plants which do not
   have new leaves or plump buds indicate that the plant is not in top
   condition.
3. Shape and height of the plant Stressed plants will appear stunted and
   may have thickened stems. Consider the height of the plant in relation
   to the pot...spindly, tall plants may be pot bound and/or suffering from a lack of nutrients.

How This Course Could Help You

This course is best suited to people with some existing knowledge of landscape design. However, people with basic construction skills and plant knowledge may also take it.

It could serve as a platform for further study or be taken in conjunction with other modules to enhance your learning experience. The course is of most value to people working in or wishing to work in:

Landscape construction
Garden design
Garden maintenance
Garden restoration or conservation

It could also add to the skillset of people wanting to start a garden design business, or be of value to people wishing to renovate a home garden.