KLC Certificate of Residential Garden Design
Learn the fundamentals of residential garden design with our online Certificate course and gain a professional, industry-recognised qualification while studying at your own pace.
Structured into fourteen comprehensive sections and delivered through a combination of videos, presentations and self-assessed quizzes, this self-study course will support you with the knowledge and skills to create design propositions for residential gardens. From the principles of spatial planning and planting design to history, CAD, plant science and professional practice, you'll learn how to turn your creative passion for gardens into a career.
Award: College Award
Course duration: The course is designed to allow you to study at your own pace; working around your other commitments. On average, students who commit 12 hours a week to study can complete the course in 12 months. Students have 12 months of online access to the course content. It is possible to extend access, beyond the initial 12-months, for an additional fee. Please contact us for more details.
Structured into fourteen comprehensive sections and delivered through a combination of videos, presentations and self-assessed quizzes, this self-study course will support you with the knowledge and skills to create design propositions for residential gardens. From the principles of spatial planning and planting design to history, CAD, plant science and professional practice, you'll learn how to turn your creative passion for gardens into a career.
Award: College Award
Course duration: The course is designed to allow you to study at your own pace; working around your other commitments. On average, students who commit 12 hours a week to study can complete the course in 12 months. Students have 12 months of online access to the course content. It is possible to extend access, beyond the initial 12-months, for an additional fee. Please contact us for more details.
Introduction
- Welcome to West Dean
- Welcome to your course
- Getting the most from your course
- Course structure
- Becoming a Garden Designer
- Introduce yourself forum
- General discussion forum
Course and Student Information
Student Welfare
Design Principles and Process
The Garden Designer
History of Garden Design
Stage A - Initial Consultation
Stage B - Pre-design
Stage C - Concept Design
Digital Drawing - Computer Aided Design (Vectorworks - CAD)
Stage D - Detailed Design
Digital Drawing - 3D Drawing & Rendering (Vectorworks Landmark)
Plant Science
Planting Design and Schedules
Stage E - Tender, Site Operations and Contracts
Final Project
Professional Practice
- Learning agreement
- Equipment and software
- Choosing a computer
- Vectorworks licensing and download
- Assessment
- Submission guidance
- Reading list
- Useful resources
Student Welfare
- Mitigating circumstance
- Time management and organisation
- Imposter syndrome
- Perfectionism
- Avoiding demotivation
Design Principles and Process
- What is design?
- Design principles
- Communicating through drawing
- Analogue drawing: Sketching
- Designing with AI
- Online quiz
The Garden Designer
- What does a Garden Designer do?
- The skills of a Garden Designer
- Garden Designers and related professionals
- The stages of design
- Online quiz
History of Garden Design
- Why history matters
- Garden History 1 - Early Gardens
- Garden History 2 - Renaissance gardens and formal gardens
- Garden History 3 - English landscape, Gardenesque and Arts & Crafts gardens
- Garden History 4 - 20th Century gardens
- Garden History 5 - Contemporary trends
- Online quiz
Stage A - Initial Consultation
- Letter of appointment
- Costing a project
- Fees and charging
- Developing the brief
- Invoicing
Stage B - Pre-design
- Site analysis
- Site survey
- Drawing up the survey be hand
- Assignment 1 - Site Survey
- Video tutorial
Stage C - Concept Design
- Concepts
- Functional layout plans and design iteration
- Illustrative plans, elevations, and sections
- Scale
- Client presentations
- Assignment 2- Design Concept Moodbord
- Video tutorial
Digital Drawing - Computer Aided Design (Vectorworks - CAD)
- Digital drawing
- Vectorworks 1 - Introduction and document creation
- Vectorworks 2 - User interface
- Vectorworks 3 - Tool palettes
- Vectorworks 4 - Switching Vectorworks version
- Vectorworks 5 - Navigating view
- Vectorworks 6 - View menu
- Vectorworks 7 - Drawing lines
- Vectorworks 8 - Drawing rectangles and circles
- Vectorworks 9 - Move and reshape
- Vectorworks 10 - Add and clip surface
- Vectorworks 11 - Solid fill and colour palette
- Vectorworks 12 - Pen style and line thickness
- Vectorworks 13 - Fills
- Vectorworks 14 - Fit to page and object
- Vectorworks 15 - Extrude and push pull
- Vectorworks 16 - Floor plans
- Vectorworks 17 - Wall tool
- Vectorworks 18 - Doors and windows
- Vectorworks 19 - Resource manager and libraries
- Vectorworks 20 - Tables and chairs
- Vectorworks 21 - Object hierarchy
- Vectorworks 22 - Mirror tool
- Vectorworks 23 - Floor colours and textures
- Vectorworks 24 - Building a model
- Vectorworks 25 - Introduction to design layers
- Vectorworks 26 - New design layer
- Vectorworks 27 - Assigning objects to layers
- Vectorworks 28 - Introduction to classes
- Vectorworks 29 - Basic class creation
- Vectorworks 30 - Assigning classes to 3D components of a symbol
- Vectorworks 31 - Assigning classes to 2D components of a symbol
- Vectorworks 32 - Editing classes
- Vectorworks 33 - Sheet layers
- Vectorworks 34 - Basic viewports
- Vectorworks 35 - 3D isometric viewports
- Vectorworks 36 - Annotations
- Vectorworks 37 - Exporting
- Assignment 3 - CAD Baseplan
- Video tutorial
Stage D - Detailed Design
- Introduction to hard landscaping
- Materials and structures
- Surfaces, paving, and water
- Introduction to lighting
- Axonometric projection drawing
- Detailed plans, sections, and elevations
- Garden design rendering
- Hand rendering and perspective drawing
Digital Drawing - 3D Drawing & Rendering (Vectorworks Landmark)
- Landmark 1 - Starting the project
- Landmark 2 - Draft places in 2D
- Landmark 3 - Convert 2D to hard landscaping
- Landmark 4 - Converting 2D to planting beds
- Landmark 5 - Custom modelling
- Landmark 6 - Planting plan
- Landmark 7 - Documenting the design on sheets and viewports
- Landmark 8 - Reports worksheets and final render
- Assignment 4 – 3D Rendering
- Video tutorial
Plant Science
- Plant science 1
- Plant science 2
- Plant science 3
- Plant Nomenclature
- Environment sustainability and naturalist planting
Planting Design and Schedules
- Planting: categories and principles
- Planting: form, texture, and colour
- The planting plan
- Gardening practice
- Assignment 5 - Planting Plan
- Video tutorial
Stage E - Tender, Site Operations and Contracts
- Running a garden design project
- Construction design management (CDM)
- Tender
- Site operations and contract administration
Final Project
- Final Project - option 1
- Final Project - option 2
- Submission - Final Project
Professional Practice
- Planning your career
- Professional bodies
- Planning your business
- Example portfolios
Course includes:
Essential materials
Optional:
Essential software:
Optional software:
- Access to our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with course content
- A series of instructional videos to work through and repeat at your own pace
- Practical tasks to complete
- Helpful resources
- Computer (laptop or desktop)
- Sketchbooks
- Mechanical pencil
- Eraser
- Measuring tape
- Camera or camera phone
- Coloured pencils
- Colour marker pens
- Straight-edge (e.g. triangle or set-square)
- Scale rule
- Glue, glue-stick, super glue
- Scissors
- Scalpel/craft knife
- Masking tape
- Cellotape (e.g. clear tape)
Optional:
- A3/A4 Printer
- Drawing board
Essential software:
- Vectorworks & Landmark (free for registered students)
- SketchUp (student discount available)
Optional software:
- Adobe Creative Suite (student discount available)
- Affinity Studio (free with Canva account)
- Canva (free basic, student discount for advanced features)
No previous experience in garden
design is required for this course.
Students should have basic computer skills (word processing, spreadsheets, and web/internet skills) and be confident using a computer.
English Language
A good command of written and spoken English is required.
It is recommended that students have a reliable, high-speed internet connection. A broadband connection is necessary to access the videos and online training sessions effectively in this course.
Students should have basic computer skills (word processing, spreadsheets, and web/internet skills) and be confident using a computer.
English Language
A good command of written and spoken English is required.
It is recommended that students have a reliable, high-speed internet connection. A broadband connection is necessary to access the videos and online training sessions effectively in this course.
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