Learning with Experts

Gardening with Grasses

£45 £27 Save 40%
Level: Peer






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Level: Peer

Course overview

Join grass and garden design expert Michael King as he teaches you how to use ornamental grasses in your garden designs in his online Gardening with Grasses course.

Michael has written books jointly with Piet Oudolf (famous garden designer and plantsman), which looked at using ornamental grasses and other perennials in the new naturalistic garden style.

Ornamental grasses are a core component of a garden designer’s planting palette and work well when planted with other plants. Grass planting can have a huge impact on a garden and this course teaches you how to control and use their bold presence in planting designs.

Grasses can be highly effective as powerful design features, but they can also be disruptive and overpowering if not handled with care.

On this course Michael focuses on the best grasses for a wide range of different growing conditions and situations (including grasses for shade and creating shade) and covers the advantages of unique qualities of this large and diverse group of plants, with examples of specific grasses and inspiring ornamental grass designs.

You'll learn:

  • how to use ornamental grasses in your garden designs confidently
  • including contrast and focus to your garden designs
  • the best grasses to use depending on your location and garden conditions
  • controlling grasses

The course includes:

  • 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Michael King
  • lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical gardening with grasses projects (with tutor feedback available)
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom - chat online to students from around the world and share your creative ideas

Time to complete the planting design course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 13 hours 50 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lessons: 1 hour 50 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
  • Your planting design projects: at least 2 hours per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

You'll need:

You'll need a sketchbook to make your garden designs and planting sketches for each assignment. This courses is suitable for all levels of gardener - from beginners to experts looking to specialise in the use of grasses in the garden.

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Michael on your grass assignments.

If you know someone who'd love this course then give it as a gift - just tick "This is a gift" at the checkout.

Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

 

Lesson summary

Reasons for Using Grasses; Their Qualities and The Possibilities
In this lesson Michael will introduce you to the world of ornamental grasses. We will look at their unique characteristics and why you might choose specific species within planting designs. You will learn how they can create associations with the natural countryside or bring new elements to a design by creating focal points, a new leaf pattern and form or to build the three dimensional structure of a garden design.
Choosing The Best Grasses for Your Site and Design Objectives
Carefully chosen, ornamental grasses can add many different unique qualities to the garden spaces they occupy. In this lesson you will start to look at specific groups of grasses, identifying the very best ones for different situations and settings.
Growing Grasses
Grasses are tough and reliable and if done correctly their maintenance can be fairly simple. In this lesson we will cover how and when to plant grasses with detail examples of a number of different species. You will learn about how to create harmonies and contrasts when combining with other plants to allow the grasses to fully express themselves. However, we are dealing with a large and varied group of plants and need to be aware of not only their good points, but also some of the negative aspects they can display. Knowing what can go wrong will enable you to use grasses more effectively.
Designing with Grasses
In the final lesson of the course we will look at how grasses both singly, in uniform masses and as components of mixed perennial planting schemes can be used when designing garden landscapes. Form, texture and colour are the basis of these comparisons and ornamental grasses are potent in all of these respects. Above all else, form and texture is what sets grasses apart from the other plants in our gardens and when we add to these, the associations that they trigger with various natural landscapes we can start to develop strategies for including them in our planting schemes. In this lesson Michael will look at their use in flower borders, as ground cover, in naturalistic borders and new style perennial meadows.

Choose how you want to learn

Expert-level

Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition:

  • Start the course whenever you like
  • Tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
  • Certificate of completion and CPD learning hours
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with expert videos & notes
  • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

Peer-level

Get the most from shared knowledge and community study:

  • Start course whenever you like
  • Practise what you learn with your peers
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with videos & notes
  • Course assignments
  • Group chat & direct message classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

meet the expert

Michael King

Senior Botanist at Kew Gardens and designer and author specializing in perennials, ornamental grasses, and tulips.

Read more

Why choose Learning with Experts?

Start whenever it suits you, and immerse yourself in motivational lesson tutorials with expert guidance.
Enhance your learning and personal growth with lesson assignments. Each course includes an optional assignment at the end of every lesson.
Drop a friendly message or respond to your assignment feedback. Our world-class experts are just a click away, ready to help you!
Stay informed about your own progress and those of your peers, and take joy in celebrating achievements along the way.
Chat and share ideas with passionate communities of learners from around the world.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between PEER and EXPERT options?

At Peer and Expert level, you get access to the same core content and features:

  • Video lesson tutorials led by your expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Option to practise what you learn with lesson assignments
  • Group learning within an online interactive classroom of up to 20 classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes and classroom

If you choose Expert level, you get all of the above plus the following:

  • Personalised assignment feedback and coaching from your expert tutor
  • Opportunity to interact with your expert tutor through a private messaging system
  • Certificate of completion.
What is an online classroom?

Our online classroom has been developed to allow you to learn from our experts in a sociable environment alongside up to 20 other students. After each video tutorial led by your expert, you will be encouraged to practice what you have learned with optional assignments - these can be seen by the other students in your class, who are free to share their own thoughts and questions with you.

You will be encouraged to take part in an ongoing class discussion where you can discuss ideas, post images or work, and comment on each other’s assignments. It’s a great way to learn from other like-minded people who share your passion from all over the world.

This means not only do you benefit from people who are outstanding in their field, but also from a close-knit group of like-minded people whom you can learn alongside. Group learning has shown to greatly improve not just the experience of studying, but also how well you retain the knowledge, and we have built our classroom experience around this fact.

When can I start my course and how long will it take?

You can start your course any time within 12 months after receipt of your purchase confirmation email. Once you start, you’ll have lifetime access — meaning you can revisit the lesson videos and notes whenever you want.

Our courses are designed so that you can study at your own pace, some prefer to binge learn while others like to spread their studying over a longer period of time - it’s completely up to you. To give you a rough time frame, each lesson video is approximately 30-40 minutes long, and we recommend that you spend around an hour on each assignment.

How often can I speak with the Expert?

If you opt for the Expert version of your course, the time you have to interact with your tutor is limited to course length. You will have one week per lesson to chat to your tutor and to have your assignments marked, and during this period you can ask them as many questions as you would like.

To find out the length of each course, head to the product page and look at the Course outline to see how many lessons it contains. e.g. a four lesson course assumes that you will have completed the assignments within four weeks.

Your tutor interaction period will start as soon as you enter the classroom. If you find that you are struggling to complete the assignments in the allocated time or you wish to put this function on hold, just get in contact with one of the team via the support button and we will help you out.

Support and full FAQs

If you need any help with a course, be it one you’ve started already, or one you are looking to purchase, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support email address, or view the full FAQ’s here.

You can also use the orange speech bubble on your page to start a conversation with us.

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Awards and accreditations