Michael King

Perennial Meadow Gardening

£45
Level: Peer






🎁 Buy this course as a gift

To purchase as a gift, check the box above and enter the recipient's name and message. Then, choose whether to send the gift directly to the recipient or to yourself.
Buy this course for a business or group

You can buy this course through your business or organisation for individuals and groups up to 20. To find out more contact us

The difference between Peer & Expert levels

Both Peer and Expert levels provide:

  • Video lessons led by an expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Practice assignments
  • Group learning in a 20-student online classroom
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes, and classroom

The Expert level additionally includes:

  • Personalized feedback and coaching from your tutor
  • Private messaging with your tutor
  • Certificate of completion
Level: Peer

Course overview

Perennial and grasses expert Michael King teaches you how to grow and design a perennial meadow garden.

Michael wrote The Perennial Garden book and co-wrote Gardening with Grasses with garden designer Piet Oudolf.

Perennial meadows can be adapted to any scale from a single garden border, to the replacement of lawns and can be used in wide parkland landscapes. Perennial meadows are inspired by open countryside, fields, meadows and prairies. Michael will also cover the New Perennial Planting design movement, which brings naturalistic planting within the scope of the private garden.

You'll learn Michael's perennial meadow planting design system, which combines planting to fit a range of different settings, and includes bold planting mixtures combining key theme plants with complementary plants. You'll also learn about the ideas underpinning naturalistic plant associations.

Michael will explain the characteristics of effective plants and the role played by complimentary plants to be able to start creating perennial meadow planting schemes of your own. As you learn you'll be selecting plants, planning site design and calculating how many plants are needed, and how to planting and maintaining new schemes.

You'll learn:

  • how to define and use a perennial meadow garden design
  • which plants to include in your designs as theme plants and complementary plants
  • designing your landscape for seasonal interest
  • creating structural garden designs

Absolutely fantastic! With just four sessions i learned so much! Expert comments were helpful and personalized. I especially appreciate learning about new plants and of course the cutting-edge way to design a bed of perennials! - LT

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 perennial meadow design 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 perennial meadow garden design course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 13 hours 55 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lessons: 1 hours 55 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 don't need ay special equipment, but you will be making lists of plants and sketches of garden designs. This course is suitable for all levels of gardeners from beginners to professional gardeners who want to learn more about the specialist horticulture and garden design skills to create a perennial meadow.

 

Lesson summary

What Are Perennial Meadows
In this lesson we will define the perennial meadow and it's place it within the history of the use of perennials in gardens over the last hundred years. Naturalistic planting will be explained and contrasted with the alternatives available to contemporary gardeners and designers. The New Perennial Movement and the manner in which perennial meadows can bring the same aims within the confines of a domestic garden will be illuminated.
Theme Plants
We will focus entirely on theme plants, the fundamental building blocks of the perennial meadow. You will learn what characteristics are important when selecting plants to use in your schemes and understand the very best perennials for seasonal interest.
Complementary Plants
We will look at complementary plants and illustrate how important they are in adding variety, local interest and extending the effective season of planting schemes. We look at how to calculate the number of plants needed to realize a scheme and conclude by reviewing a scheme in detail to fully understand how the system works as a whole.
Designing Garden Spaces Using Perennial Meadows
In this lesson we will look at how to design garden spaces using perennial meadows. We learn how to place discrete units of planting to help organize the outdoor space, and how to introduce structure to the planting schemes themselves. Lastly, we cover all of the practical aspects of creating such a garden feature: site preparation; propagation of plants; planting up methodology; mulching; watering; maintenance and the long term development of schemes.

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 levels?

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.

For privacy or data questions, please contact us here.

Awards and accreditations

Trustpilot