Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury

Perennial Management, The Piet Oudolf Way

  • Recommended

    $265

    Includes personal feedback and tuition. More

  • $75

    Learn in an online classroom with no more than 20 classmates. More

Course Description

Discover the perennial planting secrets and planting maintenance schedules from the High Line garden designer Piet Oudolf.

This course reveals Piet Oudolf’s revolutionary plantings of The High Line, New York City’s famous landscaped railway line that cuts through the centre of the city. Throughout the course, you will experience unique top down drone footage of The High Line and The Battery Park, so you can see a bird’s eye view of the plantings and their context.

During the videos, you will walk along The High Line discussing and observing the plants, with Piet Oudolf himself who designed the planting, and Dr Noel Kingsbury his long term co-writer.

As part of the course, we also hear from Andi Pettis, the acclaimed Director of Horticulture for The High Line who reveals fascinating insights on how they continue to maintain and manage the planting as the site evolves.

Once you understand the evolution and maintenance of perennial plantings in a harsh city environment, Dr Noel Kingsbury takes you through a practical approach of how to plant and maintain this type of landscape design.

The second part of the course features the New York Battery Park designed by Oudolf as an earlier work, with Dr Noel Kingsbury and Gabriela Marin (Chief Horticulturalist), Director of Horticulture for The Battery.

Finally you will learn the real ‘how tos’ of achieving the types of designs that Piet Oudolf has successfully pioneered in sites like The High Line and The Battery. Dr Noel Kingsbury talks to Helen Picton from Old Court Nurseries near Malvern in the UK, to teach you the practical activity you'll need ot maintain your perennial planting design.

You'll learn:

  • About Piet Oudolf's garden designs for the New York High Line
  • How perennial plantings change over time
  • Garden maintenance throughout the year
  • Changing planting designs and garden designs to adapt as conditions evolve

Time to complete this planting design course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 10 hours to complete including:

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

You'll need:

You don't need any special equipment, but you will be evaluating perennial planting designs and planning your annual garden maintenance.

The course is suitable for all levels - beginners to garden designers or horticulture professionals who want to learn from a world-class garden designer.

The course includes:

  • On-demand video lessons - presented by Piet Oudolf and Dr Noel Kingsbury
  • lifetime access to the video, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical (optional) perennial projects
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom chat online to students from around the world

Support the New York High Line gardens

As an important part of this unique course, we were privileged to work with both Piet, Noel and the team run so successfully by Andi Pettis at The High Line. The High Line is able to sustain its beautiful plants, with a team of gardeners, and the entire project is funded by donations. Please join this amazing movement by donating to The High Line to keep this pioneering project alive and to help us spread the word globally.

Ready to get started?

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

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

CPD Accreditation

Course activity has been accredited by the CPD Standards Office (CPDSO). The course equates to 10 hours of CPD learning.
The CPD Standards Office. CPD Provider: 50276.

Course outline

  • The life of perennial plantings

    How plantings change over time because of plant growth, death and regeneration. Outline of outside factors such as the environment, pests and diseases, shrub and tree growth.

  • Perennial management through the year

    The annual cycle of maintenance needed to keep plants in good condition and improve performance.

  • The evolution of perennial plantings

    How the processes of change outlined in 1) can be managed so that plantings continue to look good but can also be modified or changed as conditions change.

  • The Evolution of Plantings

    An outline of how environmental and other factors such as pests and diseases which stress plants can be managed.

Choose how you want to learn

  • The Expert option

    Recommended

    Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition from Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury

    • Start course whenever you like
    • 4 weeks tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
    • 4 assignments marked by Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury
    • Certificate of completion and CPD hours
    • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
    • 4 lessons with expert videos & notes
    • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
    • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
    Learn more
    $265
  • The Peer option

    Discover the benefits of group learning in an online interactive classroom of no more than 20 people. 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
    • 4 lessons with expert videos & notes
    • 4 course assignments
    • Group chat & direct message classmates
    • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
    Learn more
    $75

New
Buy this course for a business or group

You can now buy this course through your business or organisation for individuals and groups up to 20

Gardening classroom - how it works

  • Start anytime

    Watch video tutorials led by expert tutors

    Watch video tutorials led by expert tutors
  • Test yourself

    Practice what you learn with inspiring assignments

    Practice what you learn with inspiring assignments
  • Personal tuition

    Get assignment feedback from expert tutors

    Get assignment feedback from expert tutors
  • Share ideas

    Collaborate and chat directly to classmates

    Collaborate and chat directly to classmates

Meet Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury

Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury - Gardening

Piet Oudolf’s landscapes are as peopled as they are planted. Folks flock to them, whether it’s the High Line in New York, the meadows at Hauser & Wirth’s art gallery in Somerset, or the Olympic Park in Stratford, to name a few.

Alys Fowler, The Guardian
"Structure is the most important component in a successful planting; colour is important too but it is a secondary consideration"

I looked at landscape gardening as a career alternative to my family business of catering. I'm probably best known as the landscape designer from the Netherlands! And I consider myself along with Noel Kingsbury as one of the leading figures of the ‘New Perennial’ or ‘New Wave Planting’ movement, using bold blocks of perennials and grasses to create Prairie style designs. My wife and I first opened a nursery in Hummelo, the Netherlands back in the 1980s, this is where my planting style emerged with strong block-type groupings based on structure and texture as much as colour. As my design style progressed I have focused on the perennial meadow, mimicking nature in my planting style. Nature is my biggest influence.

It comes as a surprise to some people that I'm also an early adopter of some technologies. I love using my iphone to capture videos and photos as I work. I have a large presence on instagram, and I'm excited to share my work through teaching on Learning with Experts. Dr Noel Kingsbury and I have been collaborators for over 25 years, and Noel will be with you in the classroom marking your work, while Noel and I developed and filmed the course materials together. We are planning more courses over time here too. I hope you enjoy your online courses with me.

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Awards & Accreditations

  • CPD Accredited (provider 50276)
  • Good Web Guide
  • Red Herring Winner
  • Education Investor Awards 2021 - Finalist
  • Royal Horticultural Society
  • Digital Education Awards 2023 Winner for Digital Health and Wellbeing Learning Product of the Year
  • Digital Education Awards 2023 Winner for Adult Home Learning Product of the Year