Course overview

Award winning garden designer Annie Guilfoyle teaches you how to design small and urban gardens. You'll be designing your own garden and outside space as Annie takes you through the garden design process step-by-step.

Choose Expert option for personal feedback from Annie on your designs.

Whether you're starting from a garden rebuild, redesigning a small backyard or just redecorating a corner of your garden or rooftop, this course will help you make the most of your green space.

You'll look at the restrictions and advantages of designing for a smaller space or an urban garden (including making your garden more private or designing a garden for entertaining), and be guided through garden design process from inspiration, site assessment to survey and planting schemes.

This garden design course for small gardens will help rural and urban gardeners to make the most of your outdoor space.

You'll learn:

the design principles for small or urban gardens
how to carry out a site survey
creating functional plans and detailed garden designs
how to plan your planting

The course includes:

6 on-demand video lessons - presented by Annie Guilfoyle
lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
downloadable lesson notes
practical garden 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 small garden design course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 19 hours 30 minutes to complete including:

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

The course is suitable for all levels of gardeners, from new gardeners looking for a design plan for their garden, to gardening enthusiasts and to those in the horticultural industry looking for inspiration for small space designs.

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Annie on your small garden design 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.

Watch course trailer

Lesson summary

Design principles for small gardens

Annie will take you through the basic garden design principles and introduce you to useful features she introduces when designing smaller spaces. She will demonstrate how you can apply these principles in your own garden and give you inspiration for your own plans.

Site survey and analysis

During this lesson you will learn how you can create an accurately measured plan of your garden. The aim of a site survey is to both measure and analyse your garden so that you have all the relevant information prior to starting your own design.

Functional layout plans and preliminary design process

You have now surveyed the garden so at this point it is worth developing and finalising the brief - you may have had more ideas since you completed the survey. Consider who the garden is for; do you have pets? Do you want a formal or informal design? What do you like/dislike about the existing site? What level of maintenance do you want the garden to be?

Draft design layout

The aim of the draft design layout is to form a basis for your final layout design. At this stage you are ready to choose materials and decide the actual sizes of paths, terraces, steps and features.

Detailed design layout

By the end of this lesson you will be ready to draw up your final master plan layout. The objective of this final plan is to have something that you can confidently give to a contractor from which they can cost and build your new garden.

Plants and planting

The final stage of the design process is the planting plan. During this lesson Annie will arm you with the skills and knowledge you need to create a planting plan for any garden. You will need to consider form, structure, texture, colour and maintenance, which you can then build into your own designs.

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

Annie Guilfoyle

Experienced garden designer, lecturer & writer, shaping landscapes globally with expertise in design & education.

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.

For privacy or data questions, please contact us here.

Designing Small Gardens