Learning with experts

Designing Small Gardens

Taught by Annie Guilfoyle

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Course outline

  • Design principles for small gardens

  • Site survey and analysis

  • Functional layout plans and preliminary design process

  • Draft design layout

  • Detailed design layout

  • Plants and planting

Choose how you want to learn

  • The Expert option

    Recommended

    Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition from Annie Guilfoyle

    • Start course whenever you like
    • 6 weeks tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
    • 6 assignments marked by Annie Guilfoyle
    • Certificate of completion from Annie Guilfoyle
    • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
    • 6 lessons with expert videos & notes
    • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
    • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
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    $875.00

  • 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
    • 6 lessons with expert videos & notes
    • 6 course assignments
    • Group chat & direct message classmates
    • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
    Learn more
    $189.00
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Course Description

This course is aimed at anyone who wants to create their own personal sanctuary. It inspires those who want to rebuild or restructure a small backyard or just redecorate a corner to get more privacy and atmosphere and host beautiful soirées summer after summer. This course can be a starting point to renovate an old rooftop into the new bar in the neighborhood as well as to rearrange the herb section in an existing and well designed backyard.

Annie will guide you step by step through design process, starting with where to get inspiration and how to assess your site. The next stage is surveying and analysing every element of the garden, before working on the site arrangement and the detailed design. Once you are happy with the layout of your garden you can choose and design you own planting scheme. If you have a small garden that is really puzzling you, then this is the course for you.

Small gardens whether urban or rural can seem daunting when it comes to designing and arranging the space and selecting the right plants. The size restriction may seem like a disadvantage but actually this is not the case. It is true that with smaller gardens you need to make every single element work hard. Sometimes you need to make one thing have two uses. For example a retaining wall can also act as a seat and so on.

Annie Guilfoyle is an award-winning garden designer with her design studio Creative Landscapes in West Sussex (UK). Her work is varied from contemporary to traditional and urban to rural. She has been the Director of Garden Design at KLC School of Design and now teaches at the world famous gardens of Great Dixter (UK), Chanitcleer (USA) and West Dean (UK). She lectures in Denmark, Russia, Italy and the USA. Annie is inspired by the natural landscape, modern art and architecture and writes regularly for the premier UK garden magazines such as Gardens Illustrated and has been commissioned to write a book on the creative approach to garden design. 

About Annie Guilfoyle

For over 18 years I was Director of Garden Design at KLC School of Design, based at Hampton Court Palace. I am the Garden Course Consultant at West Dean College, in West Sussex and I also teach a monthly Garden Design Course at Great Dixter, called the Art and Craft and Garden Design. For the past three years I have been on the judging panel for the Society of Garden Designer's annual, professional awards. I was instrumental in organising the first Gardens Illustrated Festival and will also be taking part in this years event. Together with Dr Noel Kingsbury we have company called Garden Masterclass, which involves programming lecturers and organising garden courses throughout the UK. I have a degree in Garden Design from Middlesex University and am the Director of Creative Landscapes, an award-winning design company based in West Sussex. Our design work includes contemporary and traditional, rural and urban gardens. The RHS asked me to be on the selection panel for the Tatton Park Garden Show this year. International lecturing and judging: Teaching garden design at Chanticleer, Pennsylvania, USA Speaking at The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Conference and the Ukraine Landscape Association Seminar in Kiev. For the past six years I have been organising an annual design and planting workshop in association with Valfredda Nursery, for the Masters of the Landscape Annual Conference in Bergamo, Italy. Judging includes, The Moscow International Garden Show; Orticolario Show, Lake Como and this summer at the brand new Copenhagen garden show. Garden writing includes: A two year series for Gardens Illustrated called Design Solutions focusing on practical advice on many aspects of garden design. A one year series for The Society of Garden Designer's, aimed at professional designers covering various topical subjects. I have a degree in Garden Design from Middlesex University and am the Director of Creative Landscapes, an award-winning design company based in West Sussex. Our design work includes contemporary and traditional, rural and urban gardens. I love teaching through Learning with Experts and meeting garden design students from all over the world. I look forward to helping you on your journey to understand more about Garden Design

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    Garden Design Diploma

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    11 Courses • Taught by 8 Expert Tutors

    This collection of courses from the world's greatest designers and plantspeople, enables you to learn the full gamut of skills needed to become a practising garden designer.  Whether you want a career change, or are keen to design your own garden under the watchful eye of some of the world's big names in gardening, this collection of courses is unrivalled in its level of expertise.

    It's also taught in our friendly and private online classroom, where you get to know your tutors and classmates.  You will receive 2 Continued Education Units (CEUs) for each course in this collection, which are recognised by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD).  Most importantly though, you will have an enjoyable learning experience, whilst learning from highly acclaimed and trusted practising designers.   Many of our students have gone on to make a hobby into a profession and now have careers in gardening or garden design all over the world.  You will receive a certificate on completion.  

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