The cost of living is affecting everybody, power bills, fuel costs and water are all increasing, the cost of our basic food is also on the increase, this why more and more people are looking at growing their own food at home or in community gardens. In a well designed garden you can achieve both maximised food production and ornamental features.

Topics covered in this course will include and but are not limited to; soil types; choosing a garden site, layout and setting up; organic gardening; nutrients and use of; container gardening; growing media; plant propagation; glasshouse culture; plant selection in a vegetable garden; Irrigations systems; and other facets of garden design.

This is a hands-on course in which the students will have use of The Hut’s facilities such as the greenhouse and it's propagation unit, the vegipods, wicking beds and the pot culture system, all which will suit various crops, fruits, shrubs and trees.

The Term 3 course starts on Thursday August 1st 2024 from 10am to 2pm and occurs on Thursdays weekly for 5 weeks. A field trip will occur on Tuesday August 13th.

All students are requested to bring a 2kg soil sample from their own garden for week 1.

The Encyclopedia of Garden Design by Chris Young will be the resource used for this course. You can buy or borrow a copy to use during the course or some copies of specific pages may be provided.

Tools that would be beneficial for you to own to put this course into practice include a directional compass, retractable steel rule, graph paper, range poles and tape measures (both long range and retractable). These can all be found at Bunnings, Mitre 10 or your local hardware store.

Planning tools required include set squares (45°and 30°/60°), adjustable set square, flexicurve, french curves, scale rulers, a pair of compasses and a beam compass. These can be found at Bunnings, Office Works or your local hardware or stationary store.

Space is limited to 16 to 18 persons.