Courses

Courses include 1-day or weekend courses, short courses over a few weeks, as well as those lasting one or more academic terms.   Amongst current providers are:  

 

THE GARDENS TRUST 

The History of Gardens  

Running from April 2024 to April 2025, this online course aims to help participants recognise important eras, themes and styles in mainly British garden history from the earliest times to today, grasp something of the social, economic, political and international contexts in which gardens have been created and find greater pleasure in visiting historic gardens.  Participants can sign up for whole series or opt to attend individual talks. 

The second series of 5 lectures, on Tuesdays 10.00 -11.30 will start in September and comprise the following: 

History of Gardens 2

September 10: Early 17th Century Plants and Gardens

September 17: Botany & Botanical Art 

September 24: Between Kings: Gardens of the Mid-17th Century 

October 1: The French Baroque Garden 

October 8: The Baroque in England 

To see more details and book your place click HERE 

The third series of 5 lectures - on Tuesdays 10.00 -11.30  - will start in November

 

The History of Gardens 3: Eighteenth Century Gardens

November 5:  Early Landscape Gardens

November12: Poetry and prose

November 19: Lancelot Brown: Assessing the 'Capabilities'

November 26: Tes, Trade Route amd a Taste for the 'Exotic'

December 3: Humphry Repton: From Picturesque Provovacteur to Regency Ornamentalist

To see more details and book your place click HERE

UNIVERSITY OF BUCKINGHAM in partnership with THE GARDENS TRUST

A new MA in Garden History started in October 2023. The next opportunity to join the course will be October 2024 

The course is a research- rather than taught-degree and can be taken over 1 or 2 years. 

The course is organised around a series of case study seminars looking at significant sites, which will be led by owners and professionals. These will be complemented by background lectures about the period to give a wider context. There will also be a number of day visits to other important historic gardens.

Seminars will be held at the university’s base in central London while the lectures will be online. To find out more.

UNIVERSITY OF CARDIFF PART-TIME COURSES FOR ADULTS (online)

The Artist Gardener: Bohemian Communities, Gardens & Culture:

Wednesdays 2 October - 4 December from 10.00 -12.00

'In the modern era the ‘artist-gardener’ came of age, and painters, photographers, writers and sculptors became gardeners. This course will discuss a broad stylistic approach by artists and focus on the artist’s love of gardens and flowers which generated new opportunities to experiment with colour, themes and emotions, as the garden emerged as a major subject in modern art and culture'. For further details and to book

The Wild Garden: Is it so new?

Wednesdays 22 January - 26 March 2025 from 10.00 - 12.00

'The 21st century is proving to be a sea-change in how we create and maintain our gardens. Climate change, new plants and developing design challenges combine to create a whole new dialogue around the contemporary garden. William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll advocated for a more natural style of planting … and they are usually referenced in this contemporary and wild design style; but it did not start with them!' The course 'will begin in the Americas, Germany and onto the Netherlands, where plant breeding and modern garden design would thrive under the influence of Modernism and the abstract arts. Great names such as Mien Ruys, Karl Foerster and Willy Lange will be discussed.' Further details and to book

Architects and Gardens: Unity, Function, Simplicity and Scale

Wednesdays 30 April - 2 July 2025 from 10.00 - 12.00

'Gardens created by architects provide the focus for this course. The house is always central to an architect’s vision. However, the garden and landscape setting in which the house is located will always extend that vision! Urban gardens, vertical gardens, rooftops, urban walkways and even bridges will all be considered, along with architectural visions of the broader park and country landscapes. With an initial focus on gardens from the Americas and Europe, we will then venture further afield to Asia, where our journey will take us to consideration of groundbreaking gardens in Japan, Singapore and even China'. Further details and to book

An ideal introduction to English garden history. this course aims to provide an overview of five centuries of development, from baroque formalism through the naturalistic landscape style, right up to contemporary cutting-edge planting style. Two courses are currently available for booking: For full details of the course content and structure,and to book a place click the links below.

Wednesday 25 September -Friday  6 December 2024

Wednesday 22 January - Friday 4 April 2025

CAMBRIDGE BOTANIC GARDEN

Online course: Lancelot Brown: Reassessing the 'Capabilities'. Wednesday 16 October 2024 from 10.00 -13.00

This course will, perhaps controversially, explore how many of Brown's schievements were genuinely his sole vision. When looking at the man behind the name, what, in fact, was his true ‘capability’? This course examines whether it was not just his aesthetic insight – nor even his practical gardening talents – that set Brown apart from his peers, but something entirely more mercenary.

IN-PERSON COURSE: Cambridge Botanic Garden

Painters in their Places: Exploring the Interplay between Gardens and Art - 20 September to 22 November 2024

The course will comprise 3 monthly sessions from 10.00 - 13.00:

Session 1 Friday 20th September 2024: John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923): Portraits of Places and People, Gardens and Garments, History and Cultures. Moving between England, Spain, Italy and Americas we will examine the way in which the concept of gardens as redolent of both antique culture and Edwardian upper-class tastes integrated with portrayals of people, fashions and politics in this late 19th/Early twentieth century period.

Session 2 Friday 25th October 2024: Charleston and the Bloomsbury Group Creating Across Boundaries (c.1907-1950s).  Famously described as ‘Living in Squares and Loving in Triangles’ the Bloomsbury Group also lived (and loved) in gardens of all shapes and sizes. In this session we will concentrate on the overlap between the creation of gardens and the creation of art, textiles and interior design at Charleston, Sussex, but will also look at other Bloomsbury gardens and their link to literature.

Session 3 Friday 22nd November 2024: Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious and the artists of Great Bardfield: Gardens, Landscapes, Heritage and Textiles (c. 1920s-1970s). Taking inspiration from the wide range of paintings, prints, posters and book illustrations by Bawden and Ravilious we will explore the links with gardens from Great Bardfield to Kew, Bawden’s work with garden furnishings and his Garden Diary. We will also reference the artists group at Benton End ‘led’ by Cedric Morris and the impact of war on the portrayal of landscape and garden. 

FOR DETAILS AND TO BOOK. Please Note: Booking will close on 5 September 2024

 

THE GARDEN HISTORIANS 

A History of English Gardens from the Tudors to the Stuarts (online) - Thursdays 3 October - 5 December 2024 from 18.00 -19.30

Described as 'An introduction to English gardens', this course will study, in-depth, the stories and the development of some remarkable English gardens, and the designers associated with their creation and developnent.

Click on the link above to see details of each weekly session and to book tickets.

The City Literary Institute

~ none current ~

 

RHS LINDLEY LIBRARY  

RHS Lindley Library Discovery Mornings: Monday 16 September 10.00 -13.30 or Monday 4 November 10.00 -13.30

The Lindley LIbrary are holding two morning workshops in which Head of Libraries & Exhibitions at the RHS, Fiona Davison, will take particiapnts on "a tour of gardening through time as told by the collections of the RHS Lindley Library. Starting in the 17th century, we will be delving into an array of rare books, artworks and archives to bring to light the people, plants and places that shaped gardening over 400 years".

These sessions are open to garden historians, archivists and enthusiasts alike, who want to discover how they can research and seek inspiration from our specialist collections.

For further details and to book a place

Monday 16 September 10.00 -13.30 

Monday 4 November 10.00 - 13.30

 

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, EDINBURGH 

Diploma in Garden History This Diploma course is currently a blend of online learning and study days/weekends. The course consists of five units which are divided over four terms within the two-year duration of the course, If you would like to find out more and to register an interest in the next course go to RBGE Diploma 

 

LEARNING WITH THE EXPERTS

are offering 4-week online course The History of Garden Design. Taught by Dr Toby Musgrave, this course can be taken at any time, with a choice of two available formats.

‘Ornamental gardens are complex, three-dimensional, (albeit overlooked) works of art, and ever since the first garden was made in Ancient Egypt some 4,300 ago they have acted as cultural barometers…………….’  Read more about this online course at The History of Garden Design including how to book

A separate course on offer from the same source is The Conservation of Historic Gardens. This course is taught by Dr Aubrey Gerber, a specialist in garden conservation  

'Garden style is defined by a relationship between fashion and function. Influenced by politics, art and socio-economic trends, historic gardens provide us with opportunities for simple recreation or complex education from which we can learn about past cultures, horticultural techniques and patterns of life. Historic gardens are not living museums; they are enriched and challenged by change. Understanding the origin and influence of these changes, and recognising our capacity and responsibility to sensitively manage change, is the essence of conservation.

In this course Audrey will explain why conservation is relevant to you, locally and globally. You will learn how to research a site, using formal and informal sources. This will enable you to write a detailed statement of significance, which is essential to articulating why a site deserves to be conserved.

Follow the links above to learn more detials of each course. 

ACS DISTANCE EDUCATION 

This course explores the evolution of gardens from Roman times to the present day and how they have evolved to reflect our culture. Course content, delivered through 8 lessons, will cover garden designers, great gardens and gardeners of the world, private and public gardens, globalisation of gardens, scope and nature of modern garden conservation, the roles of organisations in garden conservation and much more.

The course is a self-paced, 100-hour course that is studied by distance learning. It can be started anytime from anywhere in the world, and will be of interest to anyone with an interest in garden history and useful to those working in fields such as Garden Design, Landscaping, Garden Renovation & Restoration, Conservation, History, working for local councils or Heritage Trusts, and staff working on the ground in parks and gardens. For a detailed description of course content and to enrol visit ACS Distance Education