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:
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 September 2026
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)
Undocumented Pioneers: A History of Women & Gardens. Wednesday 21 January - 25 March 2026 10.00 -12.00 online
Beyond the Picket Fence: The New Suburban Garden Wednesday 29 April - 1 July 2026 10.00 - 12.00 online
OXFORD UNIVERSITY LIFELONG LEARNING
Managing Loss in the Historic Environment: Ecocultural Approaches - Tuesday 9 December 2025 - in-person from 9.00 - 16.45 or online.
This transdisciplinary 1-day course will provide training and knowledge exchange for those involved in managing complex change (including the potential for substantial harm or loss) in the historic environment.
The course is aimed at a cross-sector audience, including historic and natural environment practitioners, cultural resource consultants, regulatory and local planning authorities, landscape architects, curators, and ecological surveyors. .
Click the link above for full details of the course and how to book your place.
THE GARDENS TRUST
The Gardens Trust is currently re-running their 5 sessions on The Nineteenth Century .
The recordings will be available to view until 20 January. You can buy a ticket for the whole recorded series, or for any of the individual sessions. All attendees will also receive the short reading list produced for the original run of the series; Click the link above.
CITY LTERARY INSTITUTE
Garden History: Italian Renaissance Gardens: Saturday 28 February 2026 from 13.00 -17.00
This half-day course will explore the historical factors and conditions that led to the creation of the Italian Renaissance Gardens in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Technical developments and design approach will be examined as well as the wider socio-economic context. The session will conclude with an assessment of the lasting impact of Italian Renaissance Gardens and our relationship with the natural environment.
City Gardens of the Blitz: Sunday 10 May 2026 from 14.00 - 16.00
This course will be delivered as a walk through areas affected by the Blitz offering the opportunity discover some of the delightful gardens of the City of London created from WWII bomb sites. The Walk will starts outside the main entrance to the Museum of London, ending at St Dunstan in the East, a short Walk from Monument and Tower Hill stations..
Garden History through London's Parks: Mondays 1 June - 29 June 2026 from 13.00 -15.00.
The 5-week course will explore Garden History through iconic London Parks, looking at how politics have influenced Garden Design and how Garden Design trends have influenced our relationship with nature. There will be one onsite session followed by guided walks in Hyde Park, Green Park, Regent’s Park and the King’s Cross Development.
CAMBRIDGE BOTANIC GARDEN
Gods in the garden: Classicism in 18th-century gardens Thursday, 1 March 2026 from 10.00 - 13.00 - in person.
'Classical trends in philosophy, art and horticulture will be explored so that you can consider eighteenth-century gardens via the historical lenses through which they were meant to be viewed.'
Imagining Arcadia: The early English landscape garden Friday 12 June 2026 18.30 - 20.00 Online.
'During the first part of the eighteenth century, the garden underwent a gradual transformation from geometric formalism to pastoral Arcadian idyll. This shift in landscaping style mirrored the political, intellectual and stylistic revolutions of the century, as authoritarianism was rejected in favour of something looser and more natural.'
The wild improvers: Price, Payne-Knight and the cult of the Picturesque Monday 14 December 2026 from 18.30 -20.30 Online
'The aesthetic category known as the Picturesque developed in the latter part of the eighteenth century.............. This lecture grapples with the paradoxes inherent in a movement which championed unbridled naturalism through the artificial lens of taste, whilst recognising the early role of the Picturesque writers in championing wilderness preservation.'
THE GARDEN HISTORIANS
Gardens of Lazio: Art, Power, and Landscape from Renaissance Villas to Urban Parks
Fridays, 30 January to 27 February 2026 from 18.00 -19.30 online
'The region of Lazio, with Rome at its heart, includes some of Italy’s most extraordinary gardens, where art, architecture, and landscape converge to reflect centuries of cultural, social, and political history. Ranging from the formal terraces of Renaissance villas to expansive urban parks, these gardens serve as living testimonies of evolving tastes, technological innovation, and expressions of power.'
Through examaning a range of key gardens in the Lazio area the course' will explore how these gardens operated as expressions of power and refined taste, employing technological ingenuity and design features such as terracing, intricate waterworks, symbolic layouts, and spatial organisation. Beyond their historical importance, the course will reflect on the huge challenges for preserving these heritage sites, the conservation challenges, and the evolving role of green spaces in both urban and semi-urban settings'.
From Wilderness to the Idyllic: The Rise of the English Landscape Garden, 1740–1780
Wednesday 15 January - 19 March 2026
18.00 -19.30 online via Zoom.
This new course will explore how visionaries transformed art and nature into a living Arcadia, investigating how landscape design reflected Enlightenment thought and artistic innovation. Beginning with William Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty and his theory of the serpentine line, participants will discover how ideas of form, nature, and design intertwined.
For full details and to book a place click the link above.
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