Cultivating a new gardening skill that will enhance your surroundings and potentially improve your mental and physical wellbeing seems like a much more appealing option for a new year’s resolution than embarking on a fitness regime or going on a diet.
Whether you’re an experienced gardener or a newbie who picked up a trowel for the first time during the pandemic, there are plenty of courses and workshops for those with a passion for plants. So what better way to kick-start the gardening year than signing up to something that will make both you and your garden blossom?
Garden design
1. The Norfolk Garden School is offering an eight-week Introduction to Garden Design, covering the basics from site survey to creating a final design, as well as devising planting plans; one day a week with start dates either on January 12, April 20 or September 14, £750. Or there’s a two-day Border Design course which explores colour theory, plant combinations and seasonality; March 16 and 23 or June 22 and 29, £200; norfolkschoolofgardening.co.uk
2. Join Chelsea gold medal-winning designer Juliet Sargeant, who will guide you through the process of planning and planting your own garden, including choosing the right hard landscaping, understanding your site and drawing a planting plan; two days, February 22 and March 1, £210; sussexgardenschool.com
Designing with plants
3. Get the most from your garden with a year of monthly masterclasses delivered online by the renowned Irish plantsman Jimi Blake, whose own garden at Hunting Brook in County Wicklow is a fantastic mix of shade-loving plants and exuberant exotics; €299; huntingbrookgardens.com
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4. It can be hard knowing which plants to choose for your garden but Kew’s one-day Right Plant, Right Place workshop will give you lots of ideas and inspiration for different situations and soil types; April 4, £80; kew.org
Cut flowers
5. Picking home-grown blooms is just as rewarding as harvesting veg, and this day course in south Oxfordshire with Rachel Siegfried, an expert grower and florist, will provide you with all the necessary practical information on growing and harvesting to get you started; April 2, £190; greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk
6. Spend an afternoon at RHS Rosemoor in Devon learning how to cultivate sweet peas to perfection on their Success with Sweet Peas workshop. Price includes a variety of sweet pea seeds to take home to sow; February 25, £42; rhs.org.uk
https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/rosemoor/viewevent?EFID=3128&ESRC=CMS 7. Georgie Newbery offers a wide selection of flower growing and floristry courses from her base in Somerset and online. Choose from workshops on dahlias, roses, sowing hardy annuals, how to condition flowers or an intensive three-day flower farming workshop; from £35; commonfarmflowers.com
Sustainable gardening
8. If accessing courses in person is tricky then online options such as those offered by the Create Academy are ideal. How to Heal Your Soil with the Land Gardeners and Biodynamic Growing through the Seasons with Jane Scotter of Fern Verrow market garden in Herefordshire are both launching in 2023. The courses have no set start or finish date and are completely flexible to fit in with your other commitments; £127; createacademy.com
Pruning
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9. Beth Chatto’s gardens in Essex will host Ian Limmer, from Peter Beales Rose Nursery, who will guide you through the planting of both bare root and container roses and how to prune a range of different roses; March 1, £70; bethchatto.co.uk
10. Cambridge Botanic Garden has a varied programme of plant-based courses throughout the year including winter pruning (February 7); pruning roses: theory and practice (February 18) and summer pruning (June 12); from £35; botanic.cam.ac.uk
11. If you’re flummoxed by fruit tree pruning, Tom the Apple Man will show you how to wield your secateurs to maximise fruit production and how to renovate neglected cordons and espaliers at his fruit nursery in Shropshire; March 3 and 4, £80; tomtheappleman.co.uk
Edibles
12. Discover how to design and plant an edible garden at the TV presenter Kate Humble’s farm in the beautiful Monmouthshire countryside. With sustainable gardening techniques at its core, the course will cover the principles of forest gardening and permaculture; May 14, £120; humblebynature.com
13. Supermarket herbs are expensive, rarely last long in the fridge and come covered in plastic, so it’s kinder to the planet and to your pocket to grow your own. Find out how to get started on the Design and Create a Herb Garden day at RHS Harlow Carr in Harrogate, North Yorkshire; April 1, £68; rhs.org.uk
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14. The Pig hotel group’s plot-to-plate ethos includes a kitchen garden at each of its rural hotels, and they’re now offering courses too. The Pig at Combe in Devon has teamed up with food writer and grower Mark Diacono for two workshops: The Perfect Kitchen Garden (Jan 24) and Fermenting the Garden, where you’ll discover how to make sauerkraut and kimchi (March 7), from £175; thepighotel.com
Willow weaving
15. Make sustainable woven willow plant supports for climbers and perennials at Creative with Nature in the picturesque Pennine market town of Todmorden; March 24 and 25, April 16 and 19, £95; creativewithnature.co.uk
Indoor gardening
16. Oxford Botanic Garden runs a programme of events and workshops throughout the year including Survive and Thrive: Houseplant Inspiration (April 28), where you’ll be introduced to the glasshouse collection, and Houseplant Pests and Diseases (May 3); £30; obga.ox.ac.uk
17. Walworth Garden, a community garden and horticultural training centre in south London, has a diverse range of workshops from pond-making and bonsai on a budget to organic food growing. For houseplant lovers there’s Terrariums: Creating a Self-sustaining World (January 15, April 16, July 16 and August 20). £85; walworthgarden.org.uk
18. Specialist orchid grower Burnham Nurseries in Devon hosts a series of orchid masterclasses which includes a new workshop for this year — Building an Orchid Terrarium; February 18, £60; orchids.uk.com
Propagation
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19. West Dean, a specialist arts and conservation college in West Sussex with magnificent gardens, has a selection of courses from leading horticulturalists including Summer Propagation: Plants for Free delivered by garden writer and former nursery owner Sally Gregson; March 25, £159; westdean.org.uk
20. All five RHS gardens have a fantastic range of plant-inspired workshops all year round pitched at a range of levels. If you’re new to gardening the full-day Beginner’s Propagation at Wisley will furnish you with the fundamentals in seed sowing and taking cuttings; March 22, £85; rhs.org.uk
Career changers
21. Have you had enough of sitting in front of a computer for work and fancy turning your love of gardening into a career? If you do, there are plenty of options that will set you on the path to working with plants. The RHS Level 2 Certificates in the Principles of Plant Growth and Development and the Certificate in Practical Horticulture are both recognised by employers and have been designed so that they can be studied flexibly. The new level 3 syllabus will launch in September. Details of horticulture colleges or online providers that offer these courses can be found at rhs.org.uk
22. If being a garden designer appeals, the Yorkshire School of Garden Design, established by award-winning designer Alistair Baldwin, has put together a Diploma in Garden Design (£7,950 plus VAT). It doesn’t start until September, but in the meantime there a number of short courses to whet your appetite, such as the three-day Introduction to Garden Design; starts February 21, £450 plus VAT; ysgd.co.uk
