Planting Design - Putney School of Art and Design

Planting Design

What The Course is About:

This is an intensive 6 week course in planting design, aimed at students that have completed the garden design course earlier this year and may be interested in learning about planting design and apply this to their own garden design during the course. The course is ideal for students having finished one of the PSAD garden design courses AND/OR any person having a garden but needing help in putting together a plant plan/design for the garden.

During the course, we will look at a range of considerations that has impact on your plant design, including aspect, style, soil type, climate, plant combinations and maintenance requirements to explore ways of achieving the appropriate planting scheme for your garden. You will learn how to represent the design on paper in a legible and coherent way and quantify the number of plants required. During the course we will also look at ways to design for lower maintenance gardening and also water-wise gardening. We will explore ways of representing the planting design on paper in a legible and coherent way. Each student will work on their own design project and through weekly homework develop their individual designs.

Who is this course for?

Ideal for existing and past Garden Design students wanting to continue with their design and develop their plant plan for the garden design they have produced.
Ideal for new builds where house and garden is represented to scale on a development plan with a clear layout / design for the garden.
Ideal also for those that want to rework an existing garden design OR
Redesign an existing piece of a garden
Also, good for those that want to revive an existing garden plant plan through targeted remedial planting.

How will I learn?

The course will consist of presentations and individual and/or group-based exercises executed during class. Homework will be given which will form the foundation for the next lesson. NB: To gain optimum benefit and progress on the course - be prepared to participate in the practical activities and complete the homework given.

Venue:

Main Campus on the corner of Oxford Road and Disraeli Road. Studio Nr 5 in the basement of the school premises.

Materials Required:

WHAT MATERIALS WILL I NEED?

A garden layout / design drawn at a scale of 1:50 (metric measurements preferably)
Tracing paper to overlay and test/explore design ideas - I suggest that students share a tracing pad as you will not need an entire pad. Do not buy for the first lesson. We will discuss it in class.
If you have not measured up and drawn your garden yet, you may require a 10 m or 15 m Tape Measure at home, but this will not be needed for class (so don’t buy unless you need it!). We can discuss this in class before you buy! Basic measurements (length and width of garden) would be useful for the first class
Pencils (sharpened) (Permanent markers/Felt tip pens can be used, but not in the first two weeks),
Notebook for class notes and also for making notes in your garden when surveying it and or measuring it up.
Photos of your garden – preferable printed out for class, failing that, at least on your smart-phone, Tablet OR iPad.
A scale ruler with minimum 1:50 scale measurements. But you will be able to use a standard metric ruler too. It will take a bit of adjustment in terms of working to 1:50 scale, but it is entirely possible to use a standard metric ruler marked in millimetres and centimetres.
A set square and technical drawing equipment may come in handy i.e., Circle Stencil. (Again – let’s discuss this in class before your buy! – Only purchase what is absolutely necessary!)

Previous Experience:

All Levels welcome. However, you must have your own garden (or the garden of a friend) drawn up to scale (Scale of 1:50) so that you can start working up the planting layers from the 1st week. Re-designing your existing garden plant plan is also possible with this course as long as you have a fully drawn up garden layout as your garden looks today with a thorough survey to accompany the garden plan/drawing (with annotations and a photographic survey).

End of course:

WHAT CAN I DO AFTER COMPLETING THE COURSE?

Providing that students engage every week and do their homework, students should have;

a planting design completed to a fairly high level of detail – dependent on doing the required coursework.
a more holistic understanding of the design process and
a working knowledge of how to approach planting design.
Students can use the course to develop their own garden designs for implementation OR
Use it as a taster if you are considering taking up a career in garden design in the future – however, this will require a more comprehensive course should they decide to proceed with this as a career.