This course will teach you eight design principles which are the foundations for creating original garden designs. These principles are a set of guidelines to creating visually attractive gardens and mastering these principles is one of the essential skills of a becoming garden designer.

At the start this course I set out four aims.

First of all, I’ll clarify the meaning of each garden design principle and draw parallels with their use in other areas of art and design. These principles are part of the language that garden designers and landscape architects use, and each has a specific meaning which is important to understand for anyone who has an interest in garden design.

Secondly, I’ll explain why these principles are important in creating inspiring and beautiful gardens and this will be illustrated by examples of how the principles have been used by famous garden designers.

Thirdly, I’ll demonstrate how to use these principles in your own garden designs and how I have used them in my own designs.

And the final aim is to show how design principles can be used to assess the design quality of gardens of any size or style. This will be illustrated by showing how the eight principles contribute to the visual attractiveness of nine separate gardens.

So by the end of this course you will have learnt the meaning of each design principles and their importance in the design of gardens, know how to apply them in your own designs, and understand how they can be used to assess the design quality of other gardens.

The presentation of this course includes more than 100 slides comprising photos, sketches, illustrations, plans and diagrams, together with notes and bullet points summarising the main points of the commentary. And throughout the course are a number of tasks and exercises to help you understand and apply the principles of design, together with quizzes at regular intervals to test your knowledge of what has already taught.

Please have a look at the contents of this course and check that it covers the subjects you are interested in. For example, this course does not cover subjects such as planting design, gardening techniques, construction detailing, building and client contracts or starting your own design practice.

You can take this course either on its own or as part of ‘The Complete Garden Design Course’ series of courses which will give you a thorough grounding in the art of garden design. After completing this series of courses, you will have learnt all the skills you will need to confidently undertake your own garden design projects.