Designing a garden can be a challenge and it’s often difficult to know where to start. That’s why one needs the skills of a garden designer. The design of your garden can add as much beauty to your home as anything else you may add.

Garden design covers a variety of options including a vegetable garden, a perennial flower border, native plantings, herb gardens, a children’s garden, or a combination of all these.

Designers make suggestions on how to incorporate your existing space and plant species into a beautiful new garden. Planning also includes the design and placement of features such as paths, fountains, trellises or stonework to enhance the environment and to connect your home to your garden.

What do I have to do?

The first step in designing a garden is an indepth evaluation of the chosen site. The area should be assessed for soil, sun exposure, problem areas and aspects you want to complement. Colour is a prominent factor in garden design and often the first one considered. Good garden design involves knowing how to combine colours so that the final product has a cohesive and pleasing effect.

Garden planners put your garden plan on paper and prepare a list of crops and flowers that can be successfully and easily grown during the available growing seasons. They determine how much can be planted, planting and harvesting / blooming dates, row spacing, and where to grow the different plants in the garden. They also provide all the back-up information needed to maintain a beautiful garden.

The following facts have to be kept in mind while planning a garden:

lLoose, level, fertile, well-drained soil is the best. Clay and very sandy soil should be avoided unless you can supplement that with organic matter.

lSunlight is necessary to produce high-quality flowers and vegetables.

lWhenever possible, the water source must be located near your garden. Watering is particularly important when planting seeds or transplanting crops.

lSeasonal flowers are ideal. Flowering trees and bushes also provide colourful foliage.

What should I study?

You should have passed Plus Two. A diploma or a degree in horticulture is an advantage. A course in garden design provides you with a rich creative environment that blends many skills, ranging from construction and project management to horticultural skills.

The course covers the evolution of modern landscape, the technical aspects of design and creative planning, landscape form and colour, business and professional practice, an introduction to form composition, urban spatial development and rural spatial development.

What next?

Career prospects are varied within the buoyant landscape and gardening sectors. These include appointments in the public and private sectors.

Careers typically include employment or self-employment in garden or landscape design, and positions such as landscape design technicians, landscape managers and supervisors within private and public gardens, historical gardens, nurseries, garden centres and parks.

Garden designers are more likely to be self-employed and work with builders and landscape architects. There are opportunities for garden designers to work on commercial projects and the creation, reconstruction and / or restoration of historic garden schemes.

where to study

• The Institute of Garden Design, Calcutta.
• The Institute of Garden Design, Blackford, UK.
• The Institute of Garden Design, Ohio, US.
• Pickard School of Garden Design, Eccleshall, UK.
• Oxford College of Garden Design, Oxford, UK.