Plant Care Courses

Learn how to effectively maintain a garden while reducing the amount of time, labour and costs involved.

We usually think of garden maintenance as a summer priority when lawns, weeds and plants grow vigorously but even in winter a garden may deteriorate without regular maintenance.

This course will show you how to have a healthy garden year round - whether it is your garden or those of your clients!

Learn about irrigation technique: estimating plant needs, operations, scheduling, pumps, filters, systems, drainage, and more.

Water is essential to plant growth and is often the major limitation to productivity. Irrigation is now playing a more important role in horticulture as well as home gardens than ever before.

Irrigation at appropriate times can also improve the quality of turf or the general health of garden plants.

Work towards becoming an irrigation specialist

This advanced course assumes some knowledge of irrigation equipment and installation. It is suitable for foremen, supervisors, managers and installers of irrigation systems.

The following topic areas are covered:

• Ways to optimise water efficiency
• Scheduling irrigation for crops & pasture
• Drainage system design
• Operating irrigation controllers
• Managing system maintenance
• Managing fertigation
• Evaluating irrigation designs
• Design of different systems

BE AN EXPERT IN PLANT HEALTH

Learn about plant pests and diseases and ways to manage their impact on gardens or crops.

There are thousands of possible causes which can contribute to a plant's problems. More often than not, there are several factors involved. Minor diseases or environmental problems may weaken the plant, making it susceptible to some more major (obvious) disorder. When you inspect a plant for problems, you should systematically consider all of the things which might possibly be going wrong.

This course provides the foundation for inspecting diagnosing and treating all types of problems. 

Learn to examine a sick plant and systematically determine the type of problem that is affecting it.

Identifying pest and disease problems begins by understanding the categories and sub categories of what can cause illness in a plant. Next you need to become familiar with the signs that suggest which category or sub category you are looking at.

 Understanding the life cycles of insects and weeds and learning how to identify them is important in the protect of plants from disease and insect and the spread of weed species. l

Open Learning Course, self paced home study

Learn to grow crops or other plants in a greenhouse, shade house or other protected environment

This course provides a credit in ACS qualifications, accredited through IARC.

Pruning Plants Properly can have a huge impact on how they perform.

• A well pruned plant can produce a lot more flowers or fruit
• A properly pruned plant can live a lot longer and look healthier.
• Study pruning and be a much more proficient pruner.

Soil management - the basis for healthy plants and conservation for future generations.

The Soil is a living biological ecosystem that must be managed to the benefit of the crop and to the broader ecosystem of the region. The reason we investigate soil and its characteristics it to understand it in relation to plant growth, how to manage and manipulate it without causing damage, how to improve it generally or how to modify it for the growing of specific crops. Good soil conditions are critical to the healthy growth of most plants.

Nutrient levels, pH, salinity, depth, texture (properties of sand and clay), structure (form and arrangement), porosity (air space), consistence (the ability of soil to withstand rupture) and even colour can affect plant growth independently or interdependently.

Why learning about soil microbiomes is essential:

• For achieving high productivity in all garden enterprises 
• For production of healthy plant stock 
• Sustainable production