Garden Design (2-day workshop)

Do you have a new garden or want to change your existing one? Have you been inspired by the gardens at RHS Rosemoor or an RHS Show? This workshop will guide you through the essential elements of garden design, discussing how you can use colour, light and shade, line and form, unity, balance and contrast to enhance your own garden.

Ian Smith, RHS Advisor, will show you firsthand how design ideas and planting combinations have been used at Rosemoor, and you will have the opportunity to think about and discuss how they could be adapted in your own garden. After Day 1, hopefully, you will begin to develop your own garden design ideas and bring them along to Day 2.

The second workshop further builds your knowledge of design concepts and the garden design process. There will be time to discuss and review your designs, referring back to the essential elements of garden design and discussing how you can use colour, light and shade, line and form, unity, balance and contrast to enhance your garden. We will revisit garden design concepts and planting combinations, looking at examples from RHS Rosemoor and considering how they could be adapted for your garden.

• Tutor: Ian Smith has over 20 years of horticultural experience across a variety of creative, practical, and educational roles, and has a passion for gardening. He has designed a range of gardens for clients, from compact spaces to large country estates, and has studied many aspects of horticulture, including the RHS Master of Horticulture in 2015. Ian has taught horticulture and garden design with Bicton College and the RHS, is an RHS Horticultural Advisor at RHS Rosemoor and the RHS Flower Shows, and is a trustee for the Devon Gardens Trust. He is interested in historic gardens, their research and future development, and is keen to inspire more people to garden. 
• Location and arrival information: The workshop will be split between the Peter Buckley Learning Centre and outside in the Garden. Please allow 15 minutes to park in the main visitor car park, enter the garden and get to the Learning Centre.
• Catering: Tea/coffee and biscuits will be available in the classroom at the start of each session and again in the afternoon. As part of the booking process, you will choose a picnic lunch option, which is included in the workshop price.
• For this workshop, you will need:
  • Your booking reference number to show to the team at the Garden Entrance 
  • A notebook and a pencil to make notes
  • Clothing and footwear suitable for being indoors and outdoors, appropriate for the weather on the day
• Upskiller (currently intermediate) – I have mastered the basics of gardening and would like to build on horticultural knowledge and skills.