International writer, and acclaimed plantsman and lecturer, Noel Kingsbury has developed this online gardening course to teach you new ways of planting design with perennials. 
Noel takes you through a broad look at a variety of contemporary approaches to using perennials, with a particular focus on naturalistic approaches.The course provides a particularly strong theoretical basis, but with plenty of plant variety tables provided for helping you choose plants.

Noel is a great advocate of a new way of using perennials that works with – rather than against – nature. On the course, Noel explores how to make planting schemes designed to suit the existing condition of your own garden, covering a wide range of temperate zone climates; for example if your soil is poor and fast draining, he will guide you through the basic principles of choosing plants which not only survive but flourish in these conditions.

Noel has made a particular study of contemporary European planting styles, and has collaborated on several books with leading designer Piet Oudolf, so he is in the best position possible to outline how to make successful planting designs which combine structure, a long season of interest, support for bio-diversity and sustainability – reducing or eliminating irrigation and minimizing maintenance. Noel Kingsbury shows how it’s done from first principles. A one off opportunity to get personal tuition from a world expert in perennial planting.

You will have four lectures, each released on a Saturday morning.  The course will start the first Saturday of the month, and you can book two months in advance.

Perennials have become the most popular garden plants, not just because of their beauty and the ease with which they can be grown, but because they are at the heart of a planting style which is more naturalistic, more sustainable, and often lower maintenance than many traditional garden styles. This course aims at helping you understand the connections between perennials as wild plants in their natural environment, and as garden plants, helping you select the right plants for your situation. We look at their long-term performance, and how they can be used alongside other garden plants.

Lesson One:  Understanding perennials

Lesson Two: Perennials in planting design

Lesson Three:  Perennials in their habitat

Lesson Four:  Perennials through the year

You'll be suited to this course whether you are an enthusiastic amateur, or a landscaper or designer looking to hone your skills in the particular planting area of perennials.  You'll have personal contact with Noel Kingsbury, through the virtual classroom, and will be set an assignment each week to help you learn and meet your own personal objectives.