Lesson Structure: Restoring Established Ornamental Gardens BHT243

There are 8 lessons:

1  Landscape History & Design Styles

• Ancient Mid-Eastern Gardens
• Chinese Gardens
• UK Garden History
• Characteristics of a Formal Garden
• Important English Landscapers
• Spanish Gardens
• Monastery Gardens
• Olmstead (Frederick Law) 1822-1902
• Burle Marx (Roberto (1909-1994)
• Australian Bush Garden
• Permaculture
• The World’s First Plant Collectors: Where Were Plants Introduced First? Important Plant Explorers (Pierre Belon, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, Tradescants, Sir Hans Sloane, Sir Joseph Banks, Others)

2  Surveying the Site

• Problems
• What to Survey
• Measuring Dimensions and Locations
• Triangulation
• Slope
• Levelling Terms
• Levelling Procedure
• Earthworks Calculations: Volumes of Irregular Solids, Using Triangles, Using Horizontal Measurement, Using Horizontal Angles

3  Assessment of Plantings and Features

• Introduction
• Assessing Planting
• Trees: Where Should You Plant a Shade Tree?, When NOT to Retain a Tree
• Assessing Garden Features: What are These Features? What Degrades? What to Look Out For, Concrete and Cement, What is UV Stabilised?, Fasteners
• Water Problems

4  Selecting Components for Retention

• What Should be Restored?
• Why Keep Something?
• Why Discard Something?
• Renovating Areas in a Garden: Dealing with Weeds, Paving, Trees and Shrubs, Garden Beds, Lawns, Ponds, Furniture and Statuary
• Pruning: Clean Out Dead Wood, Wood Rots, Dead Heading, What is Compartmentalisation? What about Wood Treatments?
• Windbreaks: How do Windbreaks Work? Choosing Windbreak Plants

5  Work Programming and Risk Management

• Introduction: Where to Start
• The Procedure: What Order To Work In
• Risks & Work Safety: Safe Work Management Plans
• Risk Assessment of a Landscape Site: Identifying Hazards and Risk, Risk to the Project, Risk to the Workers, The Area(s) and People That May Be At Risk, The Risks, The Consequences of an Event Happening, The Adequacy of Existing Controls, A Rating of the Consequence, Likelihood and Level of Risk, Risk Control Methods
• Examples of a Risk Assessment Procedure: Example 1, Example 2, Example of a Risk Assessment Form, Control Processes in preferred order
• Safety Techniques: Handling Bricks and Pavers, Slippery Surfaces, Manual Lifting, How to Lift, Other Ways to Lift, Using Machines to do the Heavy Work, Rules for using tools, Checklist for Tools and Machines

6  Drainage

• Drainage: Water-logging on a Home-site, Symptoms of Poor Drainage Systems, Improving soil drainage capacity, Some other ways of addressing these potential problems, Minimum Grades for Surface Drainage, Solving Drainage Problems
• Creating a Drain Pit
• Drainage Design: What a Landscaper Should Know about Drainage, Sub Surface Drainage, Outlet, Gradients, Distance between Drainage Pipes, Depths of Drains, Types of Drains, Laying the Drain
• Moving Existing Earth: When Moving Existing Soil Take into Account, Settling Soil, Erosion
• Leaks: How to Fix a Leaky Tap, How to Seal a Leaking Pipe, How to Fix a Leaking Pond, Leaky Copper Pipes

7  Hard Landscape Feature Restoration

• Paving: Materials Used in Paving, Selecting Materials, Concrete, Gravel, Asphalt, Coloured Surfaces
• Barriers and Walls: Creating Barriers, Fencing Supports, Concrete Mix
• Maintaining Stone and Brick Walls
• Outdoor Furniture: Choices
• Protecting Outdoor Furniture
• Painting Outdoor Furniture
• Difference Between Paint, Stain and Sealer
• Pond Management
• Oxygenating Plants
• Troubleshooting

8  Planting Restoration and Maintenance

• Improving Existing Plantings
• Trees: Tree Surgery, Trees and Paving
• Old and Overgrown Hedges: Replacing an Old Hedge, Rejuvenating Old and Overgrown Hedges
• Pruning and Rejuvinating Other Plants: Controlling the Plants Shape and Size, Pruning Overgrown Shrubs, Removing Dead or Diseased Wood, Controlling the Type of Growth, Pruning Conifers, Rejuvenation Limitations, Pruning overgrown climbers and wall shrubs, Pruning Roses
• The Basic Rules of Pruning
• Rejuvenating Old Lawns: Top-dressing, Fertilising Lawns, Mowing, Turf Mowers, Mowing Guidelines, Mowing Heights
• Perennials: Secrets of Success, Maintenance Hints, Designing a Perennial Display, Bulbs, Landscaping with Bulbs
• Maintaining Herbaceous Borders: Wild Flower Meadows
• Controlling Weeds: What is a Weed? Types of Weeds, Identifying Weeds, Weed Control, Control of Common Weed Situations, Controlling Weed Spread
• Common Weed Control Methods: Suffocation, Burning, Cultivation, Mowing/Slashing, Flooding, Crowning, Changing pH, Biological Control, Chemical Control
• Controlling Pests and Diseases: Chemical Treatments and their Restricted Use
• Some Pests and Their Control
• Plant Diseases: Types of Pathogens, Morphological Symptoms of Plant Diseases, Disease Lifecycles
• Some Diseases and Their Control
• Plant Viruses – Their Detection and Control
• Using Chemicals: Common Methods of Application, Safe Storage of Chemicals, Safely Mixing Chemicals, Correct Usage of Chemicals, Agitation, Cleaning Up and Disposing of Chemicals, Law in relation to chemical use

Learning Goals: Restoring Established Ornamental Gardens BHT243

• Outline the history of UK garden design and the influence of plant introductions.
• Evaluate an established ornamental garden in order to determine any particular design style period, or plants of interest.
• Describe basic methods for the survey and recording of the layout and content of an established garden, and explain the importance of detailed information including assessment of site factors.
• Explain processes and the need for assessment and recording of the type, condition and future potential of a range of plantings and features in an ornamental garden.
• Explain the main criteria used to select plantings and features for retention in a restored garden.
• Explain the need and processes of analysis of collected information.
• Prepare a summarised programme for organisation of garden restoration work
• Assess risk and identify safe work practices
• Recognise and explain the visible signs of the failure of old land drainage systems and describe remedial measures
• Describe and explain the practical procedures necessary for the restoration of a range of hard landscape features.
• Explain problems which may be encountered in the improvement of retained hedges, plantings and lawns.
• Describe practical solutions for improving retained hedges, plantings and lawns
• Evaluate the use of modern maintenance techniques in established gardens

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