Pickard School Garden Design School FAQ

Many students have this concern, but our experience has proved that we can teach anyone to draw to the professional standard required, provided they are willing to practice.

Yes. The 4 main professional assignments are chosen by us specifically to give students a wide variety of experience in terms of site, client brief and surveying challenges.

Yes. Our business is to train to a professional standard, and so our Diploma course covers all these aspects of the design process.

We ask our students to work on both a plant portfolio and a construction portfolio during the year to enable them to build up knowledge of both plants and materials. These are brought to class a number of times during term for discussion and are then handed in as part of the final assessed project.

A knowledge of relevant law is increasingly important for garden designers, as is an understanding of contracts and contract law. We are lucky to have a practising solicitor with 15 years experience as one of our lecturers.

All the lecturers who cover design and related issues are practising designers with their own businesses - in fact the only lecturer who is not also a qualified designer is Andrew Newland. Andrew lectures specifically on matters relating to surveying and project management and has a wealth of experience in this field.

Yes. The principal of the school is a Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers (MSGD) - one of a relatively small number of designers to hold this qualification. He also holds a Masters Degree in Garden and Landscape Design. All lecturers teaching design related aspects of the course have appropriate design qualifications.

We recognize the importance of teaching students how to set up and run a design business, particularly since our students often come from other career backgrounds and may have little experience at all of running a business. We therefore dedicate part of the syllabus specifically to this. Our design lecturers have all set up their own garden design businesses from scratch; they also have experience of running other corporate businesses successfully and therefore have a wealth of knowledge to pass on to students.

We are a design school; we encourage everyone to develop their own style. The range of gardens designed by our graduates at RHS Chelsea Flower Show illustrates this perfectly.

We consider it to be an arts based course in that we teach design, but in turn this means we teach the design process; which includes surveying and site analysis skills, construction, setting out, drainage and electrical drawings and a range of other design issues.

Our records show that 90% of those students who actually want to set up their own garden design business do so. Not everyone who does the Diploma course wants to set up their own business; some do the course purely for enjoyment. Others decide to have families or to move abroad and so don’t get around to setting up a business.

Yes. We deliberately do not teach CAD as part of our diploma course because we believe that in order to use CAD properly, students first of all need a thorough understanding of the design process and of issues affecting design – which is best achieved through the teaching of technical drawing. There are also aspects of technical drawing which CAD cannot replace at present, and many of our graduates continue with hand drawing in their practices simply because they enjoy it. A number of our students do, however, choose to stay with us to follow a CAD course on graduating and we feel that CAD tuition is ideal for recent graduates and practising designers rather than for students.

Yes. The peer group reviews are a fundamental part of our Diploma and are designed to ensure students are given experience of presenting their ideas, and receiving feedback from lecturers and fellow students. Regular design practice is built into the timetable throughout the course - students are given a plan and a brief and a short time to sketch a design before presenting it to the class. Our students say they find these reviews invaluable and excellent confidence builders.

Yes. We teach CAD at four levels. If you are interested in these courses, please click here.

There are 4 major professional assignments based on real clients and real gardens – because of our reputation, garden owners contact us to offer their gardens for use by our students, and from these we choose 4 very different gardens for our Diploma students to work on. We also use many quick design projects throughout the year to help students "free up" their thought process and lose the fear of being faced with a blank sheet of paper.

All our lecturers have marketing experience, having set up their own design businesses and a wide range of other businesses before turning to garden design. We feel that teaching students how to set up and market their business is as important as teaching them to design. Our principal, Rob Whitehead, has particular expertise in this area, having held many high profile marketing roles at director level in large PLCs before setting up his own very successful design consultancy; he has a wealth of experience to pass on to students.

Frequently Asked Questions