East Tennessee, zone 7b.

What are your recommendations for an online course related to garden design? Great if it has a native plant focus, but not necessary.

I’ve suddenly become a gardener and native plant enthusiast over the past year, and I have a large (probably 800+ sqft) full sun, blank slate of a front yard (i.e. turf lawn) that I want to convert and prepare for this winter.

Last spring, I just ran with my excitement/energy and planted a wide variety of things (swamp milkweed, coneflowers, rudbeckia, agastache, lavender, mountain mint, beautyberries, blueberry bushes, buttonbush, inkberry shrubs, white fringe tree, witch hazel, spice bush… others I can’t even remember), and now it’s time to rearrange and get things looking a little more intentional and flowing better from the street view. (Also, of course, planning to get more plants and try some winter sowing for the first time!! Can you tell I’m brand new to this world and buzzing with excitement? 😆)

All of this is to say: *I* personally need a structured course to learn about garden design and creating cohesion in the yard. I’m happy to go down rabbit holes learning about natives (as I have over the past year), but my brain needs structured learning when it comes to the creative piece and making it more cohesive.

TIA!! 😁

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  • I literally took a college course about landscape design at a county college, so a) that might be more accessible to you than you think. But b) it wasn't very structured. Most of it was trial and error and getting instant feedback from the professor and other students. We didn't have any assigned reading in the class, just PowerPoints about design elements in exactly the level of detail you could get from reading magazine articles. So if you find a course better than that I'm all ears.

    The part you could do outside of class is read a zillion articles about design elements and look at a zillion pictures of gardens. Assign yourself some reading. And look at peoples landscaping with a judgmental gaze. Decide what elements you like and what you don't.

    There's a couple gardening magazines at my local library and they all have native plant focused articles lately, so don't forget to check the library.

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  • I get what you are looking for - one suggestion that is not a structured class is to look at the free designs on Wild Ones and see what plants they combine in what areas. Oh look, they have some educational opportunities: https://wildones.org/turn-that-patch-into-a-plan/

    I am not so worried about cohesion, but love the designs of Piet Oudolf - look him up online and you will see his style. The obvious - selecting the right plant for the right space is easy enough to sort out, but the rest is art, to some extent, framing things, drawing the viewer's eyes is more of a feeling than knowledge, then there is personal taste.

    I used to admire a garden near my apartment when I lived in Seattle. I adored the cottage style garden. My best friend once made a snide comment about the efforts. Turns out she likes a formal style, and just does not like cottage style. She would probably not like native gardening either unless done formally.

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  • I took a web-based native garden design course with Kelly D Norris out of Des Moines a couple years ago. Pricey, but I definitely feel like I got the value out of it.

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  • I've taken the Pretty Purple Door course and it is quite good and very practical focusing on residential - she has sales throughout the year. Also, I signed up with Udemy and have taken one of the Garden Design courses - back to basics - very boring delivery, but excellent content and examples - Udemy isn't too expensive for what you get. They have several garden design courses, so I just signed up for a lifetime and I have access to all kinds of subjects that I'm interested in.

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    Second Pretty Purple Door!
    I also love Lisa Likes Plants in YouTube because she uses photos of actual houses and then redesigns their front yards using a photoshop like app and explaining why she is using each native plant in each spot.

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  • I'm still fairly new at this too and it still sometimes it takes someone else to point opportunities out that I'm not seeing. So here are things that have helped me. On the home visits, I kept a notebook with me and wrote down everything they said.

    1. See if there is a eco/native plant landscape company near you. They usually offer various levels of commitment -- from just coming over to give you a few ideas to designing & planting the whole thing ($$$). I found the hour I spent with one at my place helpful. It pushed me toward greater density and better aesthetics.

    2. the At Home visit from my local Audubon (now called Bird Alliance) was absolutely chock full of ideas. Highly recommend even if you don't enter their program, which I didn't officially.

    3. Take a look at this NWF quiz because it may lead you to something your wildlife could really use. https://www.riddle.com/view/5yCRCAGe

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  • I don’t know of any specific courses, but I would start with books on design.Try your local library. I liked Monty Don’s recent book. It is not native plants, but has sone useful design concepts.  I think most successful designs have a focus, but don’t ignore practicalities like walking flow and access for weeding and maintenance.  I also liked shows like Your Garden Made Perfect and Uk Garden of the Year for inspiration 

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