More than ever before, the world needs trained horticultural professionals to influence gardens and landscapes to help address the challenges of climate change and the ever-changing demands of urban living. Indeed, as a designer, your career could take you around the world, leading and influencing how future clients and communities engage with global landscape and environmental challenges.

Accredited by the University of Plymouth and located in the unique setting of the world-renowned Eden Project in Cornwall, this programme is designed for those with an emerging passion for greenspace design.

Cornwall College has a long-established reputation for delivering garden and landscape design courses of the highest quality within this creative industry with the added advantage of an ever-increasing core focus on today’s challenges of climate change, sustainability, and health and well-being.

The course integrates the creativity of art and design with a core understanding of horticulture, earth sciences and landscape technology. We recognise the world of garden and landscape design is diverse and your supportive tutors will nurture your individual talents and ensure you have the wide range of skills needed to succeed in the industry including within self-employment.

Through real or ‘live’ projects during the course you will learn how to create stimulating and thought-provoking spaces in a variety of locations – from private gardens to public landscapes - whilst at the same time developing your own unique design identity and philosophy. Clients students have worked with recently include Truro Cathedral, The Pengersick Castle Trust, The Eden Project, The Leonard Cheshire Disability Trust and Potager Garden.

Emphasis is placed upon professional practice, design communication and contemporary user-focussed design in both qualifications with smaller designs and soft-scaping in the HNC moving towards the larger landscape-scale designs and applied hard-scaping techniques in the HND. Throughout you will be encouraged to showcase your skills by entering your work into nationally and internationally renowned design show, exhibitions and competitions. Students under the tutelage of the current course team have won numerous awards including the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Young Designer of the Year Award three times in six years.

You will have access to the c.108 hectares of exceptional gardens and grounds within the Eden Project to include the extensive plant collections within the biomes and the wider green spaces. In addition to this, The Cornwall College Group has land-based campuses throughout Devon and Cornwall further providing you with inspiration and work placement opportunities during your studies with us.

We have a range of excellent quality teaching resources available including our specialist ‘Green Build Hub’ design studio to allow you to practice traditional drawing skills, scale modelling as well as IT facilities for the teaching of computer-based design communication techniques.

Our teaching team includes award-winning garden designers, artists, landscape architects, design historians, ecologists and horticulturalists. Many combine private practice alongside their teaching commitments with all having significant industry experience.

With flexible study options, you can choose to study part-time or full-time – Perfect for those who prefer to work alongside their study. For those looking to plan a Cornish adventure, a dedicated Accommodation Officer can help assist a move to the area for the duration of study.

Progression

Top-up to the BSc (Hons) Horticulture (Garden & Landscape Design) also at the Eden Project (Dependant on the standard of individual design portfolio).