Improve How a Garden Centre Operates
Garden centres are like any other retail business in that they have to run at a profit to survive. But they differ from other retail businesses in terms of what they sell, services offered, and the type of knowledge needed by staff. With garden centres much of your income comes from plant sales, so keeping plants alive and healthy is paramount. A well run business will also have strong revenue from other types of sale.
This course is designed to be of value to garden centre operators as well as those who work in them. Students will learn about different types of plants, their water, nutrient and storage requirements. You'll also learn about how to treat plant pest and disease problems before they get out of hand. Discover how to arrange plants to enhance sales, labelling and signage strategies, and how to interact with customers. A range of other ideas are also presented to help with overall running and profitability of garden centres, large or small.
What this Course Covers
There are twelve lessons in this course as follows:
1. Introduction: Plant classification, plant cultural requirements, soil and nutrition, watering requirements, drainage, temperature, light, humidity.
2. Plant Health: How to diagnose a problem, pests, diseases, nutrient deficiencies, frost, sunburn, chemical damage, insufficient light, over-watering.
3. Stock Maintenance: Quality standards, buying new stock, inspecting stock, extending stock life, disposing of below-standard stock, watering techniques, fertilising, pest and disease control.
4. Display and Display Techniques: Display units, product location, sales area layout.
5. Garden Product Knowledge I: Plant containers, tags, soil mixes, equipment, tools.
6. Garden Product Knowledge II: Chemicals, fertilisers, baskets, terrariums, cut flowers.
7. Indoor Plants: Major groups, common problems, plants for specific situations, customer attitudes.
8. Container Stock: Trees and Shrubs.
9. Seedlings, Bulbs, Herbs and Perennials.
10. A: Deciduous Trees, Fruit, Nuts, Berries.
B. Seed.
11. Marketing: Pricing strategy, advertising, promotions.
12. Management: Staff control, staff productivity, work scheduling.
Workload
Study when, where and however much you want. For most students, the course can be completed with a total of around 100 hours of study; and a commitment close to that may be needed to achieve desired learning outcomes.
Extra Reading
The following books, available through this web site may be relevant supplementary reading for this course:
- Getting Work in Horticulture
- Starting a Garden or Landscape Business
- Plant Pests & Diseases
- Weeds
Assessment
Self Assessment Tests are presented throughout the course. These are essentially an automated quiz. When you undertake a "SAT" or "Self Assessment Test", you will be able to see what you got correct, and what was incorrect; and in that way, you can identify your weaknesses.
Assignments are given at the end of each lesson. You should complete this assignment, paying careful attention to follow what is asked of you. It can be just as important to learn to work to specification, as it is to learn about the topic you are studying. Graduates who develop a habit of working to specification with vegetable growing, will impress others, and will be more efficient when self employed.
A Final Exam is offered upon satisfactory completion of all assignments. This is optional. If you choose to apply for and do this exam, you will have the possibility of obtaining a "formal credit" or "Pass Certification" for this course. A fee applies. The exam may be sat under prearranged conditions anywhere in the world. This college will award you a formal transcript, upon successful completion of the exam, as proof of your results.
Recognition and Ethics
This college is a member of the ACS Affiliates Network; a group of colleges from several countries, affiliated with each other through ACS Distance Education.. Courses are developed with input from all of these colleges, aspiring to reflect internationally accepted standards and needs.
A strict "No Plagiarism" and "No fraud" policy exists. Assignments are checked for plagiarism, and assignments will not be deemed to have been completed, if work is not your own original creation, and is found to have been copied from elsewhere. If the person doing the course is discovered to be different to the name enrolled, the enrolment and any results will be recorded as invalid and any fees paid will be forfeited.
Refund Policy
A full refund less expenses (up to 15% of fees applied) is provided to anyone wishing to withdraw from a course, within 2 weeks of enrolment. This does not apply after the first assignment has been submitted and marked; or after the two weeks has expired.
WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS INSTITUTION?
We believe that we have an ethical responsibility to make good use of the fees you pay and the time you invest into an education through our college. To this end, our first priority is always your learning. This comes before issues such as formal accreditations, speculative marketing and bureaucratic processes which all too often add considerable costs to the running of colleges, and take resources away from the provision of more valuable services to the student.
This college focuses on facilitating your learning and support to optimise that learning. We recognise that learning is all about improving knowledge and skills in your long term memory. While some colleges may focus on getting you to pass exams, by committing knowledge to short term memory; we understand that such an approach is not true education, and does little to improve your long term career or business prospects.
How This Course Could Help You
This course is geared towards people working in the garden centres and garden departments of retail stores, or who are planning on doing so in the future. This course will also help with running or improving an existing garden centre business. It is useful for owners, managers, and employees.
Study this course by itself or along with other horticulture subjects to enhance your understanding of the industry and expand your skills.