The Advanced Certificate in Horticulture and Design prepares students for a career in garden design. Courses include drafting, landscape history, site analysis and landscape design. The year culminates with a professional garden design project, from creative concept to completed design plan, including schematic drawings and planting plans. Adv. Hort & Design classes are intended for students with a HCP certificate but may be attended by all students with a basic knowledge of gardening. 

Pay for the full program all at once and save 10% | Overall program cost if choosing to pay for the full year 

Member: $1800.00

Non-member: $2080.00

• OR Register Class by Class 

Full and partial scholarships are available

To apply for financial aid please fill out this form. For more information please contact Director of Education, Jennifer Patton: jpatton@berkshirebotanical.org

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Core Curriculum 

Fall 2024 

Drafting for Garden Design | Saturdays, Sept. 7 through 28, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

This four-week studio intensive course will help students to develop a scaled plan. Learn basic drafting skills necessary to record and effectively communicate scaled site plans. The course will cover reference books, drafting supplies, media/paper types, line weights, lettering and scale reading. Drafting demonstrations will familiarize students with professional drawing techniques, and students will begin to draft basic site plans and explore map-making. During the last half of the course, students will learn to develop a landscape graphic palette to illustrate trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers, as well as hardscape materials such as stone terraces. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.

Rendering | Saturdays, Oct. 5 through 26, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

This four-week course will offer students the opportunity to pursue the process of creating a realistic or lifelike representation of an object or a scene. It's all about how you use your tools—be it charcoal, paint, or a digital stylus—to illustrate light and shadow, texture, and color in your artwork. Learning to render allows you to add depth and dimension, turning a flat sketch into a dynamic visual that appears to pop off the page.  Rendering is a drawing skill necessary for communicating garden designs to clients. This course is the next step for gardening designers following drafting. Structured as a studio class, students will learn the softer side of drawing for design using the B range pencils, and practice illustrative rendering such as sections, elevations and plan obliques. This course will enable designers to better communicate their designs to clients. Non-professional gardeners and artists are encouraged to join this class, with either Drafting for Garden Design or equivalent coursework as a prerequisite. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.

New England Native Plant Design | Thursdays, Oct. 31 through Nov. 21, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

This four-week course will help students better understand the principles and practices of ecological gardening with a focus on native plant communities. Students will learn the native plant palette, resources needed to identify these communities, and habitats and methods of introducing native plants into gardens. Identifying and controlling invasive plant species, in addition to restoring areas that have been impacted by invasives, will also be highlighted. Gardeners will learn how to enhance garden spaces with native plants that create sustainable and low maintenance gardens. This course will be taught by Bridghe McCracken of Helia Land Design.

Planting Design Studio  | Saturdays, Dec. 14 and 21, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This course teaches students how to design a planting plan for private and public garden spaces. Explore the manipulation of space by using plant material through a series of exercises dealing with form, color, and texture. Students will consider the nature of plant characteristics in specific design settings. Style of house will be used for a source of inspiration while honoring the horticultural needs of each plant. Students will make presentations for each project, and class critiques will be positive, instructive, and essential to the learning process. This is a participatory class and will include completing various design projects throughout the course. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.

Spring 2025

Business of Gardening | Friday, Jan. 3, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The question that is often stressful for the garden designer/gardener is "how much should I charge?" Learn how to value your work, estimate supplies, and strategize the overall proposal in order to avoid under or over charging clients. Also learn about staffing, management and incorporating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College. 

Invasives: Plants and Insects | Saturdays, Jan. 11 through Feb. 1, 9 a.m. to noon.

This four-week course will include information on how and why pests become invasive, and the governmental agencies and working groups that help determine an organisms’ “invasive status” and the regulations around controlling their spread.  We will take a deeper dive into several newer invasive introductions, to our area, including identification,hosts, and control or mitigation methods.  You will learn strategies to stay abreast of new Invasive Introductions, and how to think about choosing the best techniques to avoid, prevent, or control Invasive Species at your particular site or situation.  A review of general concepts regarding pest control strategies, pest life cycles, and clues to identify pest type will be included. Taught by Jen Werner. Jen has taught at the Vocational High School level and at Springfield Technical Community College, as well as leading trainings for Master Gardeners and classes for garden clubs and garden centers. Her hands-on experience ranges from landscape maintenance, construction and design, greenhouse management and production, nursery work, horticulture therapy and entrepreneurship. Jen is a NOFA Certified Organic Landcare Professional, and recently earned a UMASS Invasive Plant Management Certificate. 

Tree Care for Gardeners | Fridays, Feb. 14 through Feb. 28, 1 to 5 p.m.

Tree Care for Gardeners is taught by Tom Ingersoll of Ingersoll Land Care. Whether you are an amateur or professional horticulturalist, you are a steward of the landscape, and probably spend more time than anyone among the flowers, shrubs and trees. This course is designed for those who might not necessarily be first to climb 100 feet up a northern red oak or wrangle the chainsaw to fell a 36” dead American elm. The goal of this class is to empower horticulturalists to better understand the largest plants in the landscape. Learn the basics of tree biology and identification, the tree’s role in the ecosystem, proper selection, siting, planting considerations, pruning of young trees, fertilization, pest identification and when to call in the certified arborist. 

Taught by Tom Ingersoll of Ingersoll Land Care. Description TBD

Container Garden Design | Thursdays, Feb. 27 through March 20, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

This four-week course will teach the skills required for beautiful and successful container gardens with Jenna O’Brien, owner of Viridissima Horticulture and Design. Get to know the plants that thrive in containers and how to care for them. This class will cover practical aspects of gardening in containers with style throughout the New England garden season. Consider container selection, siting, planting, growing, and maintaining moveable gardens.

Landscape Design II | Thursdays, March 27 through May 1, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Learn skills essential for functional garden design that honor the site and meet client needs. Led by Chuck Schnell and Walter Cudnohufsky of Cudnohufsky Associates, this course will cover a different topic or technique focusing on the importance of getting to know the client and site as a basis of effective and appealing design. Essential and easy-to-grasp design principles will be introduced throughout the course, with a form-finding approach to garden design. Acquire the vocabulary essential for assessing a property’s potential and problems, and the right questions to realize a client’s wishes while avoiding common design mistakes. Learn how to make well-considered and sustainable choices for the elements and materials commonly used in the residential-scale garden. Students will complete a instructor-provided project and take it from creative concept to completed design plan, including site assessment diagrams, conceptual sketches and schematic drawings. Each class will involve instruction and evaluation of projects in progress. Group discussions and exercises will put theory into action. Students will make a formal presentation at the final class with the primary goal of conveying a coherent design narrative and process leading to proposed solutions.