Landscape Design Basics - FULL

Five sessions: Mondays January 31, February 7, 21, 28, March 7; 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Registration Deadline: January 17, 2022 - This is a firm deadline so students can receive workshop materials in time for the first workshop session.

Cost: $149 members; $159 nonmembers.  Price includes 15 hours of instruction, access to the class Google Site and resources (PowerPoint presentations, handouts, etc.), and a set of basic landscape design tools and drawing materials (shipped directly to you by the University of Minnesota Bookstore).

Location: Your Computer via Zoom; you will be contacted in advance of the first workshop session with workshop (Zoom) access information.

Required: Computer or tablet with internet access; use of a digital camera or cell phone for photographing and emailing your designs to the instructors for feedback.

This five-session workshop is your opportunity to learn the theory and basic principles of sustainable landscape design and how to avoid the landscape design mistakes that are commonly made by novices and professionals alike. Historically offered as an in-person workshop, we have worked hard to create an effective online offering as an alternative in response to the challenges associated with COVID-19. The curriculum is comprehensive and focuses on the landscape design process in a logical, step-by-step fashion to introduce the basic principles of sustainable landscape design. Importantly, the workshop has been specifically developed to allow participants to work on designs for their own properties by focusing on a portion of their property as a class project such as an entry garden, deck/patio garden, or other landscape space as a component of the broader landscape in order to learn and apply the basic principles of landscape design. Each workshop session will culminate in a hands-on assignment to be completed during the following week that will allow participants to put pencil to paper and apply the techniques learned to their individual landscape design projects in preparation for the next class and the next steps in the landscape design sequence. The workshop will also include opportunities for personalized critiques of your ideas by the instructors as you develop your designs during the course of the workshop.

Instructors: Julie Weisenhorn, University of Minnesota Extension Horticulture Educator, and Jim Calkins, Production & Landscape Horticulturist and Research Information Director for the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association; Julie and Jim are also former landscape design instructors at the University of Minnesota.