Maintaining the Garden

This course will give you the upper hand in getting the garden that you want. The course examines common gardening practices - looking at what they are, how they are done and most importantly, why. It will help you develop environmentally sound strategies to manage weeds, insects and diseases in your garden.

Course Topics:

1. Gardening Techniques and Tools
   • Gardening Tools
   • Landscape Installation Techniques
   • Landscape Maintenance Techniques

2. Weeds and Weed Control
   • Weed Identification and Control
   • Weed Life Cycles and Reproductive Strategies
   • Principles of Weed Control
   • Methods of Weed Control

3. Plant Health
   • Diseases
     • Plant Disease in History
     • Diseases Defined
     • Steps of disease diagnosis
     • Symptoms, signs, syndromes
     • Disease development
     • Control of diseases
   • Pests
• Pests in the Garden: Control measures
• Slugs and Snails
• Insect Pests
• Insect Orders Important to the Gardener
• Common Non-insect Pests of the Garden
• Types of Insect Injury
• Benefits and Value of Insects
• Minimum-chemical Pest Control

4. Pruning
• Reasons for pruning
• Care of Pruning tools
• Pruning techniques
• Pruning tips for each plant group
  

Instructors

Carol Goodwin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at NSAC. She teaches subjects related to arboriculture, landscape management ,garden history and garden design. Her research activity is in the area of cultivation practices that affect tree health and longevity as well as propagation and production of native plant species.

Sherry Chaisson is a Teaching Technician in the Environmental Horticulture Program with the Department of Environmental Sciences at NSAC. She has been actively involved as an instructor in Continuing Education courses including Plant Identification and Horticultural Therapy.

Lana Chisholm is a Program Instructor in the Continuing Education Department at the NSAC. Since coming to NSAC in 2002, she has worked on program development, propagation protocols of ornamental perennials, coauthored a manual on propagation and cultivation of native plants, and developed content for the Master Gardeners’ Maintaining the Garden and Art of Gardening courses. Lana is also the instructor of NSAC’s horticulture program at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro. She has a strng belief in the benefits of Horticulture Therapy. She became the teaching assistant for the Master Gardener Program in 2006. Lana is the owner of a specialty nursery that produces edible fruit and vegetable transplants as well as native plants. Saturday mornings she can be found at the nursery’s booth at the Truro Farmers’ Market.

Note: Registration deadline for March 2012 intake is
February 17, 2012

Course Details