This course is part of the Gardening for Beginners: Basics and Beyond ExpertTrack
How to Grow Healthy Plants
Level up your gardening skills to master the basic methods for growing new plants and protect them from disease and pests.
Duration
3 weeksWeekly study
4 hours100% online
How it worksIncluded in an ExpertTrack
Course 2 of 2
How to Grow Healthy Plants
Expand and protect your garden
On this three-week course from BBC Gardeners’ World, you’ll discover how to create new plants yourself without having to buy them and what to do when things go wrong.
Learn basic methods for sowing seeds and taking cuttings
There are a few different ways that you can raise new plants. You’ll start this course by learning the basic methods for cultivating plants in different ways. You’ll cover the optimal techniques to sow seeds, as well as dividing and taking cuttings from existing plants of different types.
Discover how to water plants effectively without damaging them
Plants are delicate things and each different type needs certain environments and specific care in order to grow. With the wrong input, it’s quite possible to kill plants with kindness by overwatering or overfeeding.
This course will guide you through watering plants effectively and the different watering needs of plants. You’ll also learn how to properly feed plants and the maintenance that each type of plant needs to thrive.
Explore the many plant diseases and pests
Unfortunately, there are a variety of pests and diseases that can damage and even kill plants. That’s why it’s important to know the methods to prevent pests and the techniques to manage disease if it occurs, all of which you’ll learn in this course.
You’ll also discover how to nurture your plants and stimulate lush growth through pinching, training, and thinning. Finally, you’ll explore the need to observe plants regularly and learn how to respond to their needs. This includes key maintenance techniques such as pruning, trimming, and deadheading.
What topics will you cover?
Gardening for Beginners: How to Grow Plants and Nurture Them is a plants-first course that teaches the foundational knowledge needed to be a good gardener. Building on the basic science behind plants, the course looks at how to help any plant thrive by creating the right growing environment, how to create new plants yourself without having to buy them, and what to do when things go wrong.
Topics covered in Part Two include:
How to water, feed and care for plants Raising new plants from seed, division and cuttings Pinching, training and thinning your plants Pruning, trimming and deadheading What to do about plant pests and diseases
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Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Assess the different growing conditions experienced by plants and adapt cultivation techniques accordingly.
- Apply basic methods of raising new plants – from sowing seeds, to dividing and taking cuttings.
- Demonstrate that plants have different needs from ourselves and that it’s possible to kill plants with kindness
- Assess your plants' health regularly to in order to nurture and respond to their needs.
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone with an interest in gardening who wants to learn the best way to grow and care for all kinds of plants. It will be useful to every kind of gardener, whether you’ve gardened before or not.
Who developed the course?
BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
The UK’s No.1 gardening magazine. Providing garden and plant inspiration, seasonal advice and practical projects.
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