Can anybody recomend a correspondance course to do the RHS General
Certificate?

Thanks

Rebecca.

"Matthew O' Donnell" wrote in message
...
Can anybody recomend a correspondance course to do the RHS General
Certificate?

Thanks

Rebecca.

Google should find several for you. I don't have personal experience of any
of them. Why not try your local Agricultural/Horticultural College? Many
offer this as a part time course. A few people who have worked with me have
done it this way and found the courses enjoyable and accessible. You should
get a bit of practical and perhaps a garden visit or two as well as the
classroom stuff. The interaction with tutor and other students is useful and
fun. The RHS don't give the certificates away so you will have to do quite a
bit of work but you will earn a certificate that means something.

Rod

"Matthew O' Donnell" wrote in message
...
Can anybody recomend a correspondance course to do the RHS General
Certificate?

Perhaps Learndirect.co.uk will list any.

--
AST
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." - Albert Einstein
(For success, change 'anti#spam' to 'perigee_apogee')

I can highly recommend 'The Horticultural Correspondence College',
Chippenham. Email for a prospectus . They have
various courses including RHS General.

I have no connection with the college other than being enrolled for some of
their courses.

Charles (pffl)

"Matthew O' Donnell" wrote in message
...
Can anybody recomend a correspondance course to do the RHS General
Certificate?

Thanks

Rebecca.

Hi there -
I'm currently on the RHS General Certificate in Gardening course. I'm going
to our local college, ( not Horticultural ), one morning a week. This is my
second year and last year, I went for a whole day. I take the exam in a
month so revising like mad!!( or not!)
I have thoroughly enjoyed this course but probably gained the most knowledge
from the tutors and other course students, not so much the literature and
home study. You just cant beat snippets of information that pop up whilst
out and about or in the classroom. We have had 2 excellent tutors for the
course and we always seem to go off on tangents, discussing so many related
issues in broader ways. One of our tutors always related difficult to
understand stuff( like botany and the chemical bits), to down to earth
practical applications in the real gardening world and that has been an
effective way to learn too.
All in all, I would never have done this course at home. It obviously
depends on your attitude and what you want to get out of it. Gardening is
after all a practical, hands on subject and we have done things such as
fruit tree pruning in someone's orchard, taking various cuttings from each
other's gardens, been to look at lawn-mowers and other machinery, visited
Kew, the Seed Bank collection at Wakehurst, Wisley aswell as going to a
college allotment and growing a vast selection of veg. and cut flowers on a
plot and a polytunnel.
My course is spread over a year and a half with the option to take the exam
at the end if you want to. everyone in my class is doing the exam and there
are 10 of us.
Hope that helps and gives you some idea anyway about one way of doing
things.
Good luck!
Regards, Liz.

"Rob" wrote in message
...
Hi there -
I'm currently on the RHS General Certificate in Gardening course. I'm
going
to our local college, ( not Horticultural ), one morning a week. This is
my
second year and last year, I went for a whole day. I take the exam in a
month so revising like mad!!( or not!)
I have thoroughly enjoyed this course but probably gained the most
knowledge
from the tutors and other course students, not so much the literature and
home study. You just cant beat snippets of information that pop up whilst
out and about or in the classroom. We have had 2 excellent tutors for the
course and we always seem to go off on tangents, discussing so many
related
issues in broader ways. One of our tutors always related difficult to
understand stuff( like botany and the chemical bits), to down to earth
practical applications in the real gardening world and that has been an
effective way to learn too.
All in all, I would never have done this course at home. It obviously
depends on your attitude and what you want to get out of it. Gardening is
after all a practical, hands on subject and we have done things such as
fruit tree pruning in someone's orchard, taking various cuttings from each
other's gardens, been to look at lawn-mowers and other machinery, visited
Kew, the Seed Bank collection at Wakehurst, Wisley aswell as going to a
college allotment and growing a vast selection of veg. and cut flowers on
a
plot and a polytunnel.
My course is spread over a year and a half with the option to take the
exam
at the end if you want to. everyone in my class is doing the exam and
there
are 10 of us.
Hope that helps and gives you some idea anyway about one way of doing
things.
Good luck!
Regards, Liz.

I also did the RHS General at a local college, my experience was very
similar to yours Liz, I would recommend it to anyone!

Peter



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