This topic and the Gresham online school in particular have been discussed at length previously, but most all the pertinent threads seem to have vanished into the past.

As best as I recall, discussions regarding Anna Gresham regarded the school as decent as far as an online service goes. But any remote, online design instruction will be limited at best - one of the biggest drawbacks is that there is no direct interaction with either the instructor or other students and no actual hands-on activity. Without going into excessive explanation and detail, the interactive critiquing process and its necessary feedback and any other face to face or hands-on design or installation-related activity is a very important facet of design education and hard to replace. If it is at all possible to attend any sort of landscape design school locally, you will be far better served. Many technical or community/junior colleges offer horticultural and design training and the New York Botanical Garden offers a complete professional horticulture degree program that has a design specialization.

Thanks gardengal48 for the response.
Where i am located in NY there are no schools that are within driving distance not even our local college or Boces programs offer anything in design. I did a extensive search on this school and noticed nothing but good reports from those who have taken the course and even ran across a few websites of Landscape designers who now own there own design business since taking the course, as well as one company that hired
a women for there landscape company because she had taken the course and she has done many designs in other countrys as well.
I will post my thoughts on the course once i get started with it.

Anna used to post here on the garden web and demonstrated an opinionated stubborn attitude that was tough to deal with. You will find her course challenging with no quarter given which may actually be a good thing depending on you to some extent. I don't know the content or cost or anything but I would guess that if you can deal with a no nonsense (a tad aggressive) businesslike approach as opposed to a more arty approach this could be very useful. Just bear in mind that the diploma alone will not get you work when you are done.

Ink makes a good point, as usual. Few people ask for credentials, diplomas, or certificates or even know they exist. This may be a great design course, I don't know. But I can certainly tell you that learning to draw plans and putting together nice landscapes on paper is the easy part of the business. The hard part is getting the work over others that are better known, have a greater ability to have first contact with the client, and know how to sell landscape design.

All that said, being able to design is the first place to start. Anything you do to enhance your skills is better than doing nothing. Make no mistake, it is a tough business.

Can you find a designer that can design for you for an hourly rate? I'm a landscape designer (got my degree in landscape architecture) and design for four landscape companies who pay me hourly because they don't want to mess with the designing part of the business.

I wouldn't take the class if I were you. After taking 5 years of landscape designing in college, I don't think an online course is going to really help. See if you can take some classes with the Master Gardeners in your area. I know a lot of people that learned design and landscaping that way and are actually pretty good at what they do. I don't know if you're near Cornell University, but their landscape architecture program is #1 in the nation (my university is #2 and upset they can't beat Cornell- that's how I know this).
Also, I'm taking an AutoCAD class at a local high school that offers adults "continuing education classes". It's only $100- see if your school districts offer anything like that. Hope this helps!

The Master Gardener program is not intended to generate qualified designers, or even landscapers for that matter, and I would never encourage one to join the program with that purpose in mind. For one, you will not get the type or depth of training necessary to be successful at either enterprise. How one can equate 60-80 hours of diverse class study to the equivalent of a 2- or 4-year college program or even a dedicated online study program is a bit of a mystery and should be obvious to anyone that there will be large holes in the education. And second, the program is only intended to provide more in-depth horticultural training to hobby gardeners so that "graduates" of the program are able to give back to the gardening community basic gardening information. And volunteering a set amount of annual hours is a requirement for participation. Graduates are prohibited from using their MG credentials to promote any sort of personal business as well.

While MG training may be a personal choice and a helpful addition to your gardening skills repetoire, it is NOT a viable path to becoming a skilled landscape designer.

I've never taken any Master Gardener classes, but I can sure tell you that many Master Gardeners I've met in this area, think they are pretty good designers and know their plants better than most people. I assumed they must be taking landscape designing classes, because they have so much confidence in their skills (those in my area, mind you).

Personally, I would focus on your landscape company and hire out the designing to someone who's been doing this a while and does it full time. Much easier, and you don't have to mess with learning how to do designs.

You do realize that the design school is out of New Zealand - just about as far away as you can get.

Hi
I'm doing the Master Gardener program now, and its made me realize that I want to do this as a career. I consider the training a great overview that will really help me when I start going for a degree, but I can tell you all it prepares you for is to answer basic questions for homeowners or know where to go to find answers for the tougher ones. I think the people that txlandscape refers to were probably pretty experienced prior to joining, many of us are. Contacting the local MG group might be a good idea tho, she might find some connections to a school or classes.

I completed the diploma program from the Anna Gresham School last year and I can testify that it is wonderful program. I learned so much - more than I ever expected. I started my own freelance business about 2/3rds way through the program and I am really busy. Sure, the program was a lot of work, and Anna does demand a high standard, but I felt it was so worth it. I noticed that the education section of the APLD web site also has good comments from other graduates of the school.

I am a retired MG. It is a good program, I did learn a great deal. However - the purpose of this program is to volunteer your time back to the community. This could mean 20 -30 hours each year. Also you must attend ( at least in my state) a certain number of MG meetings, and also go out, in some cases at your own expense, take 8 plus hour of continuing education. All this must be logged and sent in to the MG coordinator each quarter. Each MG program differs - so it may not be exactly that way in your state. Point being this is a lot of work, and if you are just starting off in businees you may not have time for this program. Finally - if you are a MG, as a professional, you may not advertize in any way to your clients that you are a MG - not on your business card, or your brochure etc.

It was a good program for me - however the record keeping and the number of hours that I had to spend to keep up the MG title was too much --

Mike

Hi downundergardener. I see you have completed this course form Anna and was hoping you can give me more info. As in is it worth doing the course?
I am looking at doing it and it seems very complete(I originally started landscape design at a Uni so have a good idea of subjects that are covered), but I just want to make sure is not just another glorified home gardener course, as so many online ones are.
Did you find this course helpful in you career or is it simply a bridging course form firs-time gardener to a complete study at a Uni?

Sorry for posting here, but I could not see a option of sending you a private message.

Thanks
Stella

Did you start the course, Stella?

I always find it curious that these are usually posted by people who registered the same day that they post about it.