Irene School of Garden Design

Registration is now open for our one-year Professional Course to start in January 2010.

Office hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

We at Irene School of Garden Design believe that gardens should be Designed for Life. Designed for the enrichment of our own lives, for the benefit of the wildlife around us and for the maturing life of the garden itself. All our senses:: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste should be stimulated in a well-designed garden.

Gardening today, is one of the world's most popular hobbies and gardeners spend untold millions on their gardens. They have beautiful pictures in their heads, of what their completed gardens will look like and all too often they don't get the results they dream of.

Read more about our Professional Landscape Design Courses

Read more about the new book "Making Sense by Helen Lachenicht.

Indigenous & Wildlife Gardens
Our speciality is creating "beautiful gardens for wildlife". We believe environmentally friendly gardens can be anything from wild and woolly to manicured and exquisite. We are also committed to a broader use of indigenous plants, after all South African flora has been exported all over the world, for the good reason that there is so much beauty and variety in it.

"Southern Africa is home to the richest floral kingdom in the world. The western Cape in particular is famous for it's wide variety of flowering plants. Known as fynbos, the plants in this region constitute one of the six floral kingdoms of the world. Occupying only 0.04% of the earth's surface, it is the smallest yet richest floral kingdom on earth." - Dr Kristo Pienaar

A Living Art Form
Garden design is a living art form and very few of us are lucky enough to have a natural talent for it. The rest of us need to learn the basic principals and practises of good garden design. Just as we go to school to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, we can also benefit from learning the basics of garden design.

Telling a Visual Story
Designing a garden is much like a theatre production where the set designer has to use the space within the stage, for activity as well as effect. Plants are selected in the same way as the cast would be, to fill specific roles. Just as costume design, décor and props set the scene in time and circumstance, the garden décor, structure and colour we use in the garden, is selected to tell a visual story.

Learn Step-by-Step
Designing and implementing a new garden or revamping an old one is a step-by-step process. First you need to learn to draw a basic garden plan. This gives you a solid platform to work from and allows you to avoid costly mistakes. It will also give you the priceless opportunity of creating a garden whose style and theme can reflect your own personal preferences.

Designing Gardens for Life

The superior choice in Landscape Education