Yorkshire School of Garden Design

Join us on Friday the 29th of August for a very special event with world renowned garden photographer

After an illustrated talk about his work Clive will share his technical knowledge-how with us to help you get the most out of your camera.

You’ll have time to spend photographing the gardens by AWB Studio and Luciano Giubbilei and a delicious lunch will be served in the High Vinery restaurant.

Clive will also talk to us about post-production techniques to help you give your shots that all important polish.

Please visit YSGD.co.uk for further details and to book a place on this course.

£195 + VAT

We’ve had a terrific three days with a lovely group of students from across the north of England and the USA learning all about bringing layered seasonal delight to our planting schemes.

We visited the small town garden in Richmond by hosted by the lovely Chris and (amazing cakes too!) and then on to the quite incredible for a wonderful afternoon with the ever generous head gardener Tim Marshall and Roger and Jack from his team. Spending a few hours walking this extraordinary garden by was awe inspiring and deeply informative, from the Eden of the wooded valley to the panoramic views over the vale of York and the abundance of the kitchen and cutting gardens. Truly magnificent and thank you so much for having us and being so generous with your time.

It’s such a joy to be hosted by folks so open to sharing their expertise like this. Thank you.

If you’re a budding garden designer or someone who is keen to take their creativity with plants to another level this course looks at the more advanced planting design principles of seasonality and layering.

So many of us, and our clients, want to see plenty of colour and texture year round, but how do we achieve this while also maintaining a fulsome and varied aesthetic? In this course we look at the composition of planting designs as carefully orchestrated displays of concurrent, overlapping and sequential flushes of interest and study ways in which we can use transparent drawings, seasonal calendars and quick elevations to explore, refine and present our ideas.

We also spend time understanding through practical exercises the ways in which plants can be spaced and distributed through a planting bed and through the garden as a whole to create layers of seasonal interest, capitalising on the sociability of species.

To book your place visit www.ysgd.co.uk or co tact Grania at [email protected]

We had a magical time over two days exploring and enjoying some of the hidden and not so hidden gems of the London fabric. Pocket parks, green oases, elevated verdant viaducts, lush courtyards, jungled church ruins and a very very special behind the scenes peek at this years Chelsea show gardens in the final stages of build and planting courtesy of the ever generous legends and .dunnett - thank you chaps!

We were very proud to take part in the student showcase day hosted by yesterday.

This was a brilliant day focused on giving recent graduates the chance to present a project to each other and to members of Toms team, followed by a very hearty Q&A discussion session. We were nobly represented by our very own Fran Dalziel who eloquently took us through one of her West Yorkshire projects.

It was a treat to see the excellent plant library, being cared for by The library is set to expand, showcasing an additional 500 plants. You can become a member of the Serge Hill Project which gives you access to an expanding database of cultural information about the species in the library…..at £80 a year its is superb value.

Very much looking forward to the next event at Serge - check out their website for more info and well done Fran!







After a delicious lunch

Join us in our teaching studio in Ripon for this fantastic three day in-person course specifically for garden designers looking to venture into the amazing world of SketchUp.

Resident SketchUp guru Ed Golding, landscape architect in the AWB Studio, will guide you, from scratch, through the most effective and efficient ways to use this software to create convincing and effective 3D models from your own sketch designs.

Ed uses SketchUp on a daily basis at AWB Studio and over the many years he’s been using it has built up an amazing array of hacks and shortcuts to make your model making experience smooth and enjoyable.

We’ve developed this course specifically for those who like to learn IT face to face and Have d sets a gentle but productive pace over the three days, culminating in your own model you’ll be proud of.

March 18th, 19th and 20th
£535 + VAT

Visit our short courses page at www.ysgd.co.uk for booking details.

All those completing will receive a free download of the online version of the course, worth £39.99 + VAT, to work through at their own pace in their own time.

How fabulous it was to welcome our first batch of students for 2025 in our brand new premises in Ripon. We hosted our first short course of the season - Introduction to Garden Design - in our new bespoke teaching space, set on the floor above the AWB design studio.

Today we explored the foundation principles of garden design, learning how to read a site and then set sail on the creative journey- plenty of drawing, and exploration and discussion.

Tomorrow we focus on planting design, with guest lecturer while on Thursday we delve into the heady world of creativity with hard materials.

Welcome one and all.

Visit www.ysgd.co.uk for details on all our forthcoming short courses.

Our new course Sketchup Layout Planting Plans is available to download at YSGD.co.uk. Four easy to follow videos guide you through the process of creating professional quality planting plans from scratch, with handy tools for quantifying your plants as you go and building your own digital library of plant symbols.

This is a great set of videos for any garden designer looking to take their planting design and presentation skills from the drawing board into the digital realm.

A snip at £39.99.

Join us on the 4th and 5th of March for a foray into the mind-expanding world of pure geometry and how to harness its beauty and precision when designing gardens.

After a stroll through the fascinating history of geometry from Euclid to Pythagoras, Fibonacci to Vitruvius and da Vinci, we will get stuck into a series of delightful and frankly addictive drawing exercises including mastering the golden section, Fibonacci spirals and the power of developing layouts on a geometric grid.

We will look at how pure geometry has been applied to design from the ancients though the renaissance to the present today, using simple pencil, paper, ruler and compass drawing exercises (that you will be able to explore afterwards at home) to give you a whole new catalogue of design techniques when starting out on designing a garden.

This fact-filled and practical two day course is perfect for aspiring or practicing garden designers as well as those with an interest in the history of drawing and geometry.

The course is based in our teaching studio in Ripon.

4th and 5th March
£315 + VAT
Visit www.ysgd.co.uk to book your place

We also have a voucher scheme for gifting courses - the perfect Christmas present! Visit the voucher section of the website for more details.

ITS HERE! After months of hard work (in between designing a raft of gardens) we’re proud to be offering our amazing short course SketchUp for Garden Designers as a digital download for a mere £39.99 + VAT

Our in house SketchUp guru Ed Golding has put together ten easy-to-follow tutorial videos for anyone looking to take a step into the magical world of SketchUp, arguably one of the absolute best pieces of software for garden designers.

For all you Mac users out there Ed has written a bespoke set of guidance notes for you, with screenshots and time notes to tell you exactly where in the videos you will need to perform a Mac rather than PC command - it couldn’t be easier.

Not only will you receive ten videos by Ed, each taking you through a fundamental aspect of the software with a live stream of his keyboard and mouse so you can see exactly which buttons he’s pressing, but you lucky things will also get a link to the private collection of 3D models of bespoke garden accessories we’ve created ourselves over the years, from furniture to pots to plants, none of them available in the SketchUp warehouse.

You’ll also be sent the SketchUp model that Ed is using in the videos so you can literally follow along step by step.

All that for £39.99 + VAT. We know, it’s a steal.

Head to www.ysgd.co.uk and find this amazing course at this equally amazing price in our short course menu. Enjoy

When you pay for the download and enter your email, you’ll get a link to the course videos and resources