Norfolk School of Gardening horticulture course landmark

First off the blocks was the latest Introduction to Garden Design, the popular eight-week course which many people use to give them the tools and resources to redesign their own garden.

Others are professional gardeners adding to their skillset, possibly as a precursor to doing the one-year diploma and becoming fully fledged garden designers.

Either way, it is an excellent course and this term we are thrilled to welcome back our diploma graduate and Norfolk garden designer, Sam Outing, as the course tutor.

Sam Outing teaching Border Design (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) He is an inspiring teacher who took over the brilliant two-day Border Design course last year and is now taking up the reigns on this, one of our flagship courses.

We reached a bit of a milestone this week with the start of the latest Certificate in Practical Horticulture.

This ten-week course, which was designed and is accredited by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, has been a termly staple for us for five years now.

We are thrilled that this term we are running it for the twentieth time, which means that well over 200 people across the region have graduated from this course and many, many more gardens than that have benefited from their expertise.

tool store tidy up (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) It has been wonderful to see so many people add to their skills and build their confidence on this outstanding course, whether they are complete novice gardeners, seasoned amateurs or professionals wanting a qualification.

Next year’s courses are already beginning to fill so do get in touch if you are interested in finding out more about this course.

Before we could open the classroom door and the garden gate to this term’s students there was, of course, a flurry of last-minute activity.

From spring cleaning the classroom to filling the walls with inspirational images, and from sweeping down the work benches to tidying the tool shed, we have been busy making sure everything was ready for the new term.

Homemade cookies (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) There was also baking to be done.

From the start, nearly seven years ago, each of our courses has always begun with a pot of tea or fresh coffee and a plate of homemade biscuits, and this term will be no different!

These are some of the courses in the next few weeks which have spaces available.

Let us know if you’d like to join us:

· Advanced Practical Gardening – 17th September

· Plants for Free – 24th September

· Border Renovation – 1st October

· Planting for Year-Round Colour & Interest – 8th October

· Basic Bricklaying – 31st October

Rudbeckia Goldsturm (Image: Norfolk School of Gardening) Plant of the Week

Rudbeckia fulgida var.

sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ is perhaps the best-known of all the rudbeckias.

A compact, clump-forming perennial that produces a long succession of golden-yellow daisies with dark centres, flowering reliably from late August right through to October.

It is especially good in our East Anglian gardens, where dry summers are the norm, because once established it is remarkably tolerant of drought.

Give it a sunny position and reasonably well-drained soil and it will reward you with weeks of colour.

It works beautifully planted in generous drifts through a border, or combined with ornamental grasses and late salvias for a naturalistic feel.

Bees and butterflies adore it, and even after flowering the seedheads stand tall through the winter, providing food for birds and structure in the frost.

A good clump will go on for years, but if it becomes congested, it can be divided in spring to rejuvenate it and provide more plants.

It’s one of those perennials that earns its keep many times over.