Inspired practical learning within beautiful surroundings

The industry is teeming with gardening courses, but all too often they are either focused on amateur gardeners or require a longer-term commitment which is not always feasible for many business owners and their staff when time constraints and staff shortages come into play.

Our practical courses are one day and focus on providing hard and fast skills to help you grow your horticultural business instantly. 

We currently run our course from two beautiful locations within Hampshire.

Practical Courses

It's always important to get a hands-on understanding of your subject and how the theory you learn applies to real-life situations. Our practical courses focus on overcoming key issues, providing you with the knowledge and skills to immediately implement your learnings.

Grow Your Business Through Planting

DATE - TBD

Location: Jermyns House, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Jermyns Lane, Romsey, SO51 0QA


This day course is perfect for those looking to grow their gardening/landscaping or maintenance business and expand the services they currently offer to generate additional revenue streams. This class-based course is held within Jermyns House at the renowned Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and includes a garden tour of this rich and diverse location full of outstanding plants and trees and deep in history. 

All course materials, lunch, refreshments and the tour of the gardens are included in the price. You can purchase this course below.

Lessons include:

  • Employee Management
  • Costing Projects
  • Client Interaction
  • Project Management
  • Understanding Volumes (tricks of the trade)
  • Business Growth and productivity
  • New Revenue streams

Practical Winter Garden Maintenance

Date: Tuesday 5th March 2024

Time: 9.00am – 4:30pm (8.30am arrival)

Location: Jermyns House, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Jermyns Lane, Romsey, SO51 0QA


A highly engaging practical day led by our experienced mentors. The Winter Garden at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens celebrates 25 years since its inception and is one the largest of its kind in Europe. This inspirational four-acre oasis delights the senses and lifts the spirit, with an impressive display of witch hazel and other winter flowering shrubs.

Immerse yourself in this beautiful winter garden working alongside the Hillier's team whilst participating in maintenance tasks appropriate to the time of year. Learn about the fascinating history of the Winter Garden and how you could implement similar planting in your wider work or business.

All course materials, lunch and refreshments are included in the price. Purchase this course below.

Lessons include:

  • Seasonal pruning
  • Plant specific pruning
  • Planting 
  • Mulching
  • Strategic annual maintenance


" We are excited to offer a venue for the Alaster Anderson Horticultural Training Academy course on Winter Garden Maintenance. A practical day to learn from experts at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens which has one of the best winter gardens in the UK.  Having been established 25 years ago with the sole purpose of enhancing the winter season, the team has honed their skills to present plants to the very best of their winter glory.  Informal overview talk plus key skills to include pruning, mulching and planting, as well as ideas and inspiration along the way.  Strategic maintenance tasks at particular times throughout the year are essential to get and retain the winter garden look."

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens Curator, David Jewell

Herbaceous Border Garden Maintenance

Date: Wednesday 20th March 2024

Time: 9.00am – 4:30pm (8.30am arrival)

Location: Jermyns House, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Jermyns Lane, Romsey, SO51 0QA


The renowned Centenary Border is one of the longest double mixed borders in the country and was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen (formerly HRH The Duchess of Cornwall) in 2013. Led by our mentors working alongside the Hilliers Garden team, attendees will participate in maintenance appropriate to the time of year. You will learn spring border preparation, plant staking and much more, including how you could include similar planting in your wider work or business. Enjoy talking with the Hillier's team and learn from their experience at this rich and diverse location with its abundance of outstanding plants and trees and deep in history. 

All course materials, lunch and refreshments are included in the price.

Lessons include:

  • Planting
  • Dividing herbaceous perennials
  • Plant staking for herbaceous perennials
  • Mulching
  • Border editing
  • Strategic management and maintenance skills

" We are excited to offer a venue for the Alaster Anderson Horticultural Training Academy course on Spring Herbaceous Border Maintenance. A practical day with Sir Harold Hillier's garden experts to include planting, dividing, staking and mulching. Whether a border is ten or 250m long; essential, timed and targeted tasks are key to success. Learning to edit, review and enhance a border which will perform for up to 8 months of the year. Informal overview talk plus key focus on the strategic management and maintenance skills in preparation for the new season at one of the largest mixed borders in the UK."

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens Curator, David Jewell

Courses Available Soon

Tree Handling & Planting - Coming soon.

Within our team, we have a great deal of expertise in installing large trees and specimens in tight urban spaces. We are currently working with our venue partners and nursery locations to create 2 practical day courses to focus on tree handling based on size.

Some of the key learnings are:  

  • Managing ground conditions ahead of installation
  • Purchasing criteria: Tree & specimen selection
  • How to offload, manoeuvre and handle large trees by hand
  •  Plant pit preparation
  • Anchoring methods
  • Irrigation & aftercare


Thank You


Irrigation: Tap-based systems - Coming soon.

Often the main reason for plant failure is due to incorrect watering, whether it be too little, too much or a lack of consistency. Tap-based irrigation systems are a cost-effective way to water newly planted areas.


Some of the key learnings are:  

  • How to design a system that will water a newly planted scheme effectively
  • Demonstrate how to install systems
  • How to identify and avoid problems that can occur
  • The essential things to know to maintain a system post-installation


Thank You

What do our practical courses cover?

Our one-day courses focus on specific skills that bring genuine value via a mixture of theory and hands-on learning.

We cover all aspects of horticulture including design techniques, planting styles and practices, plant choices and stock selection, landscaping, maintenance, soil preparation, drainage, and more.

Who would benefit from our training?

Countless videos and books explain how to prune and plant, but we cut through the clutter to focus on the tricks of the trade they simply don't have – how to use your knowledge to make a garden look really fantastic. Our courses are perfect for anyone looking to understand potential revenue opportunities and how to implement techniques to enhance their offering within the horticultural industry.

  • Professional gardeners who want to enhance their skills to create truly inspiring gardens.

  • Hard landscapers looking to develop their planting and design skills to enable them to easily implement and increase their revenue in future projects.

  • Garden designers looking to understand the technical details of planting so they can confidently talk through issues with contractors.

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire

Our primary training venue is Jermyn’s House within the expansive grounds of Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey, Hampshire. 

Situated in Ampfield, just outside Romsey, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is an arboretum covering 180 acres and accommodating over 42,000 trees and shrubs - most notably an almost unparalleled collection of oaks, camellia, magnolia and rhododendron.

These expansive gardens with an abundance of plant species and soil types provide the perfect setting for us to deliver the practical elements of our horticultural training. 

We are delighted to work in partnership with Sir Harold Hillier Gardens who offer an industry perspective on managing a large public garden and the challenges they face each season.


"Highly focused skills training is essential to build knowledge in the horticultural industry. We are delighted to work in association with the Alaster Anderson Horticultural Training Academy to offer The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens as a special venue for practical training."

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens Curator, David Jewell




Blackdown House, Hampshire

This beautiful, mature family garden is nestled in the rolling Hampshire countryside and provides a fantastic working garden environment in which to provide practical skills training.

'We are delighted to provide the venue for Alaster Anderson’s Horticultural Training Academy. Alaster and his fellow course mentors have a vast amount of horticultural experience, in a wide array of gardens. As the seasons unfold, they are brilliant at sharing their skills and knowledge in a clear and timely fashion via both their online and practical training. Thanks to these practical and entertaining courses, Alaster and his team are helping many other professional gardeners to become more skilled, productive and efficient - and, as a result, more fulfilled, too. Of course, garden owners love the results, too!'
Venue Host


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