OCGD TV Gardens Scoop!

An astonishing THREE of the twelve UK gardens selected for a new tv programme on the very best gardens in Britain have links with the Oxford College of Garden Design (www.ocgd.org).

They are, not surprisingly, Greystone; the two-acre stunning woodland Oxfordshire garden of Duncan Heather, designer, founder and principal of OCGD and his wife, the talented plantswoman, Carol, and the gardens of former OCGD graduates, Julia Kirkham and Kathy Brown.

The programme, Own Britain’s Best Gardens, is a Thames TalkBack TV production for Channel 5 and will be aired later this year (watch the site for details of when).
The presenter is the flamboyant Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen who has spent the last month visiting the gardens and, together with a panel of top judges, quizzing their creators on what makes these gardens so special.

If the tv producers are right, and 25% of the gardens chosen to represent the best in Britain have been designed by OCGD tutors or students, then what does that say about the course?

It says this really is one of the most prestigious garden design courses in the world (never mind the UK) and if you still need convincing, read on.

Class Of 2007/2008….Where Are They Now?

It’s less than a month since the OCGD post-grad intake of 2007/2008 wowed the industry with their end-of-term Student Exhibition and while the course is structured so that students complete a summer planting portfolio and so do not graduate before the Autumn, many of them are already launched and working on impressive projects.

For example, Susan Clark, (www.thegardenagency.uk.com) a journalist who decided to take to the OCGD course so she could write more knowledgeably on garden design, has been commissioned by the top UK film director Gurinder Chadha, (Bend It Like Beckham…and her new film is the quirky teen smash Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging) to design the outdoor space at her new Primrose Hill family home, including a large roof terrace, Japanese-style adult courtyard and kids’ play garden and Christopher James, a fellow Class of 2007/2008 student, has been snapped up by another former OCGD London designer and success story, Charlotte Rowe.

And as if that wasn’t glamorous enough, half-way through the course, student-turned-presenter, Shatsi Sabri, landed her own tv garden series fronting a garden show for a Pakistani production company which has just been commissioned for a second series.

For more updates on Where Are They Now? for the Class of 2007/2008 and previous years, check in on the website where we’ll be posting interviews with OCGD students who have successfully launched design careers and for an insight into why they are so successful, register for update alerts for Duncan Heather’s new monthly blog.

Oxford College of Garden Design graduate gets Student of the year 2006

Catherine MacDonald, who has just completed the OCGD’s Postgraduate Diploma level course has been named ‘Student of the Year 2006’ by the Society of Garden Designers (SGD). She won the title - in joint first place with Kate Poore – in a competition which attracted dozens of entries from recently qualified trainees from 17 colleges and universities around the UK.

Catherine came from a Science background and had done no other formal training in horticulture, gardening or garden design. Her achievement is well deserved and is testament to her hard work, commitment and to the quality of training at the Oxford College of Garden Design.

www.sgd.org.uk/mainpages/student_of_the_year.htm

Why is CAD (Computer Aided Design) so Important?

Working for architects is one of the biggest sources of work, for newly qualified garden designers. Local planning authorities require more and more landscape detailing when architect submit planning applications. And many clients who have building work done will also need the services of a garden design.

Most architectural firms work in CAD and if you wish to get work from them they will expect you to be proficient in it as well. CAD is used by all the professions in the building industry. Surveyors supply site surveys on CAD and engineers need your drawings in CAD in order to calculate quantities and costs. We still teach you to produce hand drawn drawings for your clients, but if you want a job as a design assistant or wish to work for other professionals you need to know CAD.

So you think you want to be a Garden Designer?

Always dreamed of becoming a garden designer, but not sure if you have the right skills? Why not try our 4 Day Intro Courses

This introduction to garden design is a fantastic ‘taster’ course for those wishing to test the water before committing themselves to our one year postgraduate level course. If students have no previous design training we recommend you take this class so that the tutors can appraise your abilities and you can take away the design exercises to practise over the summer.