Science of Gardening
UndergraduateTAS-KPZ0012025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
An exploration of plants in your garden. You’ll learn about soils, plant growth, and propagation. Find out how to identify plants. Do some plant myth busting and apply the scientific method.
Enrol today with instant approval and no entry requirements
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 15 June 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Price from
- $4,354
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Science of Gardening
About this subject
Upon successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Apply the scientific method to investigate gardening problems involving soil and plant health.
- Discuss how plant growth and development responds to environmental conditions
- Identify unknown plants through key characteristics
- Test, classify and adjust soil characteristics
- Identify the roles of different methods of plant propagation
- Module 1: How to identify plants
- Module 2: How do plants grow?
- Module 3: What do plants need from the soil?
- Module 4: How do plants know when to grow?
- Module 5: Shaping the way plants grow
- Module 6: How do we multiply plants?
In this subject, we are going to explore the science underlying what you do in your garden, why your plants respond to your gardening, and how plants grow and reproduce. What we hope that you will gain, is a much clearer understanding of the fundamentals:
- how to identify plants - what the critical features are that enable you to recognise some of the more common plant families
- how plants grow - the relationship between the internal structure of plants and their use of water and light to grow
- what plants need from the soil – what are the properties of soil and its inhabitants that contribute to healthy growth of plants?
- how plants know when to grow – what are the signals that tell the plants when to germinate, when to flower, when to burst leaf buds and when to shed their leaves?
- how plants know ‘how’ to grow – what are the underlying controls that shape plants? How do plants respond to pruning, to espaliering, to cutting back and deadheading? and lastly
- how do we multiply plants – how does vegetative propagation work? How does grafting work? What are the differences between heirloom varieties and F1 seed? Why do some apple varieties need cross-pollination but others don’t, and why don’t fruit trees breed true from seed? And perhaps even more importantly, we hope that you will gain an appreciation of the role of science in testing gardening lore, to dispel myths, and to learn more about the plants that make our lives possible and more enjoyable.
Science of Gardening is for anyone seeking to cultivate not only plants but also a greener future, by integrating sustainable practices into their gardening.
- Online Quizzes x 6 (30%)
- Assignment - Soil Texture and Soil pH Analysis (20%)
- Assignment: Experimental Design (35%)
- Assignment - Nutrient Deficiency Determination (15%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Additional requirements
- Other requirements - Teaching Arrangement: Delivered online during 12 weeks. There is a release of content (Module) every fortnight on MyLO.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
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