Garden History

Course writer: Jillian Wallace

This course might appeal to U3A members with an interest in gardening and/or an interest in history but haven't yet linked the two together, or maybe members who have vaguely heard of the subject and would like to learn more.

The course is aimed at beginners, focuses on Britain and is arranged in chronological order. For example, Unit 1 is called 'The Romans Arrive: Gardening Begins' and Unit 7 'Gardening for All: The Victorian Era'.

The units have a simple structure with activities for the student and suggested websites to study. The early units will probably need 2/3 hours work, but later units will probably be a bit more time consuming. After all we have the recreated garden at Fishbourne Palace, and a small number of other Roman gardens to study for the first unit, but there must hundreds of surviving or restored Victorian gardens that could be investigated. Feel reassured that you'll only need to look at a smallish selection.

In addition, there is an 'Introduction' to set the scene for the course and a 'Conclusion' which, among other things, includes a quiz, so you can see how much you might, or might not, have learnt.