A new horticultural school will help train people interested in jobs in the growing field of flowers, trees and landscape design.
Patricia Hanbidge, gardener, educator and author, developed the one and two year programs for the Saskatoon School of Horticulture.
She called horticulture an expanding field, with people spending more time beautifying their properties, creating outdoor rooms and growing their own food.
“It’s a new lifestyle,” she said. “You have an environment you can enjoy outside.”
Hanbidge, who has lived in rural and urban settings, said people everywhere are realizing how much value good landscaping adds to their properties.
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The gardening author and former editor of Gardener for the Prairies who has developed and taught horticultural programs at the University of Saskatchewan is working on a landscape project in Langham, Sask.
She said horticultural training must shift with trends, citing people’s increased demands for new cultivars and for biological controls for their pest issues.
“The education part has not kept abreast so there is a need for trained people,” she said of her reasons for launching the private vocational school that will provide training in landscaping, nurseries and greenhouses.
She hopes the program will provide more training opportunities for students who want to stay in the province.
“People go away for training and don’t come back,” said Hanbidge.
The school will offer a one year certificate or two year diploma in horticulture, with tuition ranging from $7,995 to $14,995. Textbooks are extra.
The school will include Hanbidge, her administrative partner and other instructors, offering programs in two classrooms housed within the McKay Career College in Saskatoon.
The curriculum, approved by Saskatchewan Advanced Education, Employment and Labour, will consist of five hours of instruction on weekdays over 38 weeks and a practicum of two weeks in the first year.
Year 2 includes the same amount of instruction plus a four week practicum. Field tours and class labs will also be included in both years.
Hanbidge said a dozen students have signed up for classes, expected to begin in March.
Class size will be limited to 20.
The courses will allow graduates to take on supervisory and management roles such as a landscape designer, greenhouse technician, parks and recreation supervisor and nursery and garden centre manager.
Marketing and business are components of the program that will help those wishing to create their own businesses, she said.
For more information, visit www.growyourfuture.ca.
