Horticulture and Sustainable Landscape Design

50+ Videos

8 ASSESSMENTS

3+ projects

LOW COST CREATION TOOLS

Platforms

PC, Mac, *Chromebook, *iPad, *Linux, *Android

Length

Semester

Certification

Course Completion Certificate

Digital Badge Credential

CoA Certificate

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high school and middle school Horticulture and SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE DESIGN

In 2025 the U.S. landscaping services market was valued at about $153.56 billion, while horticulture operations exceeded $13.8 billion. Both of these segments, like the rest of the green industry, are expected to continue growing, making them excellent career pathways for your students. Do you want an easier way to help your students gain technical skills, soft skills, workplace wisdom, and become future-proof in their career pathways?


This curriculum is easy to use and will engage your students in inventing new outdoor living spaces for a variety of clients. The projects help build a career-ready portfolio and provide real-world context to interactive tutorials, including plant science, soil science, sustainability, horticulture production, best design practices, and much more.


This media-rich, highly interactive curriculum will enable your students to learn how to invent new outdoor living spaces that are sustainable and add value to properties, while also understanding why career paths in horticulture and landscape design are so popular and fulfilling.


Every design begins as a sketch, evolves into a scale drawing, is presented to a client, and becomes a blueprint for contractors. Students will learn to transform their ideas from initial sketches to complete, implementable designs. If desired, you can use our free and optional 3D CAD tutorials to show how a sketch becomes a 3D design. You're the teacher, and it’s all up to you.


Along the way, students will learn critical STEM skills, build technical and soft skills, develop confidence, and create a college- and career-ready portfolio. Let this be an exciting introduction and a great first step towards advanced education or their career.

If you are interested in providing students with marketable skills and an education that prepares them to make a difference in the world, this is the course you have been searching for.

  • What Teachers Can Expect Their Learners to Achieve

    • Understand the landscape design process.
    • Grasp the basics of landscape design, including textures, depth, scale, color, and style.
    • Recognize what it takes to be a professional in the green industry.
    • Understand the fundamentals of scale drawing, measurements, layout, and documentation.
    • Demonstrate how to choose the correct plants to meet customer tastes and interests, aligning with sustainable design practices.
    • Learn how to calculate the cost of plants, labor, and supplies as a landscape contractor.
    • Learn how to present and sell a green design and its benefits to a potential client.
    • Understand legal issues, including intellectual property.
    • Create a career-ready portfolio of sustainable landscape designs that demonstrate an understanding of incorporating green approaches to various design challenges.
    • Demonstrate an understanding of sustainable design practices that incorporate water management, plant choice, topography, structures, and natural or existing elements.
    • Create working hand sketches, translated into detailed designs.
    • Learn how to translate hand sketches into a 3D CAD system.
    • Understand the differences between traditional landscapes and new green design concepts, including xeriscaping.
    • Apply various math concepts to support sound design decisions, including calculating area, mulch volume, watering volume, and soil augmentation and fertilization.
    • Learn how nurseries prepare plants for seasonal delivery.
    • Learn how to conduct field soil tests and identify soil characteristics including pH, N, P, K.
    • Understand plant growth characteristics and predict how the design will age over 20 years.
    • Learn basic plant identification and nomenclature.
    • Understand how plant choices, plant hardiness, and planting zones affect the long-term success of a design.
    • Optional - Understand the basics of 3D CAD design.
    • And so much more...

  • Course Specifications

    • Platforms – PC, Mac, Chromebook
    • Length – Semester or Year
    • Career Cluster – Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources 
    • Industry Certifications – CoA Certificate
    • Level – High School, Post-Secondary
    • Course Delivery – Blended Learning, Online
    • Student Competitions – Available
    • CEUs – Available for Teacher Training
    • Prerequisites for Facilitator – None
    • Prerequisites for Students – None
    • 3rd Party Tools – Free Tools Suite Included , 3D CAD Optional and Not Required

  • Is the Landscape Design Software Browser-compatible?

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • Does the Curriculum Include Sustainable Practices?

    We focus on modern, eco-friendly design, including xeriscaping, native plant integration, and sustainable water management systems.

  • What Career Outcomes Can Students Expect?

    Students graduate with a professional portfolio that qualifies them for entry-level design roles or advanced placement in collegiate horticulture programs.

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