​ Discover new skills with the pick of the crop of gardening courses

Here are just some of the courses you could be joining online.

Design your own garden (Inchbald School of Design)

Apr 29-Jul 29 or Sep 9-Dec 9 (13-week online course, teaching ratio 8:1)

Cost: £1,260

This course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn the skills needed to design their own garden or outdoor living space. During the 13-week part-time online course (four hours per week), you will learn how to transform a visual brief into a usable garden design and create a workable scale drawing. Pupils will learn how to consider the garden’s attributes, working with hard and soft landscaping, creating a master plan with a mood board and plant list.

Container gardening (Learning with experts)

Any time: Course takes around 14 hours 20 minutes to complete

Cost: Expert option – £125

RHS Gold Medal winner and expert plantsman Chris Beardshaw reveals the secrets of container gardening, planters and gardening from pots in this online course. Over four lessons, he discusses the range of containers which can be used stylistically, plants which best suit containers, composts, fertilisers and pests and disease control. You’ll be creating your own container garden throughout the course, and be able to ask Beardshaw for feedback on your planter and pot designs and project.

Gardening for wildlife (Learning with experts)

Any time: Course takes around 14 hours to complete

Cost: Expert option – £125

Anyone who wants to turn their garden into a haven for wildlife should welcome this online course with help from expert plantsman and Chelsea Gold medal-winner Andy McIndoe, who will go through the plants that attract bees, butterflies, birds and other wildlife into the garden. It doesn’t matter whether you live in the town or the country, there will be something for you. And it doesn’t mean that you have to have a wilderness, he stresses. You can have a garden you enjoy which can also be a magnet for wildlife. The course suggests what to plant, from trees, annuals and perennials to shrubs and grasses, suitable habitats and places to breed.