Overview

Plant Science for Gardeners introduces the fundamentals of plant science that will help you become a better gardener. Over three weeks, you’ll explore ecological gardening principles, understand how plant structures and functions support growth, and learn how plants reproduce and can be propagated. Designed for beginners and experienced gardeners alike, this course emphasizes practical understanding over memorization, helping you make informed decisions, select the right plant varieties, and apply scientific concepts to your own garden. By the end, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to grow plants successfully, and a foundation for further learning in ecological gardening.

Syllabus

Fundamentals of ecological gardening

Welcome! We're so excited you're here and ready to discover the science behind plants and ecological gardening practices. We're going to be digging into some science in this course, but it's fun science because it's practical. You'll be able to apply it to your garden - whether you already have one or it's just in your dreams. In this first module we're going to dive right into exploring what ecological gardening means, and how its foundations in agriculture translate to our gardens. We'll explore the concepts of "organic" and "conventional" practices, and start to focus on what it takes to create a balanced and biodiverse garden ecosystem that supports healthy plants.

Plants: A close-up

This module is a crash course in plant science. Before we get into any gardening techniques we need to first understand plants and how they grow. This knowledge will help answer a lot of the questions that come up in your garden throughout the season. This module is about laying the groundwork.

Plant reproduction and propagation

In the last module, we explored the structures and processes involved in plant reproduction. In this module, we’re going to continue that exploration and move on to how gardeners use these processes to grow more plants. We'll also look at how plant breeders use natural plant reproduction processes to create new varieties (a.k.a. cultivars) so gardeners can grow plants that have better flavor, better color, more disease resistance, and so on. We’ll also look at how to grow plants from seed. Growing plants from seed is one of the most fundamental gardening practices. You'll learn about the biological processes involved, as well as techniques to encourage success. Beyond seeds, you’ll find this week that quite a few plants can also reproduce asexually, or vegetatively. You’ll discover some of those structures and processes, and explore ways that we can grow many new plants from one.