What makes a good landscape designer? A flair for design, a scientific understanding of plants and their needs and the ability to get on with people. So says Karen Foley, UCD's director of landscape design.
"You're designing for people - whether it's private clients or community groups," she explains. "You have to be sensitive to people's wishes - especially when you're dealing with public open space." Foley describes landscape horticulture as the use of plants to enhance the environment. Employment prospects for graduates are excellent. "It's an expanding area, people are becoming more visually aware. Lifestyle TV and the media are fuelling an appreciation of higher standards in the external environment. It's a career for creative people who like the outdoors."
If you have your heart set on a degree in horticulture, remember that the UCD programme is offered in the faculty of agriculture. If you want to do amenity horticulture at UCD, you have to apply for agriculture through the CAO. After a common first year with up to 200 students, you then opt for landscape horticulture.
"Most of our students come from urban backgrounds and most of the jobs available are in urban areas," says Foley. Typically, five to 15 students embark on the programme every year. In second year, while some subjects retain their agricultural roots - agribusiness, agricultural chemistry and agricultural and environmental biology for example - students also study landscape design and its history. Students are introduced to the design studio and learn presentation skills.
Clay modelling is part of the process. Year three of the programme includes a sixth months' work placement abroad. Many students travel to Germany and the Netherlands, but others go as far afield as the United States and Japan, she says. In fourth year, the course takes on a greater professional emphasis and includes landscape and turf-grass management, environmental impact assessment and professional practice and planning law. "Students could be working on real projects out in the community," she says.
According to Foley, one third of graduates are employed by local authorities in parks departments, another third go into private practice or become self-employed, while the rest go into a range of areas including golf course design or garden restoration. "Because of the EU funding available for the restoration of old gardens, many larger estates are employing graduates to work on their gardens."
Some graduates go to work for garden centres, others take up horticultural therapy - teaching gardening skills to the disadvantaged or physically disabled, for example. A small number go into postgraduate studies. The course attracts a high number of mature applicants. In some years as many as one quarter of students are mature. Teagasc's three-year diploma programme in amenity horticulture attracts a wide range of students, says Dr Paul Cusack, principal of the Teagasc College of Amenity Horticulture at the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin. While some students are school-leavers, the average age is around 23 years. Some participants are making career changes, others are working in the area but want formal qualifications.
The Botanic Gardens apart, the Teagasc course is offered in three other locations - Kildalton Agricultural College, Piltown, Co Kilkenny, Warrenstown Agricultural College, Drumree, Co Meath and An Grianan Horticultural College, Termonfeckin, Co Louth.
There is a central applications' procedure for these four courses and candidates list colleges in order of preference. Although Leaving Cert is not a requirement for the 1999 entry, it will become so in the year 2000. Entry to the course is currently by aptitude test and/or interview. "We're looking for people with ability, interest and who are likely to make a career in the area," says Cusack.
The course is "extremely hands-on," he stresses. Work can be physically demanding and outdoors in inclement weather. People need to be realistic, he warns. Students can look forward to one-year placements - some abroad but mostly in Dublin's parks. The programme enjoys a high employment rate.
