Duration: 100 hours (study at your own pace)
COURSE AIMS
* Differentiate between different varieties of herbs in cultivation.
* Explain the general cultural practices used for the growing of herbs.
* Determine harvest and post harvest techniques for herb crops, including processing, storage and useof herbs.
* Develop a production plan for a herb crop grown for harvesting.
* Develop a production plan for a herb nursery.
* Design a herb garden for a home or public garden.
* Evaluate the production of herbs or herb products in a commercial business.
COURSE STRUCTURE
This course is divided into twelve units, each comprising of one or more lessons.
Unit 1:
1. Introduction and Herb Identification
2. Culture (Soil, mulch, planting, feeding etc)
3. Propagation (Seed, cuttings, division etc.)
4. Plant Health
Unit 2:
5. Processing And Using Herb Products
6. Harvesting and Storage
Unit 3:
7. The Mints (Mentha spp.)
8. Lavenders and Thymes
9. Other Lamiaceae Family Herbs (e.g. Sage, Balm)
Unit 4:
10. The Artemisias
11. Compositae (Asteraceae) - The Daisy Herbs
Unit 5:
12. Umbelliferae Herbs (Apiaceae) - The Parsley Family
Unit 6:
13. Onion Herbs (Liliaceae) - (e.g. Chives, Aloe vera)
14. Garlic
Unit 7:
15. Rosaceae Herbs (eg. Rose & Strawberry)
16. Miscellaneous Herbs
17. Scented Geraniums
18. Native Herbs (eg. Boronia, Tea Tree)
Unit 8:
19. Companion Planting
20. Natural Pest Control
Unit 9:
21. Designing Herb Gardens
22. Home Herb Gardens
23. Public Landscaping With Herbs
Unit 10:
24. Herb Nursery Management
Unit 11:
25. Herb Farming
Unit 12:
26. Herb Enterprises
WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS COURSE
-With illustrations and minimum comments, distinguish between major plant families which herbs
belong to.
-Compile a resource file of fifty different sources of information regarding cultivated herbs.
-Prepare an herbarium collection of one hundred different herb varieties.
-Develop guidelines for the general culture of herbs in your locality.
-Explain six different propagation methods suitable for herbs, using illustrations.
-Demonstrate how to prepare cuttings for three different herb varieties.
-Propagate three different varieties of commercially farmed herbs, using appropriate, but different propagation
techniques for each.
-Explain natural pest and disease control methods for a specified herb species.
-Explain the concept of companion planting, including three examples of proven companion planting
interrelationships.
-Write a maintenance schedule for either a herb garden, nursery or farm.
-Describe two different harvesting techniques for herbs, by outlining the steps to follow for each.
-Determine criteria which are critical to success in the process of drying herbs.
-Compare two different drying processes for herbs, with reference to: *equipment used *procedure *cost.
-Produce two marketable herb products by harvesting, and processing material from a herb plant.
-Prepare five different herbal products for home use.
-Estimate the costs associated with processing four different herbs to a marketable stage, itemising the
components of costs for each.
-Determine ten different species of herbs which have potential to be grown commercially as broad acre crops in
your locality.
-Describe the process of producing a specified commercial herb crop being grown organically.
-Describe the process of producing a commercial herb crop being grown hydroponically.
-Compare broad-acre production methods, used for three different herbs, including: *propagation
*planting *crop management *harvesting *post-harvest processing; by constructing a table or chart.
-Design a simple trial, to test the commercial potential of different varieties of a specific herb species.
-Conduct the simple trial you designed recording details of tasks undertaken.
-Analyse the results of the trial conducted to test the performance of a herb plants.
-Determine the variety with greatest commercial potential from those trialled.
-Prepare flow-sheet broad acre crop production schedules for four herbs; one each from Allium, Apiaceae,
Asteraceae, Lamiaceae groups.
-Determine minimum facilities required to produce saleable plants in a specified herb nursery.
-Prepare a potting media suitable for growing a container herb plant of a specified species, as nursery stock.
-Describe the procedures used in a commercial herb nursery, to produce plants for sale.
-Differentiate between the procedures used for production of different products in a herb nursery, including:
*Punnets of seedling herbs *Bare rooted plants *Standard container plants *Hanging baskets *Topiary.
-Grow a herb plant to a commercially acceptable standard, as a tubestock container plant, through all stages of
production, without supervision.
-Prepare production schedules for two herbs from four different minor herb groups, for a specified nursery.
-Explain the use of general landscape principles and practices in the designs of two different herb gardens.
-Determine different applications for herbs in home gardens.
-Determine applications for herbs in public landscaping, referring to both difficulties and advantages in different
situations.
-Design for a herb garden for a site of between 30 and 100 square metres surveyed by you, preparing a scale
drawing showing the placement of at least 20 different varieties of herbs.
-Explain the reasoning behind the herb garden designed.
-Determine critical factors to establishing a new herb business, in the learners locality.
-Analyse the business operations of a specified herb enterprise.
-Assess market demand for a herbal product, through a phone survey and information search.
-Compare the commercial potential of three different types of herb enterprises, in your locality.
This course is also available to be studied online...
Click here to enrol in the online course
This course is designed to develop a solid grounding in herb growing and the herb industry. Half of the course deals with general herb culture, including identification, soils, mulching, feeding, watering, propagation, pest & disease control, harvest, storage, processing, companion planting, nursery management and herb farming. The remainder of the course involves detailed studies of major groups of herbs such as: mints, thymes, lavenders, scented geraniums, garlic, roses, artemisias and parsley.
