To pick and eat fruit from your own garden is a wonderful, healthy and satisfying experience.
This course aims to expand your capacity to do just that.

"This course is for those who would love to have their own healthy crop of fruit in the back garden. The course teaches you about all aspects of growing and maintenance of a large variety of fruits, nuts and berries in the home garden."- Tracey Morris Dip.Hort., Cert.Hort., Cert III Organic Farming.

Grow fresh fruit, berries and nuts efficiently and economically. Learn how to raise soil fertility, choose the best fruits for your situation, and grow them in a way which controls pests and diseases without using dangerous chemicals. Both cool and warm climate fruits are covered, and throughout the course you are given the option to concentrate your study on the types of fruits which are of more interest to you.

There are 6 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
2. Soils, site preparation & planning.
3. General Cultural Practices
4. Tree Fruits
5. Nuts and Vines
6. Berries

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• To develop an understanding of the possibilities for growing fruit at home.
• To better manage soil for growing fruit crops.
• To manage the growth of fruiting plants in a way that will produce better fruit.
• To select and grow tree fruit plants in a home situation.
• To select and grow vines and nuts in a home situation.
• To select and grow berry fruit plants in a home situation.

• Select part of a home garden where the owner would like to grow fruit. Consider the good and bad points about the site and the suitability of different types of fruits to the situation.
• Take a sample of soil from an area you might consider growing fruit in. Using the method set out in the gardening manual provided with the course, name the soil.
• Look at the buds on the wood of three different species of fruit. Draw what you see, and label where you think the buds are fruit buds, and where you think they are vegetative buds.
• Observe the way in which fruit trees are trained or pruned in your locality.
• Visit a local hardware store, nursery or irrigation shop and look at drip and micro irrigation equipment which is for sale. Take note of the various components of these systems, how they fit together and how they work.
• Identify pests and diseases in a garden which you have visited.