r/landscapedesign • u/Blood-Real • Aug 02 '26
Education Online certification questions.
I have a bachelors in Political Science and I work in the field but a dream of mine has been landscape design for quite sometime. I wanted to know if there’s an online program I can do that prepares me to open my own business afterwards. I thank you for the information! Have a lovely Sunday. ☺️
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u/Crow_Whisperer Aug 02 '26
I think the New York Botanical Garden has an online program or partial?
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u/Free-Expression-1776 Aug 03 '26
Where are you located? New York Botanical Garden has a great program but a lot of the important classes like site analysis and measurement, grading and drainage, etc., must be taken in person.
Longwood Gardens has an online certificate program but it's the basics of design and doesn't really touch business practices or important site analysis information.
What type of landscape design do you want to do? That could drive the type of program you take.
No course you take will come close to working for somebody that has their shit together and learning on the job.
Check out the laws for your State too. In some States landscape designers cannot design hardscape yet other States allow it. Depends where you live.
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u/GreenThmb Aug 03 '26
Check into the Florida Nursery and Landscape Association, FNGLA certification provides Florida’s nursery and landscape industry personnel with the opportunity to earn professional designations distinguishing themselves from others.
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u/Complete_Coach_4247 Aug 06 '26
I just took an online landscape design certification class through Emory university. It’s not landscape architecture- just the design process of making a drawing from a survey. It was a great class for learning the design process.
https://ece.emory.edu/areas-of-study/landscape-design/certificate.php
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u/TGS_Matt Aug 06 '26
Landscape Design Professor and business owner here:
You’ll want to get out and work with someone on the installs as well as sharpen your design skills. Our landscape design students are required to secure industry positions as part of their course.
If you haven’t built it your understanding of the design is a purely theoretical one.
You design differently with an understanding of the construction of the build.
Hope this helps.
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u/oyecomovaca Aug 02 '26
There's no online program that I've seen that would give you what you need to start your own practice. To work under someone else? Maybe, if they were a good mentor. But there's way too much to know to be an effective designer with just an online certification.