Ireland's planting design guru, Jimi Blake launches two new online gardening courses with Learning with Experts

09 May 2022

Discover the secrets of innovation in planting design (including creating exotic gardens) taught by Ireland’s foremost planting design expert, and TV host, Jimi Blake

With Hampton Court and Chelsea Flower Shows just around the corner, Learning with Experts has just launched two new planting design courses taught by the exceptional plantsman and creator of Hunting Brook Gardens - Jimi Blake.

The courses are split into Spring & Summer and Summer & Autumn, and students will learn how to extend their garden season using plant colour and clever planting design, along with tips to create their own exotic garden.

Jimi’s palette of plants, never before shared in an online classroom format with feedback, is becoming a must have for horticulture and design curriculums all over the world. This course is a unique chance to learn directly from an outstanding plantsman – Jimi Blake. It’s so exciting to be able to bring Jimi’s planting style to a worldwide audience. We look for experts who really know their stuff, and who set trends in their industries and Jimi is an expert who many people in the garden design and planting industries turn to for advice. And it was a privilege to film at the magical Hunting Brook Gardens – which was recently featured on BBC Gardeners’ World

Elspeth Briscoe (CEO of Learning with Experts)

Lessons include:

Creating an exotic garden in a cold climate
Planting a sand garden (with recommended plants and a practical planting guide)
Extending the seasons through colour
Jimi’s recommended flowers and foliage
How to combine flowers and foliage
Jimi’s tips on how to plan your garden for next year

Jimi is an exceptionally skilled plantsman. Ireland has a fantastic gardening climate: mild winters and cool summers, so it is possible to mix and match an extraordinary range of flora. (Except that this is not San Francisco, every now and again there is a cold winter!) Generally a lot of Southern Hemisphere plants, New Zealand and Chilean, do incredibly well, so Jimi’s planting design ethos and plant knowledge is extremely valuable to designers and enthusiasts all over the world.During the lessons you’ll see aralias in Jimi Blake's garden – Hunting Brook, where the drive has a whole forest of A. echinocaulis, whose seed he collected in China; they cast little shade so he can grow masses of perennials beneath them. Just at the end of its season, this garden still had plenty of late colour from dahlias, salvias and lobelias, and some wonderfully frothy persicarias.

Dr Noel Kingsbury (horticulturist and writer), originally introduced Jimi to Learning with Experts.

I’m excited to be sharing my planting and plant knowledge with a global audience and I can’t wait to see how adventurous students on my course will be with their planting choices.

Jimi Blake, Learning with Experts' tutor

Each lesson has a short practical assignment, so students will produce their own planting designs as they learn. Students can choose the ‘Expert option’ for personal feedback on their planting design from Jimi.

About Jimi Blake:

Jimi Blake is a passionate plant collector and adventurous garden designer. He created and runs Hunting Brook Gardens in Ireland (as seen on Gardeners' World), and the gardens have been open to the public for 20 years.

Jimi studied at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland before becoming Head Gardener at Airfield at 21, where he restored a Victorian garden.

In 2001 created his own garden on a 20 acre estate in Wicklow, Ireland - Hunting Brook Gardens, and by 2002 the gardens were open to the public.

Jimi is known for his love of plants and passion for colour and Hunting Brook Gardens is full of surprises for visitors from sand gardens to exotic planting.

He has recently appeared on TV as host of Ireland's Garden heroes.

About Learning with Experts:

Learning with Experts is a unique, online, community education platform. It brings together the “experts’ experts” with the best in their field showcasing, interacting and leading intimate classrooms to success in fields covering Gardening, Food & Drink, Wellbeing, Photography and Art & Design.

With its wealth of tutors and exclusive offering, unlike anything available in the online learning space, Learning with Experts can give consumers access to top names such as writer, chef and food activist, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; Master Chocolatier, Paul A Young; and Garden designer Piet Oudolf; along with fully accredited courses such as RHS Level 2 and their full Garden Design Diploma.

Learning with Experts provides the chance to learn at the hands of experts within their field, without having to leave the house. Intimately sized classes of 20 ensure that learners receive individual attention and support, as well as offering a community focus, so that peers interact and share creations with one another. The course completion rate at Learning with Experts is over 80%, compared to an average completion rate of online courses of just 20%.

Further information: press@learningwithexperts.com