Certificate of Landscape Construction

Unit 1 – Tools and machinery

• Manual handling
• Materials used for constructing tools and machinery
• Ferrous and non ferrous metals
• Safety with electricity
• Engine troubleshooting
• Machine maintenance
• Types of machines
• Buying a chainsaw (safety and using)
• Brush cutters and rotary hoes
• Tool maintenance
• Workshop tools
• Garden tools and hand saws
• Snap lock tools
• Spades and shovels
• Forks and rollers
• Wheelbarrows
• Sprayers (comparing and safety tips)

Unit 2 – Landscape Plans and setting out a construction Site

• Reading landscape plans
• Surveying techniques
• Site plan
• Topographic plan
• Concept plan
• The final plan
• The planting plan
• How landscape plans are presented
• Steps in the design procedure
• Landscape graphics (scale, lettering drawings line types etc)
• How much detail in a plan?
• Surveying techniques
• What to survey
• Design key
• Slope and direct contouring
• Leveling terms
• Setting out the site for landscape construction
• Levelling procedures
• Levelling a sloping site
• Using base lines to set out a site
• Simple way to mark out circles
• Understanding and using triangulation
• Slope, contouring, grid systems

Unit 3 – Drainage in landscape construction

• Drainage in the garden
• What can cause wet areas?
• Problems with wet areas
• Symptoms of poor drainage systems
• What drainage is needed?
• Typical permeability rates
• Solving drainage problems
• Cultivation
• Mixing in soil additives
• Methods of reducing erosion to maintain a slope
• Hard and soft drainage methods
• Improving surface drainage after construction
• Drainage designs
• Draining lawns (including sports grounds)
• Springs and under-ground water courses
• What a landscaper should know about drainage
• Subsurface drainage
• Layout of drains
• Creating a soak away drain pit

Unit 4 – Earthworks

• Levelling terminology
• Slope stability
• The angle of repose of a stockpile
• ‎Soil types and foundations
• Try to maintain vegetation cover where possible
• Stockpiling, moving and biosecurity measures
• Topsoil considerations
• Developing a grading plan
• Required grading drawings
• Grading operations
• Doing the earthworks
• Earth moving machinery
• Cost of earthworks
• Earthworks calculations
• Earth forming
• Creating mounds
• Soil degradation
• Erosion
• Types and control of erosion
• Soil acidification
• Compactions
• Chemical residues

Unit 5 – Surfaces, paths, paving and turf

• Paths
• Load bearing capacity
• Shear strength of soils
• Build a solid foundation
• Paving designs
• Laying pavers
• Paving essentials
• Paving a slope
• Setting out circular paving
• Curved paving
• Concrete and asphalt surfaces
• ‎Beautifying concrete
• Laying a standard concrete path, step by step
• Laying asphalt
• Surfaces made up of loose materials
• Disadvantages of loose surfacing
• Laying pebbles and places uses pebbles
• Laying gravel hints
• Crushed roof tiles
• Maintaining loose surface materials
• Surfaces for children’s play areas
• Changing levels: step by step
• Designing steps
• Materials for treads and risers
• Railings and garden edges
• Using edging to the best effect
• Lawns and turf
• Lawn shape and design
• Selecting turf and turf varieties
• Lawn mixes
• Turf establishment
• Soil preparation
• Seeding
• Sodding/instant turf
• Other establishment methods
• Construction procedure for a playing field

Unit 6 – Construction of garden Structures I

• Garden structures; gazebos, verandahs, storage buildings, cubbies
• Where to build in the garden
• Building floors and foundations
• Retaining walls
• Stabilising the ground expansion joints
• Construction materials
• How to build a brick wall
• Using timber in the garden
• Points to consider when choosing timber
• Timber retaining walls
• Dry stone walls
• Recycled rubber walls
• Wet walls
• Concrete
• Fencing
• Fencing materials
• Supporting the fence
• Children’s play areas
• Child safety

Unit 7 – Construction of garden structures II

• Building a timber deck
• Foundations and supports
• Decking materials
• Handrails & balustrades
• Steps
• Decking around pools
• Rockeries
• How to build artificial rocks
• ‎Planting around artificial rocks
• Mulching in rockeries
• ‎pond design and pond edges
• Construction of a water garden
• How to make a water garden using a liner
• How to make a water garden using a preformed unit
• Rock edging
• Pebble or cobble edging
• Timber edging
• Paved edging
• Pumps
• Submersible pumps
• Pond filtration systems
• Water
• Filtration of water features
• Spas – installation considerations

Unit 8 – Irrigation systems

• Planning an irrigation system
• Types of systems
• Sprinkler systems
• Trickle systems
• Automatic irrigation systems
• Do-it-yourself micro-irrigation systems
• Irrigation – water saving techniques
• How to use irrigation systems
• When to water
• Rate of watering
• Length of watering
• Maintenance of watering systems

Unit 9 – Establishing hedges

• Establishing plants
• Age of plant to be established
• Type of plant to be established
• What to look for when buying a container tree
• Physical plant protection methods
• Staking
• Frost protection
• Hedges
• Plant selection
• How to plant a hedge
• Pruning a hedge
• ‎Pruning or trimming an established hedge

Unit 10 – Workplace safety and management

• Risk management on a landscape construction site
• Duty of care
• Employer duties
• Employee duties
• Manufacturer duties
• Risk assessment of a landscape construction site
• Identifying hazards and risk
• Risk to the project
• Risk to the workers
• The area(s) and people that may be at risk
• The consequences of an event happening
• The adequacy of existing controls
• A rating of the consequence, likelihood and level of risk
• Example of a risk assessment procedure
• Example of a risk assessment form
• Workplace safety
• Manual handling tasks
• Manual lifting techniques
• Using machines to do the heavy work
• Rules for using tools
• The significance of illness
• Safety with tools and equipment
• General safety rules
• Safe work management plans
• Using equipment safely