Full Time and then some

Funny really I thought a full time course would be just that but this Post Grad Dipl in Garden Design at Oxford College of Garden Design is a bit like being back at Graphic Design degree stage. I was the only person amongst school friends with more than about 10hrs a week in class. We had class 9-6, Mon to Fri and then of course there was homework too. OCGD is a bit like that, only 2 days a week in class but I seem to spend ALL of the rest of my time working on projects, that's a 'no weekends off' policy :).

Right now I have a set of designs, elevations, 3D model, mood boards to finish for next Friday, for this I also have to find and learn to use Transtext, a 3 x A3 page pictorial timeline (120 images and text) for Dec 10, I have to think up an essay title and write a plan for it, for Dec 15. Before the end of term we have another garden to design and hand in plans - we haven't seen it yet. Then in the 6 week xmas holidays (ho ho ho) we have approx 200 hrs of work to complete a Hard Landscape Portfolio.

Concurrently with this there are gardens to visit, seasonal images to be taken of borders and flowers/plants for the soft landscape portfolio and we need to learn Vector Works (a type of CAD). GULP

I thought it would be knowledge expanding, and it is, I didn't quite realise how time consuming it would be, nor how much planning it would require, nor how obsessive one can become about filling in background info - that would be reading the reading list books I have bought and the magazines I have subscribed to!

I am off to read the entry rules for igpoty Garden Photographer of the Year 2010, got to relax some how