From David Terry MHort(RHS):

From a current member studying for the RHS Advanced

It was most encouraging for us to hear from a recent winner of the Royal Horticultural Society, RHS General Certificate Centenary Prize who is currently studying with us for her RHS Advanced Certificate. She was kind enough to give her course assessment in her mid-course study review:

Denise writes from Cheshire: "Thank you for your recent letter complimenting my coursework and high marks. It was a much needed and timely morale boost as I'd just finished my latest assignment and as ever, wondering if I'd got it completely wrong. Despite the waivering I'm enjoying the course tremendously, and in danger of becoming a 'gardening bore'".

Audrey W. from Co Kildare, who was successful earlier in her RHS Advanced Certificate, very kindly sent me a packet of mixed Irish wild flower seeds. I sowed these on the 28th July 2003. They were up in no time and the clarkia in the mixture started flowering in September. It was a very generous idea - so now I do have a 'wee bit O'Ireland' in our garden. (I do have a puzzle though - Clarkia? - I see in our copy of Alien Plants of the British Isles that this Clarkia unguiculata has been recorded in up to 49 localities - as a casual garden escape. It is a native of Western N. America).

Mrs A from Wiltshire who studied our RHS Green programme has written: "I have enjoyed the course immensely and feel that I have learned huge amounts. To receive the book and certificates for my coursework was a real bonus. I decided to do the course as I was becoming increasingly interested in horticulture but felt that I knew very little. I have certainly increased my knowledge and now have all my coursework assignments to keep as good reference material. The encouraging comments and enthusiasm from Bob, my tutor, have been invaluable as I have progressed through the various sections"

Our membership of the Copyright Licensing Agency has led me to think of our other memberships which include:
The Institute of Horticulture
The Royal Horticultural Society
The Herb Society
The Society of Garden Designers
The Wiltshire Gardens Trust (Honorary membership for 2003-4)
Friends of Kew
National Trust for Scotland
Open and Distance Learning Quality Council
International Accreditation and Recognition Council

Staffing Beckie has had her baby and all is well. Alfie started life at 8lb 5oz. Dad (Terry) is a huge chap so I suspect Alfie will be quite a weight to carry around.

Julian A has achieved the RHS Advanced Practical Exam Pass with Commendation.

We have had some school holiday help from Gemma - a pupil of the John Bentley School in Calne and a great credit to them.

Equipment We have just invested in an additional colour/black and white copier (Afficio 1232C) with a 20GB hard drive - it will, I hope, be a success. Its virtue is to print colour and or black and white, double sided, collated and sorted at a useful speed and yet have a copy cost within the bounds of normality. Hitherto we have tended to use colour at the end of the lessons for courses that require colour. So it will be new editions that may benefit. I have also invested in a digital camera (a Kyocera Finecam L4V). So far the results are encouraging but it takes time to create a page with our illustrations on it.

Elizabeth from Scotland has written to say that her Conservation Studies course helped her to get a job at a World Heritage site and her just completed course on Herbs has led to a request from the local church to help with the creation of a sensory garden.

David H has written to report on the success of their project to brighten the Fire Station at Bognor Regis. He and members of Blue Watch had been responsible for the fine show which enabled their Fire Station to win in the categories: Best Commercial Window Boxes/Tubs/Hanging Baskets and Best Shop Frontage/Commercial Site.

David writes: "The College and Mr O'Grady were of great assistance to me in achieving our horticultural success".

Via Keith Hix, her tutor, we hear of Gillian's flight over Mount Everest on her trip to Nepal - the whole visit had been memorable but especially the clear view of the mountain. One of our high flyers I hear you say - well I hope so.

Copyright - we have extended our copyright licensing agreement to include the use of digital images. While hitherto we have not made much use of 'borrowed text' for our lessons, it has been useful when answering questions raised by our members. We are not often stuck but I have still to resolve a query raised by a member concerning the ornamental bamboo rods sold by florists as a sundry item - a bunch of stems growing in water. As yet I do not know the name of the bamboo in question.

Our e-learning programme The objective has been much harder to achieve than Kay or I ever imagined. We are endeavouring - with the help of Lawrence - to put the RHS General (Green) course we offer on to the market as a CD. This will have secure password access. It is prepared now to Lesson 5 of the 10 lessons and progress is speeding up - so we should have our e-package up and running by Easter 2004 - well only a year late! It is possible to enrol on-line.

A Sunday Times table recently ranked teaching at the OU as fifth best in the UK, better than Oxford or UCL. The rankings are based on QAA judgements, and show once again that distance learning is far from being the poor relation of traditional methods.