Gardening

You've just started gardening. You take on one pot or one small spot and watch how fast the soil dries and how many hours of light it gets. You begin by picking a pot with drainage holes and a potting mix, and you notice when leaves droop or change color. You can't tell one species' needs from another's yet, so you follow instructions for now.

• Can check the soil surface and below it with a finger and decide when to water
• Can measure and record how many hours of light your growing spot gets in a day
• Can photograph drooping or discolored leaves and compare the changes over time
• Can pick a pot with drainage holes and a potting mix, then plant one plant in it
• Can keep one plant alive for 4 weeks or more
• Can log watering dates and amounts for 4 weeks or more

You know that light needs, watering intervals, and drainage differ from plant to plant, and you treat each one accordingly. You check whether roots have filled the pot to time repotting, and you tell chlorosis, the yellowing of leaves, apart from pest damage. You start looking after several plants at once, but problems with more than one cause still stump you.

• Can place 3 or more species with different light needs in different spots and explain why
• Can check whether roots have filled the pot and judge when to repot
• Can choose and blend potting mixes with different drainage and water retention to suit the plant
• Can find pest traces on leaf undersides and stems and isolate the affected plant
• Can tell underwatering from overwatering by the symptoms and adjust how much you water
• Can keep 5 or more plants alive at the same time for 3 months or more
• Can spot the paling leaves of chlorosis and decide whether to feed

This is where dependence turns into autonomy. You read the sowing window and growing period for your climate zone from the plant information, set your own schedule, and take one cycle all the way from germination to harvest or flowering. You multiply plants by cuttings or division, and you shape them with pruning and supports. The records you keep through the cycle become the basis for your decisions in the next one.

• Can read the sowing window and growing period for your climate zone from the plant information and set a schedule
• Can carry one cycle from sowing to harvest or flowering on your own
• Can propagate a plant by cuttings or division and get it to root
• Can cut back leggy stems and spent flower stalks to hold shape and keep blooms coming
• Can stake climbing or tall crops so they don't fall over
• Can record sowing dates, watering, feeding, and odd symptoms through a whole cycle
• Can judge harvest timing by size, color, and firmness, then harvest
• Can trace a failed cycle back through your own records and write down 3 or more causes

Instead of fitting the plant to the spot, you change the spot to fit the plant. You measure drainage and soil pH to pick amendments, and you tune the microclimate with shade and windbreaks. For one symptom you separate disease, pests, nutrients, and environment as causes, and you set your own rule for which plants to save and which to give up on.

• Can measure drainage rate and soil pH, then decide which amendments to add and how much
• Can tune the microclimate of a growing spot with shade, windbreaks, and reflective surfaces
• Can diagnose one symptom by separating disease, pest, nutrient, and environmental causes
• Can design how water reaches a growing space, using water use as the measure
• Can look after 10 or more species with different growing needs in one space at once
• Can put protection in place ahead of periods that pass a plant's temperature limits
• Can set your own rule for telling recoverable plants from ones to discard
• Can compare a cycle's inputs against its outputs and adjust the plan for the next one

Your time scale widens from one cycle to a rotation that runs across years. You manage soil fertility with crop rotation, return organic matter as compost, and start the next cycle from seed you saved yourself. You run an integrated pest management routine, teach people who are just starting, and take charge of the schedule for a shared growing space.

• Can plan a rotation of 2 years or more that changes which crop family goes in each spot
• Can turn organic matter into compost and return it to the soil of your growing space
• Can start the next cycle from seed you saved yourself and check the germination rate
• Can run an integrated pest management routine with natural predators and physical barriers
• Can guide 3 or more first-time gardeners step by step from sowing to harvest
• Can run the cycle schedule and supplies of a shared growing space for 6 months or more
• Can separate dormancy from active growth in perennials and build a year-round care plan
• Can turn your own growing records into a procedure someone else can follow as written

Your scope moves from your own plot to the area around you. You build a planting calendar and cultivar selection criteria that reflect local climate and soil, then hand them to other growers, and you turn idle land into growing space within the scope of urban and peri-urban agriculture. You design courses and oversee management plans for public green space.

• Can build and publish a yearly planting calendar that reflects local climate and soil
• Can plan and carry out turning idle urban or peri-urban land into growing space
• Can confirm that 3 or more other growing spaces have adopted a procedure you designed
• Can design a horticulture course and teach growers at intermediate level or above
• Can collect and sort growing failures and publish them for growers in your area
• Can write and oversee a management plan for public green space or a plant collection
• Can measure how your growing method affects water, soil, and biodiversity, then propose fixes

You leave a mark on the history of gardening. Cultivars you bred or preserved keep being planted in other regions, and the growing methods you established get cited in courses and specialist literature. No qualification ladder names a step above this one, so the evidence that you got here is how long the cultivars, methods, and gardens you left behind keep going.

• Can confirm that a cultivar you bred or preserved is grown in 3 or more regions
• Can show that a growing method you established is cited in a course or specialist literature
• Can show that a garden or plant collection you created has stayed open for 10 years or more
• Can confirm that 5 or more growers you taught now run growing spaces of their own
• Can record a fading growing practice or local cultivar so later generations can reproduce it
• Can set down growing principles that hold across climates and get them used in other climate zones