Landscape
DesignWith Woody Plants
Cornell Certificate Program

Great planting design succeeds or fails in the real world based on what you cannot see at first glance: soil limitations, microclimates created by buildings and pavement, and whether plants were specified, installed, and documented correctly. Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate helps you make those decisions with confidence by training you to identify woody plants, assess soil and site constraints, remediate problem soils, and communicate a buildable planting plan.

Across this certificate program, authored by faculty from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, you will practice the same core workflow used in professional landscape work, from describing plant traits with accurate terminology and using identification keys, to interpreting soil tests and measuring drainage and compaction, to selecting plants that match site conditions and stakeholder goals. Along the way, you will build practical deliverables such as herbarium-style specimen documentation, plant selection rationales, planting schedules, and a complete planting plan that can be understood by an installation team.

If you want stronger plant identification skills, more reliable site- and soil-based plant selection, and the ability to produce clear, installable planting plans, you should choose Cornell's Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate.

Many online landscape and gardening courses focus on inspiration or isolated topics. Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate is built as a skill-building pathway that repeatedly asks you to analyze a site, make defensible plant choices, and document decisions in the same formats used in practice.

You learn in an intimate, cohort-based environment with expert facilitation, which means you are not just watching videos and grading yourself. Expect structured discussions, guided practice, and individualized feedback on your work as you apply methods like dichotomous keying, soil testing interpretation, soil volume calculations, and planting schedule documentation.

The curriculum is also grounded in Cornell expertise and research-based practice. You will work with tools and standards that show up in real projects, including botanical naming conventions, soil testing and field measures (pH, percolation, compaction), engineered soil concepts such as CU-Structural Soil™, and plant specification conventions like ANSI size standards and production method considerations. That blend of practical deliverables, expert feedback, and Cornell-designed content is what makes Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate a premium online learning experience for people who want results they can use.

This certificate is designed for people who need to make better planting decisions in human-impacted landscapes, whether you design professionally or manage landscapes hands-on. Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate is a strong fit if you are:

• A landscape architect or designer who wants a more rigorous plant, soil, and documentation workflow
• A nursery or landscape manager responsible for plant selection, procurement, and installation success
• A city planner, forester, or arborist working in constrained urban sites affected by infrastructure, compaction, and microclimates
• An AEC professional, developer, or site planner who needs to evaluate planting feasibility and communicate requirements clearly
• An entrepreneur, homeowner, or serious gardener who wants a structured, evidence-based approach to plant identification and planting design

You do not need to be a botanist to start, but you should be ready to use technical plant terminology, practice careful observation, and do light field-style calculations (for example, interpreting pH results or estimating drainage rates) that support better decisions in the field.

Across Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate, you complete multi-part, applied projects that mirror real landscape workflow, from plant identification through a finished planting plan. Examples of the kinds of deliverables you will produce include:

• A set of accurate plant descriptions using botanical terminology, supported by observational drawings and a concise dichotomous key that can identify unknown plant samples
• A site-and-soil analysis package that translates soil chemistry (including pH), physical properties (such as texture, drainage, and compaction), and built-environment constraints (sun, shade, structures, utilities) into plant choice implications
• A soil modification proposal that includes soil volume calculations, a plan for amendments or remediation, and an evaluation of when an engineered solution such as CU-Structural Soil™ could be appropriate in constrained sites
• A plant selection and specification package that justifies choices for a site, incorporates nursery production method considerations, and results in a usable planting schedule aligned with common size and specification conventions
• A complete planting plan for a defined site scenario, including a written concept, massing and spacing decisions, plan and section thinking, and documentation an installation team can follow

Throughout the program, you also use discussions and practice exercises to test decisions against real constraints, learn from peer approaches, and refine how you explain your recommendations to stakeholders.

Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate helps you become the person who can defend plant and soil decisions with evidence and communicate them clearly to clients, reviewers, and installation teams.

After completing the Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate, you will have the skills to:

• Evaluate the soil in a given location to determine which plants it will support
• Identify common landscape plants using the framework of a dichotomous key
• Specify plants to use for a particular site
• Read a landscape planting plan and design a new plan for a given site when the site parameters are specified
• Modify a soil’s physical or chemical properties to improve plant survival
• Design a complete planting plan for a location, taking into account all relevant information including soil properties and human-made artifacts

Students commonly report long-term benefits that center on confidence and practical capability. In survey feedback, learners emphasize field-ready plant identification, stronger decision making about plant selection based on real site conditions, and a clear progression from foundational knowledge to producing thoughtful, client-ready landscape solutions through applied projects. They also point to the value of rigorous, well-organized modules; detailed, constructive facilitator feedback; and takeaway references they continue using after the program, which supports better performance on real projects even while balancing full-time schedules.

What truly sets eCornell apart is how our programs unlock genuine career transformation. Learners earn promotions to senior positions, enjoy meaningful salary growth, build valuable professional networks, and navigate successful career transitions.

Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate, which consists of 5 short courses, is designed to be completed in 3 months. Each course in this certificate runs for 2 weeks, with a typical weekly time commitment of 3 to 5 hours.

Designed for busy professionals, most of the work is asynchronous so you can log in when it works for you while still benefiting from a facilitated experience that includes structured discussions, project feedback, and occasional live interaction opportunities that help you apply what you learn to your specific context.

Students in Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate consistently describe a hands-on, professionally oriented learning experience that builds real confidence and practical capability, even for busy adults balancing work and family. They highlight how the program takes them from foundational plant knowledge to producing thoughtful, client-ready landscape solutions through a clear progression of skills and projects.

What students most often emphasize includes:

• Practical plant identification skills they can use immediately in the field
• Strong plant selection decision making based on real site conditions
• Clear progression from plant ID to complete planting plans and design thinking
• Applied work like botanical drawing, herbaria, and research-driven plant palettes
• Soil and site assessment techniques that improve planting success
• Exposure to professional standards and resources used in landscape practice
• Challenging, design-focused projects that feel directly tied to real work

Beyond the content, students frequently point to the learning experience itself as a key differentiator:

• Expert content from Cornell faculty and subject matter specialists
• Highly engaged facilitators who provide detailed, constructive feedback
• A robust mix of videos, readings, quizzes, discussions, and live sessions
• Well-organized modules that keep learning on track without feeling like filler
• Flexible online format that fits full-time schedules while maintaining rigor
• Takeaway resources and references they continue to use after the course ends

Overall, students say Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate delivers a rigorous, well-structured pathway to building credible landscape design skills, with frequent opportunities to practice, get feedback, and apply what they learn to professional and personal projects.

You build practical capability by doing the work, not just reading about it. In Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate, you repeatedly practice observation, measurement, and documentation skills that translate directly to field and project settings. Expect hands-on, applied activities such as:

• Describing plant traits with correct terminology and translating those observations into drawings that highlight diagnostic features
• Using and creating dichotomous keys to identify unknown plants
• Interpreting soil tests and using field-style methods to evaluate pH, drainage, texture, and compaction
• Developing plant palettes and specifications that match site constraints and stakeholder goals
• Producing a planting plan and schedule that communicate clearly to an installation team

The online format gives you flexibility, while the facilitated structure keeps you accountable through graded project submissions and feedback that helps you improve your work from one deliverable to the next.

The methods you learn are designed to travel well. Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate teaches a decision-making process for identifying plants and matching them to site conditions, so you can apply the same workflow in different regions.

Some of the plant examples used in exercises are drawn from the U.S. Northeast, but the program repeatedly reinforces that what is considered native, invasive, or appropriate varies by location. You will practice using scientific naming conventions to reduce confusion across regions, and you will be prompted to consult local guidance and reliable plant information sources when you make recommendations.

By the end, you should be able to take a local site, measure or interpret its constraints (soil chemistry, drainage, compaction, sun and shade, nearby infrastructure), and build a planting plan using species that are appropriate for your region and project goals.

You will work with practical tools that help you go from observation to defensible decisions and clear documentation in Cornell’s Landscape Design With Woody Plants Certificate.

Key techniques and resources you will practice include:

• Botanical terminology for describing plant traits, plus botanical illustration to sharpen observation
• Dichotomous keying and botanical Latin naming conventions for accurate identification and communication
• Soil and site assessment methods, including interpreting soil test reports and using field approaches to evaluate pH, percolation and drainage, texture, and compaction
• Soil volume estimation concepts and strategies for improving or replacing poor soils, including when engineered approaches such as CU-Structural Soil™ may be useful under pavements
• Plant specification conventions, including evaluating nursery production methods and applying common size specification guidance such as ANSI Z60.1 when building planting schedules
• Design documentation fundamentals, including scale-based layout, plan and section thinking, and spacing and sizing decisions that translate into a complete planting plan

These tools are taught in a way that keeps the focus on application, so you can use them in professional practice or on complex residential projects.