Courses

Join Instructor Susan Pearson for a creative journey into making your watercolour paintings shine. While colour plays a vital role, the thoughtful use of white spaces and watercolour techniques can bring your artwork to life. In this 5-session series, you’ll learn how to plan ahead and use well-placed whites to improve your creations.  

Participants are required to bring their own supplies.

Join local artist Katharine Dickinson for an immersive online series on capturing the beauty of trees through drawing. Over four engaging sessions, you’ll refine your observational skills, explore colour matching, and uncover the unique features that define different tree species.

Learn essential drawing techniques inspired by botanical art and tree photography, simplifying concepts like foreshortening and perspective. Practical exercises will focus on textures and details, including bark, twigs, leaves, and cones, using live tree examples.

Whether you are designing a small patio space or an expansive backyard oasis, this online series will equip you with the essential basics of landscape design.  Join Janis Matson, horticulturalist and owner of Shoreline Landscape design Ltd., for this 4-part workshop series. 

Learn foundational design concepts such as landscape assessment (soil, slope, exposure, climate, drainage), and irrigation planning.  Expand your learning with the elements and principles of design which explain scale, proportion, focal points, colour, texture, line and more. 

Participants are encouraged to bring photos or sketches of your own garden or property design to share for feedback and insights from the instructor throughput the sessions.  Leave inspired and ready to create and enhance your garden space!  

When seasons change and plants lose their leaves, it may seem like a dull and sleepy time of year—but there’s so much to observe and enjoy outdoors! Join Julia Alards-Tomalin to learn why the winter season is an excellent opportunity to build your plant identification skills and sharpen your observational abilities. 

We’ll begin the class with a lecture and some interactive activities covering the basics of winter plant identification, including key traits and terminology. The second part of the workshop will be an outdoor walk, where we will explore VanDusen Garden and practice observing winter traits of trees and shrubs. 

This introductory course presented by Green Roof Infrastructure Network of BC (GRIN), provides homeowners and gardeners with basic technical know-how and practical skills to design, install and maintain green roofs.  It will focus on lightweight, low maintenance systems that are best suited for small DIY projects.  We will explore local case studies and share top tips in selecting plants, soils and accessories to create a successful green roof.

Join long-time VanDusen birding guide Jeremy Gordon just in time for the spring return of migratory birds! During this introductory-level class, he will discuss the best birding resources, such as binoculars and field guides, share tips on identifying local and migratory birds, and highlight hot birding spots around Vancouver. Following a one-hour classroom presentation, Jeremy will take you for a walk to look for some of the 106 species of birds in the Garden.

The class is designed for aspiring and beginner bird watchers to help build a foundation of knowledge and gain confidence to get out birding this spring.

Celebrate the vibrant colours of spring in this 5 -session watercolour painting series! Under the guidance of instructor Susan Pearson, you’ll explore how to mix and create the subtle hues of the season through demonstrations and hands-on exercises. From soft moss greens to vibrant blooms, discover how even the smallest adjustment in your palette can transform your colours and bring your paintings to life. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, this course offers the perfect opportunity to refine your watercolour skills.  

Dig In workshops take place outside in the Learning Garden Lab at VanDusen Botanical Garden; these beginner-friendly, monthly sessions cover a variety of seasonal topics to help build your gardening skills. 

The March Dig In workshop will explore how to prepare, sow, and plan for the early growing season, with a special focus on root crops. Learn how to set up beds for carrots, beets, radishes, and more, and how to choose varieties that suit your soil, space, and seasonal conditions for growing healthy, flavourful harvests.  

Led by Sangeeta Thomas, Learning Garden Coordinator, the workshop will include a hands‑on gardening portion, and offer tried & true techniques you can use at home. Participants will take home a small selction of seeds for their own spring plantings.

Join Neill McCallum for a workshop on the essentials and benefits of worm composting—a highly efficient method for creating vibrant, thriving gardens that outperforms traditional composting.  

Under Neill’s guidance, discover how worm composting produces nutrient-rich vermicompost using household organic waste. Learn to reduce waste, enrich soil biodiversity, and support a flourishing ecosystem through the power of microorganisms.  

Watch worms in action and gain hands-on knowledge as Neill provides a detailed, step-by-step guide to building your own affordable worm composting system. 

Have you ever wondered which invasive plants live in your neighbourhood and local parks? And what can we do about them when they creep into our yards & gardens? Join Adrian Avendaño for a walk around VanDusen Botanical Garden to learn about their impact on our environment and gain practical knowledge on how to identify, prevent, and manage them to help maintain biodiversity balance in our urban green spaces!

This workshop will take place outside in the Garden; participants should be prepared to walk for about 1.5 hours and dress appropriately for the weather. 

Enhance your drawing skills to create more realistic depictions of plants in this 3-session series, instructed by artist and educator Katharine Dickinson. Her demonstrations will guide you through exercises focused on capturing a plant’s identifying features through line, shape, structure, and form. 

Explore watercolour techniques for botanicals, including mixing and matching a plant’s natural colours and applying washes and dry brush details.