Growing Food In The City

If you are concerned about where your food comes from, what’s in it (or on it), or simply getting the best nutrition possible for your family – growing your own vegetables and fruit is the answer.

In this unique and timely course you will learn essential permaculture and organic gardening techniques to

• Create and maintain healthy soil, which in turn can grow nutritious food
• Analyze and optimize the growing conditions in your garden
• Creatively collect, use and preserve water for optimal garden health
• Use holistic solutions for plant health problems (“pests” and “diseases”)
• Select, plant, maintain, harvest a large variety of food plants for year-round enjoyment
• Propagate plants
• Store your harvest
• Save your own seeds

This practical, hands-on course is open to everyone, no prior education or gardening experience required.

Students are encouraged to grow their own garden during the year, putting the newly acquired knowledge and skills to practice. Of the 20 sessions, 6 to 8 will be classroom sessions and the rest will be practical labs held in students’ gardens. The course also includes 2 field trips, and ends with a celebration and potluck event, for all to share their experiences and recipes.

There are no pre-requisites, but the Organic Master Gardener Course would be highly beneficial either before, during or after this program.

This program partially satisfies the requirements of the Diploma in Organic Land Care

Student Comment

It is the best course I have ever taken and probably one of the best things I have done in my life so far, for a number of reasons, but mostly because the knowledge we gained in the class is invaluable and cannot be bought or acquired anywhere. I thank you also for bringing a lot of energy into the class and you made it fun to be there... I think everyone should learn about organic gardening and organic living. I want other people to learn the same things I did and then educate other people as well. I think with this "snowball" effect, we might eventually have a large percentage of the population engaging in organic gardening, which would be amazing.
Erik Mraz

Payment Options

By Mail				On-line
Cheque drawn on a Canadian bank
Money order in Canadian funds

There are no pre-requisites, but the Organic Master Gardener Course would be beneficial either before, during or after this program.

Student Comment

Once again, you did it. My Paradigms have shifted. I am going to sit down and start going over your book right now. It was a pleasure and very interesting. You did a great job!
Greg Kennedy, Trail

To receive a Certificate of Completion students must attend 90% of all classes and satisfactorily complete all assignments. There are no exams in this course.

Student Comment

I have been gardening organically (meaning no restricted pesticides) for 25 years (10 years on Gabriola) and now I have the language, science and tools to confirm what I knew all along intuitively. I'm so excited to apply this course to my market garden at home and do an even better job at growing food through sustainable and ethical methods.
Tara Qua, Gabriola Island

There are no required texts, however our text "Working With Nature - Shifting Paradigms" would be highly beneficial for a deeper understanding of organic soil management concepts. The instructor will have copies for sale at the student discount price. Those who intend to take the Organic Master Gardener Course at a later date may want to hold off on purchasing that book, since it is included in the Organic Master Gardener Course fee. 

Comprehensive resources will be provided on-line, and students will have 1-year access to our on-line resource libraries, plant database, and discussion forums.

Computer access and an e-mail account are essential. All class communication are via the class discussion forum.

This is a paperless course.

There are currently no continuing education credits for this program.