Growing Food

Since 2003, Gaia College has been offering holistic horticulture education to students all over the world. Our courses integrate essential knowledge of ecology, permaculture and organic gardening to build a solid ecological foundation for your career and/or personal life.

Course Overview

Overview

If you are concerned about where your food comes from, what’s in it (or on it), or simply getting the best nutrition possible, growing an abundance of healthy, nutritious and delicious fruits and vegetables is the way to go.

Growing Food Final

In this comprehensive course you will learn essential applied permaculture and organic gardening techniques to:

Analyze and optimize the growing conditions in your garden, no matter the size, including container gardens
Creatively collect, use and preserve water for optimal garden health
Use holistic solutions for plants health problems ("pests" and "diseases")
Select, plant, maintain and harvest a large variety of food plants for year-round enjoyment 
Also included: how to propagate plants; save your own seeds; and store your harvest.

This online course engages students with practical and hands-on projects, and is guided by experienced professional organic gardeners.

No prior education or gardening experience required, but the Organic Master Gardener Online Course / Organic Horticulture Specialist Online Course would be highly beneficial either before, during or after this program.

Outline

Please read the course outline here: Growing Food Course Outline.

Time Expectations

Students can expect to dedicate 6-10 hours per week to successfully complete this course.

As well, our courses are offered in the continuing education realm and are designed so students can complete them according to their own schedule. The work is divided up into 14 weekly topics and students are expected to complete their assigned work and quizzes by the given deadlines.

Our courses do not use online meetings, so we are not using Google Meet, Zoom or other online meeting applications.

If you have any questions about studying online with Gaia College please see our FAQs page

Prerequisites

There are no academic prerequisites for this course, however students must

be proficient in English (written)
be comfortable with current computer and internet technology, including spreadsheets and word processing programs
have an email account capable of receiving a large number of messages for the duration of the course
have access to high-speed internet
have access to a computer capable of running a current version of FireFox or Chrome. Tablets and phones are not supported at this time.

It would be also very beneficial to the student to pursue the Organic Master Gardener Online Course / Organic Horticulture Specialist Online Course, either before, during or after this program.

Evaluations

There are no formal exams in this course, as the emphasis is on developing practical skills and the ability to synthesize information.

To receive a Certificate of Completion students must contribute to all on-line discussions and satisfactorily complete all assignments and quizzes.

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

Credits

This program is eligible for Continuing Education Credits (CECs) with the following:

Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA)
Pre-approved: 24 Credits

National Association of Landcare Professionals - American (NALP)
Pre-approved: 24 Credits

Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc. (MGOI)
Pre-approved: 24 Credits

Canadian Society for Organic Urban Land Care (SOUL)
Pre-approved: 6 Credits

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA)
Pre-approved: 4 Credits

Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC)
Pre-approved: 42 Non-core LUs

This course partially satisfies the requirements of:

Gaia College: Elective course for Diploma in Organic Land Care
CLD designation offered through CNLA. Successful completion of the course may be used toward the achievement of the requirements for the Education component of the recertification process.