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What? An 8-week, self-paced, urban vegetable growing challenge for you’re nonprofit to get a small demonstration garden up and running! Then teach families how they can also grow food in the cities.

Learn by doing. This hands-on training course—for both nonprofit staff & individuals—is for actually launching an inner city garden program: You will work developing a real-life project using hands-on exercises with a live instructor and learn how to teach at-risk families in your community how to grow nutritious, fresh vegetables. All they will need is a patio, a balcony, a small garden plot or a rooftop.

How? A dual approach will be used in this course:
1. If you’re not an experienced vegetable gardener YOU will learn how to plan, plant, and produce vegetables in an urban setting.
2. Each assignment will also show you how to work with your urban constituents and teach THEM how to plan, plant, and produce vegetables in their own urban setting.

Who should take this course?
1. This course is perfect for nonprofit professionals working in an inner city setting who want to develop practitioner-level skills. If you are a grant writer, nonprofit staff member, consultant, project manager—or an executive director—you will develop real skills mastery.

2. This course is just as relevant to a person considering a career transition into the nonprofit world and wanting to develop employable skills.

8 Weeks: Develop a real world project.
Week 1. Choosing a space and containers for your vegetables.
Week 2. Nutrition, planning and selecting seeds for a vegetable garden.
Week 3. What kind of soil? Where to get it?
Week 4. Prepare the soil for optimal plant growth-organically.
Week 5. Plant seeds and also seedlings in your new containers.
Week 6. Learn how to gauge sun and water.
Week 7. Practice insect vigilance-organically.
Week 8. Planning and cooking nutritious meals using your vegetables.

What Participants Say:
“Thanks Tim for the awesome set of Week One materials and links. So much to learn and apply.

Just wanted to say thanks for your highlighting our senior friendly garden a few weeks back; some early items are already poking through.

Thanks for the great work you do in supporting courses with a vision to help with nonprofit impact.” Bob Sutton, Light for Change. Canada, Guatemala, Honduras.

Reduce the impact of urban food deserts. Take this course as part of an 8 week challenge to get families growing food in the cities!

Take this course 100% online without a live teacher. You will have complete access to exactly the same downloadable course resources and lessons as in the live teacher program have—for 8 weeks. You will receive a certificate after successful completion of the assignment quizzes.

Take this course with a live teacher. You will have complete access to the downloadable course resources and lessons described below. Certificate: Turn in 8 weekly assignments to your course teacher who will answer questions and offer professional comments and encouragement.

Job Ready Skills: Learn more about this project-based, active learning program in this in-depth description and detailed syllabus.

Job-focused content includes:
8 PDF Detailed Assignments
8 PDF In-depth Discussions
8 MS Word Completed Assignment Templates for you to personalize as your own assignment for submittal.
Over 50 Word, Excel and PDF resources to download that contain learning guides, studies—and project templates for you to edit and personalize.

Real human help: The training program will be led by Tim Magee, CSDi’s Executive Director, who has over 40 years experience in urban vegetable growing. Mr. Magee is the author of A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation, A Solar Greenhouse Guide to Food Production, and is a Co-Founder of Seattle Tilth: An Urban Agricultural Center.