CSDi Training for Individuals, Communities & Nonprofits
Menu
CSDi Training for Individuals, Communities & Nonprofits
Start Vegetable Gardens for Healthy Food & Nutrition.
Perfect for individuals, families, community groups & nonprofits who want to learn how to grow vegetables
8 Weeks | Hands-On
An 8-week, self-paced, hands-on course to grow vegetables and get a kitchen garden up and running!
This course is perfect for those who want to learn how to grow nutritious, fresh vegetables with an experienced vegetable gardener.
If you’re not an experienced vegetable gardener YOU will learn how to plan a family garden and to grow vegetables.
You will learn about:
Learn by doing. This hands-on training course is for actually launching a family garden,
In 8 weeks, you will be guided by a live instructor and learn how to grow vegetables that are fresh and nutritious. All you will need is an area for a raised garden bed or even a patio to grow container vegetables.
For individuals and families:
You will receive weekly, hands-on assignments designed to get you growing vegetables in 8 weeks. Your teacher will answer your questions and offer helpful suggestions each week.
For nonprofits and community groups developing programs for vegetable gardens:
We will tailor your experience so that you will have the tools and gardening knowledge to teach these practical skills to individuals and families in your community.
Nonprofit participants have helped people in North America, Europe, Australia, and Great Britain develop programs for vegetable gardens.
Work in the Global South? If so, this sister course is a better match for you: Village Vegetable Gardens.
How to Grow Vegetables course resources include:
The instructor-led course will provide one-on-one instruction in tandem with all of the downloadable course materials listed above. Your instructor will offer professional comments and encouragement for each of your assignments.
Certificate: Upon completing the course and all 6 assignments, you will receive a PDF Certificate of Completion.
Take this course with a live teacher. You will have complete access to the downloadable course resources and lessons described below. This course is offered as a live workshop—perfect for staff or community members. Please contact us for more information.
$19.95
Instructor-Taught Online
Ideal for Community Groups and Nonprofits
8 Week Program
After enrolling, you will be sent a welcome email with login instructions.
Last Step: Your next step is to simply fill out the student information sheet to complete your registration.
NGOs: Are you with an international NGO working in the Global South? If so, this sister course is a better match for you: Village Vegetable Gardens.
“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.
See an example of Bob’s Week One Assignment.
“Thanks Tim!
I have been reading through the resources already and am looking forward to designing my garden for the spring!
Enjoy,”
Sarah Van Vliet. Canada
This course is perfect for those who want to learn how to grow vegetables for healthy food with an experienced vegetable gardener.
This course will work perfectly for individuals, families, community groups & nonprofits who want to learn vegetable gardening.
INDIVIDUALS & FAMILIES
Are you an individual or a member of a family wanting to learn how to grow vegetables for family food & nutrition?
NONPROFIT
ORGANISATIONS
Are you a nonprofit interested in launching family garden programs or community gardens?
COMMUNITY
GROUPS
Are you a member of a community group that wants to start a family or community gardening program?
LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS
Are you a local government wanting to start a family gardening program or a community garden in your town?
How to start your course? Enroll, login, scroll down and click on Welcome Students!
8 Weeks: Launch a real family garden for healthy food.
Assignment timing is flexible.
Week 1. Choosing a space grow vegetables.
Week 2. Healthy Food: Nutrition, planning your family garden and selecting vegetable seeds for vegetable meals.
Free Week. If you need to, this is a good time to catch up.
Week 3. Finding organic fertilizer for your raised garden beds.
Week 4. Preparing your raised garden beds.
Week 5. Plant vegetable seeds and also vegetable plants in your new raised garden beds.
Free Week. If you need to, this is a good time to catch up.
Week 6. Learn how to gauge sun and water.
Week 7. Practice insect vigilance-organically.
Week 8. Healthy Food: Nutrition, Meal Planning, Harvesting and Succession Planting.
I began teaching this course a dozen years ago because I wanted to share my love of vegetable gardening—and to help families be able to enjoy healthy, nutritious food. This is especially important in the developing world, and for low income and inner-city families in the developed world.
I started young. When I was 13, I got a job in a commercial greenhouse and then worked at a botanic garden during high school.
At university, when I got my first little house with a postage stamp kitchen garden, I planted my first vegetables. I’ll never forget the magic and the thrill of watching those little seeds turn into mature plants that we could use in our meals.
After University, I began vegetable gardening in earnest in my backyard when this wasn’t a common thing to do in a city! Slowly I met a few other kindred souls. We wanted to spread the word and so we launched an organization called the Tilth Urban Agricultural Center right in the middle of Seattle Washington. It’s been going strong now for 40 years and has grown tremendously—beyond our wildest dreams.
Just for Fun
When I began teaching this series of vegetable gardening courses over 12 years ago, here at the Center for Sustainable Development, I was very excited to share what I knew and my enjoyment with vegetable gardening.
So I wrote this first course description then, in 2010, which might be fun for you to scan because it tells a lot about me, about how I approach vegetable gardening, and the things that I particularly enjoy. There are photos of my garden.
It will also give you an in-depth look at the course that you are about to take. This course is designed to be fun!
Enjoy!
Sincerely, Tim Magee
Please contact us with questions.
Urban Container Vegetable Gardens
8 Week Class
Hands On
Nonprofit Community Food Gardens
8 Week Class
Hands On
Nonprofit Care of Food Gardens
8 Week Class
Hands On
Village Vegetable Gardens
8 Week Class
Hands On
Climate Smart Agricultural Program
8 Week Class
Hands On
This is course is the first part of a four-course program on planning, funding, launching, and managing a local climate action plan for your community. The course will lead you through the design and launch of a similar, real project in your local community.
In this first course, you will work hand-in-hand with community members in developing a local climate action plan.
By the end of the 8 weeks, you will have designed a plan complete with climate change solutions that will work for your community’s climate change challenges. Your plan is in preparation for the second course of the program where you will develop a full set of donor documents to present for funding.
Course Syllabus
8 Weeks: Develop a real-life, local climate action plan.
Week 1. Complete enrollment, meet your teacher, and explore the course resources. You will then have the next 3 weeks for Assignment One.
Week 2 & 3. Conduct a climate change conversation with community members to understand their needs, personal interests—and strengths!
Week 4. Clearly define your community and its overall climate challenges.
Week 5. Learn how to solve the challenge using locally-focused climate change solutions.
Week 6. Make sure your plan will work by checking that your climate solutions have success stories that show a proven track record.
Week 7. Assemble a detailed outline for a local climate action plan in preparation for a donor presentation.
Week 8. Share your project with your community and with a donor for feedback.
Where?
Types of communities that you can help prepare for their climate challenges during your participation in this course:
The importance of community members. Every community has different climate challenges: location and size make each community unique. Designing solutions to climate challenges will need to be on a very local, human scale. Top-down plans won’t work.
Consequently, the most important people in designing, launching and maintaining climate action plans are the community members themselves. They know their unique climate challenges, they know potential solutions, and they know what they want for their community. They will become the owners of the plan.
8 Weeks | Course 1 of 4 | Hands-On
This is the first course of four-courses on planning, funding, launching, and managing a climate action plan with your community.
You will work hand-in-hand with community members in developing their plan.
The program is designed to help both experienced—and novice—climate change planners implement bold climate action plans for ensuring that communities are prepared for a changing climate.
Course Objective
In designing a successful climate action plan you will:
Course Outcomes
Learn by doing. This climate change program is for actually launching a climate change action plan with a real community. In 8 weeks you will design a plan complete with solutions for your community’s climate change challenges.
This is in preparation for the second course of the program where you will develop a full set of donor documents to present for funding.
Course participants have helped communities in North America, Europe, Australia, and Great Britain be prepared for local challenges magnified by global warming:
The course will lead you through the design and launch of a similar, real project in your local community.
CSDi’s Climate Solutions Newsletter
Positive, practical news, ideas & actions to combat global warming.
Learn to design solutions for a community’s climate change challenges.
Copyright © 2008-2024, Center for Sustainable Development, Inc. All rights reserved. CSDi is a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that specializes in providing sound, evidence-based information, tools and training for climate change and sustainable development for development and nonprofit professionals worldwide. Visit our training catalogue.