Online Urban Agriculture Program | OSU Continuing Education

Have you ever wanted instant access to fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables?

Whether you call it "city gardening" or "urban farming," urban agriculture is the process of growing your own fruits and vegetables right where you live.

In this new online Urban Agriculture program, you'll receive a personalized start-to-finish roadmap for growing the crop of your choice in your unique site!

Learn Urban Farming

In this online urban agriculture series, you won't need a farm or production site to get started. You can apply directly what you learn to your own backyard or limited space area and by the end of the program, you'll have a complete set of plans to grow your own thriving crop!

We will cover the basic steps together and you can ‘rinse and repeat’ with a different crop each time you want to add something to your garden.

Avoid Common Mistakes

Rather than going it alone, you'll avoid the common mistakes and pitfalls by working directly with OSU's expert instructors. To ensure your city farm is a success, you'll learn:

Land rights
Access to water
How to handle pests
Recommended tools
What crops to grow and how much space do they need

Completing this program will leave you with the tools, knowledge and understanding needed to take on your own urban gardening project that thrives and doesn't interfere or impact your neighbors.

Past Student Success

All the lectures in this program were so informative and intriguing. Throughout the program I just kept saying, “wow that’s actually something I can do, myself.” That’s the amazing thing about urban agriculture because it doesn’t take a professional to do it. Anyone can if they have the drive to do so.

Focus on One Crop

In this program, you'll have an opportunity to focus on the crop most important to you and your urban agriculture project. Focusing on a single crop will provide plenty of work for this series. Plus, after you finish, you will be able to transfer what you learn in the process of planning this first crop to subsequent crops.

Urban Agriculture Overview

If you've ever wished your local grocery store had more variety or if you've ever wanted to turn a gardening hobby into a successful small business, or if you simply wanted the freshest fruits and vegetables, then this program is designed for you!

Here are just a few items that make this program unique:

Instructor feedback on assignments and response to questions
Timely group discussions and peer interactions
More responsive to non-traditional crop choices
Qualifies for certificate program
Smaller class size and increased feeling of community
Set schedule, guaranteed progression/completion, motivation
Increased confidence (Bylow, Karlsson, Claesson, Lepp, Lindqvist, & Herlitz, 2019)

Targeted Short Course Series

If you do not need or desire the full certificate, or only want to study certain topics, you might be interested in the on-demand Urban Agriculture courses that pull from sections of the full program:

If you'd like to see a basic orientation to the larger program and Urban Agriculture overall, you might want to check out the Free Urban Agriculture Overview Online Course.

Ecampus Undergraduate Certificate

This noncredit certificate is an accessible and flexible option for those interested in enhancing their urban agriculture skill set in an informal setting. The OSU Ecampus transcript-visible undergraduate certificate is designed to train professional urban agriculturalists through a comprehensive, rigorous curriculum based in the sciences and social justice.

Helpful Articles

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few common questions about the online Urban Agriculture Certificate. You can search or simply scroll down to find past questions.

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Asynchronous

Online

$265 (+$60 registration fee)

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Question: Are the Urban Ag lectures at specific times? Or do they simply need to be completed weekly? I work full-time and want to know how to manage coursework. Looking forward to this! ~ Holly V.

Answer: The online Urban Agriculture Certificate series is asynchronous. This means that there are no live lecture times and no specific dates or times when you need to be online. There are assignments due weekly that can be completed at any time during the week prior to their due date.

Question: I live in Washington. Is this course fully online? Is this a stand-alone program or do you need to be enrolled or completed a bachelor's program? ~ Kim T.

Answer:

The Urban Agriculture training is entirely online. You do not need to be enrolled in a Bachelor's program as this is a noncredit course, meaning you do not receive college credit upon completion.

Question: This urban and city gardening program and its duration seem perfect for the farmers I work with. Is there a scholarship available? Or is there a way that an employer can register multiple people? Thank you for your time and consideration.

Answer:

Unfortunately, we do not offer any scholarships at this time.

Each participant in the course requires their own individual registration and login. If your program is willing to pay for multiple (or even only one) student(s) to take the course then there are multiple options to choose from: is an option that we can do:

1. We could set up a partner account for your organization. We would then take your payment via a payment link for the number of seats you wish to purchase. After the payment is verified, we would send you a code that you give to the students to enter on the payment page, which would reduce their payment by the amount you specified. We suggest this method if you believe that this will be a recurring instance of paying for employees to take a course.

2. Your students may begin their registrations and then you could go to their desk to add in a credit card at the payment tab.

3. Your students may begin their registrations and at the Payments tab, select the Save for Later button. At that time you could call us and give us a list of the students and you can pay for all of the students at once via a payment link we will email you and we will apply the payment to their accounts.

4. You may send us a PO or Letter of Intent for the students and the course(s) and we would then allow the students to enroll and send an invoice to you for their registrations.

Question: Hello, I live in Southern California. Will this city agriculture certificate be applicable? ~ F. L.

Answer: Yes, our online Urban Agriculture program is applicable to anybody who lives in temperate regions. It would be less applicable to those in extreme regions, such as the poles or tropics.

Question: I'm a home gardener. Will this class be helpful to me? ~ Sophann S.

Answer: Without knowing your specific needs, the Urban Agriculture program should be helpful. You might want to start with the Free Introduction to Urban Agriculture course, which will give you a good idea of what to expect in the rest of the series. There are no prerequisites. So to register, simply go to the Free Intro to Ag course page and click the Register Now button.

Question: Are the Urban Agriculture classes set for certain times during certain days of the week? I'm wanting to sign up for the next class, but I want to make sure I'm able to still do it around my work schedule. ~ Krista S.

Answer: All of the courses in the Urban Agcitulrue Certificate program are asynchronous, which means there are no specific dates or times when you need to be online and there are no live meetings. There are assignments due weekly that can be completed at any time during the week prior to their due date.

Question: How interactive is this city farming program? Will there be access to teachers/ support? ~ Jennifer R.

Answer:

Interaction in the Urban Ag courses will take place primarily through discussion boards, where you will be able to read and reply to the instructor as well as to your fellow classmates. By doing this, you will be able to think critically about others' ideas as well as hear their feedback on yours.

Because the program is instructor-led rather than simply on-demand, you're also able to ask the instructor questions and receive direct answers and feedback from them.

Question: Does this provide a certification of completion or count towards an Agriculture degree program? Jake S.

Answer: This urban agriculture workshop DOES provide a certificate upon completion, which you can put on your resume and LinkedIn profile. However, because it's a non-credit program, it cannot count towards a Bachelors or Masters program.

Question: Do you need any previous gardening classes or credits to attend these classes? Is financial aid available? ~ Kat M.

Answer:

There are no pre-requisites for this urban agriculture program and anyone is welcome to take it. Unfortunately at this time, we do not have any financial aid available.

Question: What is the tuition for out-of-state students? And Will I receive a certificate from OSU after graduating? ~ Dante M.

Answer:

The price is the same regardless of state of residence. This urban agriculture certificate is a noncredit program, so that means there are no prerequisites and you don't need to formally apply. You will receive a Professional and Continuing Education certificate of completion upon completion of this course, which you can add to your resume or LinkedIn profile, however, you will not receive credit toward a college degree.

Question: Can I use my AmeriCorps Education Award to pay for the Certificate in Urban Ag? ~ K.H.

Answer: Yes. You can use your AmeriCorps Education Award to pay for OSU's Urban Agriculture Certificate.

... This class (appears to have) aided me in landing contract work doing environmental forest surveying and (helped me) to making it to the final stages for a role addressing food security in my area. All that is to say, thank you! This class is making a difference.

Ben P.

If an urban agricultural business is in my future, this course has me well-equipped to make informed decisions about management choices and supplied me with an extensive list of resources to take advantage of. Thank you for an awesome class!

Sally S.

I got a job teaching plant propagation and a set of plant material classes at a community college outside Asheville where I live now. It is such an extensive program for a little community college! I just finished my first term, and I really enjoyed it. I thought of you and your teaching, I really learned a lot from your being creative with online assignments and everyone still learning the material. I very much appreciate your work with me!

Suzi D.

Instructors

Gail Langellotto

Gail Langellotto is a Professor of Horticulture at Oregon State University, where she also serves as the Principle Investigator of the Garden Ecology Lab and leads the statewide Oregon State University Master Gardener program. She has a M.S. and Ph.D. in entomology, and has published research on topics as diverse as the costs of starting and maintaining a vegetable garden, pollinator-friendly gardens, and the benefits of gardening to healthy eating. Her OSU Extension Service and outreach efforts are focused on communicating research-backed management practices to home gardeners. For the online Master Gardener and urban agriculture PACE courses, she supervises overall course development, and reviews and contributes to course content.

Mykl Nelson

Mykl grew up in a military family and has traveled around the globe. He started down his agricultural path after picking the makings of a salad directly into a bowl while standing within a greenhouse in his backyard in Colorado.

Mykl came to the Pacific Northwest to enter the agricultural sector and really immerse himself in an environment of plant growth. . He spent a handful of years at Oregon State University to retrain in a new undergraduate degree so he could finish with a Master’s of Horticulture. He's worked on a handful of farms and tended ever-larger gardens, often on someone else's land. He is now creating and teaching courses at OSU as the Instructor of Urban Agriculture.

In addition to his work for OSU's certificate program in urban agriculture, he is experimenting with a system to convert food waste into insect protein. Outside the university, Mykl gardens when he can and runs a number of nutrient cycling experiments.

Past Students' Work

Take a look at some recent projects our students have created.