Gain the skills and confidence to grow your own food in the city!
Homestead T.O.’s Grow Veggies program offers a supportive, hands-on way to learn how to grow vegetables in the city. You’ll learn what plants need to grow, how to plan and plant an organic vegetable garden, and how to deal with challenges encountered by gardeners, including weather, weeds, pests, and diseases.
Join us at our teaching garden in Toronto’s Downsview Park for a full season of practical experience, a share of the harvest, and a rewarding connection to food and community!
Why Join Our Grow Veggies Program?
🌱 Full Season Program: You’ll gain practical experience across the full growing season, from planning, planting, and harvesting.
👩🏻🌾 Connect With Nature and Food: Get your hands in the soil, learn how food grows, and build food security in the city.
📚 Gain Knowledge: Learn organic gardening methods and get advice for your home garden from an experienced urban farmer.
🥕 Shared Harvest & Community: Connect with fellow gardeners and bring home a share of the harvest from the food we grow together while having fun in the process.
Program Details
Dates and Times
- Once a week for a full growing season. Choose between:
- Tuesdays at 6pm from March 17 to October 6
- Thursdays at 6pm from March 19 to October 8
- Saturdays at 10am from March 21 to October 10
- Classes start on Zoom while the weather’s chilly and move to in-person sessions at our urban farm once it warms up (typically mid-April).
- The online sessions run for 2.5 hours. The in-person sessions run until sunset on Tuesdays and Thursdays (end time varies based on time of year) and until 12:30pm on Saturdays.
- Classes happen rain or shine, but may be cancelled if there is a high risk of lightning or heavy rain.
Location
- Our urban farm is located in Toronto’s Downsview Park (the closest intersection is Keele and Downsview Park Blvd: click here for a map). There is free parking on-site, and the farm is TTC accessible.
Cost
- $480 + HST.
- This includes 30 weeks of program instruction, digital textbook and other resources, a share of the harvest (amongst those in attendance), and everything we’ll need to grow vegetables together.
- It also includes plenty of opportunities to ask questions during our online and in-person sessions, and in our private Facebook group for Grow Veggies students and graduates.
What You’ll Learn
Our curriculum is structured around the growing season, ensuring you learn the right things at the right time through hands-on learning and workshops. Key topics include:
🗒️ Garden Planning: how plants grow, improving your soil, seed starting, creating a fulsome garden plan
Planting: caring for seedlings, when to plant, building garden beds, direct seeding and transplanting
🪲 Garden Maintenance: when to harvest, pest prevention, weed control, mid-season fertilization, identifying plant diseases and nutrient deficiencies
🍂 End-of-Season: seed saving, cover crops, season extension, preparing your garden for the winter
Program Registration
Click the link below to register for our 2026 Grow Veggies Program!
From Our Participants
“I have wanted to grow vegetables for a while and the HomesteadTO program was a perfect way to get started. The information Derek and Vinyse provided as well as the hands on experience planning, growing and harvesting vegetables at the class plot gave me the confidence to try it at home. I am looking forward to next season to put everything I learned this year into practice.”
~ Liz Kim
“The Grow Veggies program has transformed my garden AND my recipes. Derek and Vinyse have a gift for creating a warm and welcoming learning environment that is truly admirable. Their wealth of growing knowledge and hands-on approach make this course invaluable. If you want to know how to cook well, learn to grow well.”
~ Deirdre Buryk
“After many years of gardening on my own with mixed results, I was lucky enough to find the HomesteadTO program right here in Toronto! It was everything I wanted, a hands on course learning how to properly care for and grow organic food in your own urban garden. You couldn’t ask for a better teacher than Derek! He has so much knowledge and passion for the subject that it leaves you appreciating all the hard work that’s done regularly by our dedicated farmers.”
~ Ken Bosika
“I learned a ton from the Grow Veggies class. More than that though, the weekly class became my respite from the busyness and craziness of the city. Going to the farm was a ritual that I looked forward to every week. The tranquil location and beautiful sunsets were a wonderful antidote. I highly recommend the Grow Veggies program for anyone looking to become even a tiny bit more self sufficient and anyone looking to get their hands dirty in the city.”
~ Athena Herrmann
Want to turn your hobby into a career?
Upon completion of the In-Person Grow Veggies program, graduates can apply for our Growing Urban Farmers program, where you can rent your own 500-1000 sq ft vegetable plot next to our teaching garden and have access to tools and mentorship as you learn to grow on your own in a larger space. Following that, we can connect you with local farms who may be hiring urban farmers.
Homestead T.O. 