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Botany, Sustainability, and
Self-Sufficiency - oh my!
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As someone passionate about sustainable gardening practices, I’ve collected a curated list of regenerative agriculture + regenerative gardening courses. These courses will support you in understanding what the principles of regenerative agriculture are, and how to apply them to your farm or home garden.
It’s important to me that whether you farm hundreds of acres, have a small backyard, or tend to a plot in a community garden, that you feel empowered to understand how gardening can support the environment.
I’ve put the free courses up at the top, and separated the list out for farmers and gardeners. If you tend to a homestead garden, you can probably benefit from both lists.
Free Regenerative Ag Resources
Free Regenerative Gardening Courses + Trainings
Regenerative Agriculture + Gardening Trainings + Courses
I’ve got to start this list out with Farmer Jesse’s No Till Grower’s Podcast + Youtube Channel. Jesse Frost is a market gardener who has a comprehensive understanding of no-till gardening practices, cover cropping, and high-yield methods of farming.
With a sense of humor and a boat load of knowledge, I’m always learning something from him on his channel, and from the farmers that are interviewed on the podcast, and it’s never boring.
While Jesse has stepped down from hosting the podcast as of 2022, the new hosts have the same spirit and I enjoy listening to them just as much.
Some key episodes to check out are:
Interview with Dan Kemper of The Rodale Institute
Improving Photosynthesis with Dr. Christine Jones
Deep Dive into Soil Ecology with Dr. Francesca Cotrufo
The Rodale Institute is one of the leading organizations that researches no-till, organic, and regenerative gardening practices. Their free webinars hold a wealth of information.
Some highlights for those who want to learn regenerative agriculture:
Weed Control Tools in Organic No-Till Systems
Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Microbial Carbon Pump
Organic Agriculture - Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change Through Carbon Sequestration
If you tend to an orchard, vineyard, or any area that hosts perennials, this in-depth free training goes over everything you need to know about cover cropping for carbon capture.
This webinar is presented by Dr. Christine Jones and is hosted by Green Cover Seed. Dr. Jones is the founder of Amazing Carbon and Carbon for Life, which advocates for farmers to sequester carbon with regenerative and organic farming practices.
Even if you don’t have an orchard, this deep dive into soil microbiology and cover cropping is worth the watch.
Watch Cover Cropping on Vineyards and Orchards
RegAgri4Europe is an organization funded in part by the European Commission, and offers trainings on sustainability and no-till practices to farmers in Europe. However, the class here is open to anyone, no matter where you live.
This course will give you an overview into the history and science of Regenerative Agriculture, and show examples of how it is applied in market gardens, large scale farms, and how it benefits society as a whole.
Register for this free regenerative agriculture class here
This offering is fantastic and comprehensive for being a free course. They go into the full depth of the soil food web, in addition to how to restore the soil microbiome, prevent water and wind erosion, and best practices for soil management.
To date, over 17,000 students have enrolled in this free offering! You can purchase an official certificate for $140, or just take the course for free.
Take the free Sustainable Soil Management course here
This course looks at what makes carbon sequestration effective, and how to amplify it on your own farm or homestead. You’ll learn about soil organic matter, forestry, cropland sequestration potential, and the IPCC guidelines.
This course is through the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Lyngso Garden is a sustainable landscaping and gardening center in California, with a huge focus on education. Luckily for us, they have some of their workshops available for free online.
Here are some highlights:
Growing Healthy Soil by Lyngso Garden
Sheet Mulch your way to a Regenerative Garden by Lyngso Garden
How to Improve your Soil by Lyngso Garden
A project by Heather Jo Flores, Free Permaculture offers two options for learning permaculture: A beginners Course and a Year-long course.
While there are differences between permaculture and regenerative gardening, they have the same spirit and can be integrated within your gardening practices.
Sign up for the free permaculture trainings here.
This course is on the platform Future Learn, and is taught in partnership with Lancaster University. The course goes over new discoveries within soil science while also providing you with a solid foundation of the soil microbiome, why its important, and how soil is a nature-based solution to climate change.
The platform Futurelearn is a subscription model where you can subscribe to their whole platform for one year and take as many courses as you like.
Cost: $40/month or one time payment of $129
Learn more about Soil Science here
This comprehensive 100 hour course is quite affordable, currently under $500 USD.
The focus is on understanding the soil microbiome and then utilizing that knowledge to improve the health of your soil, boost productivity on your land, and grow crops sustainably.
You’ll learn about the types of biological testing to understand your soil, and about different soil amendments that will support your soil structure and health.
This course also has a lot of information on how climate change and other environmental issues have impacted our soil. From cover crops to composting, pest control and a full-scope exploration of regenerative practices, this course curriculum is one of the best I’ve seen out there on this topic.
Cost: $500 USD
Learn about the Soil Microbiome Management Program from ACS Distance Education
Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web courses are a wealth of information for anyone really wanting to understand how the soil food web works, how to build soil health.
Dr. Elaine Ingham earned her doctorate in Microbiology and has been working in the field of soil microbiology for over 40 years.
The course takes carbon sequestration and climate change into account.
Recently, these no-till market gardeners shared their experiences with the course on the No-Till Growers Youtube Channel. They share the changes that they made to their farm due to what they learned in the course.
They do mention that out of everyone on the course, their farm was the smallest and so they had to adapt the course to meet their needs and size.
While Dr. Elaine’s program is meant to give you the education you’d need to be a Soil Food Web Consultant, the Foundation Course shares a wealth of information that can be applied to your farm or homestead.
Note that throughout this article I have listed some resources about Soil Health that are free or less expensive.
Cost: $5000 USD or 10 payments of $550USD
Learn more about Dr. Elaine’s Foundations Course here.
This 4-week program is a mix of in-person and online learning, and the in-person learning has options around the world, from Spain to California to Massachusetts. The class is geared towards people in the farming, sustainability, and technology field.
The goal is to educate students on models for supporting the climate and nature-based solutions to climate change through land stewardship.
They also focus heavily on building community, networking, and learning from experts.
Cost: $2200-3600 USD based on location of training
Learn about the Climate Farm School on Terra.do
This is a self-paced course taught by experts in the area of regenerative agriculture, with teachers like Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams.
The course is geared towards agriculture, but gardeners, teachers, and other folks interested in ecology and land stewardship would also benefit. While the focus is environmental, they also speak to earning an income and reducing the cost of inputs on your farm, in addition to some marketing advice.
Once you register, you have access to the material for 1 full year.
Cost: $499
Learn more on Soil Health Academy
Niels is a regenerative farming advocate and expert out of the UK with over 15 years experience, and is trained in Holistic Management and Regenerative Agriculture Design.
This course is for livestock farmers or homesteaders who want to understand best practices with pasture management, rotation, and grazing. There is a focus on getting baseline data and then making adjustments as time goes on based on your goals for soil and field health. Additionally, the course is quite affordable.
If you are interested in transitioning your farm to regenerative practices, you may also be interested in Corfield’s 1:1 coaching package, where you get 8 hours of calls with him to go over your existing farm, your goals, and make an action plan for understanding your land and soil and you can steward the land while running your business.
Cost: around $160 USD
Learn about Regenerative Grazing from Niels Corfield here
The ACS offers extremely detailed courses on each of these individual livestock topics. Each course is around 100 hours and focuses on sustainable and regenerative practices.
The courses are designed for either commercial farmers or for folks who are looking to be more self-sufficient, and contains information for large and small scale farms.
If you take the Poultry course or the Goat course, you’ll learn about anatomy, breeds, nutrition, disease identification and management, systems of production, breeding, record keeping, and marketing.
The forage course is designed to help people create an ideal forage land on their property the benefits their animals and the planet.
Either of these courses are a great way to build an understanding of regenerative practices with livestock.
Cost: around $475 USD
What I like about this 20-week course is that you actually make a soil improvement plan for your garden. Then, you get to hop on a consultation call with the instructor for feedback on the plan.
This course is part live with weekly Q+As, and part video and audio recordings. Guest teachers are also a part of the training.
This course focuses heavily on improving and understanding the soil microbiome. Its scientific nature helps farmers and gardeners to assess their own soil microbiology and make adjustments for better overall crop health.
The interactive component of this course sets it apart from the others, and all live components are available for students to retake each time the course is offered.
Cost: $125/month for 12 months
Learn about Matt Powers' Regenerative Soil Certification Course here
Whether you are a seasoned farmer or a hopeful gardener who is just beginning, these courses will help you to move towards sustainable methods of working with the land, growing food, and becoming a land steward.
Or, learn how to transition to no-till organic gardening with our full guide here.
