Urban Tilth

For a modest donation of $6 we can supply one of our youth Apprentices with a good pair of work gloves to protect their hands as they learn to care for the gardens.

We will need a number of shovels, rakes, hoes, pitch forks, axes, trowels, post diggers and other garden tools so that Apprentices have the tools they need to build and improve community and school gardens.

A donation of $25 to Urban Tilth buys one of these necessary tools.

Until we are able to produce enough of our own rich home grown compost, we will need to supply the all of our farm and garden projects with compost.

For a donation of $40 you can sponsor 1 cubic yard of nutrient rich compost for one of our urban agriculture projects.

Your donation of $60 helps us purchase enough seed for the mid-summer planting season.

Urban Tilth believes that it is important that our Apprentices leave our program with life changing experiences and real marketable skills. Learn to draw site maps and garden plans to scale is just one of the real skills that all of our interns learn.
Your donation of $100 will provide the large scale graphing paper, compasses, tape measures and other materials necessary to complete detailed and accurate site maps.

Learning to determine the PH, soil mineral and nutrient availability is an essential first step in growing a great garden!
For a donation of $225.00 Urban Tilth will be able to purchase the equipment and pay the fees necessary to have the Apprentices work with UC Davis soil scientist and graduate students to learn how to properly collect soil samples for urban agriculture projects.

A $300 donation to Urban Tilth provides all the irrigation equipment needed to teach the Apprentices how to design and install drip irrigation. We hope to install 2 new systems for local school and community gardens with the Apprentices this summer.

There is no better way than getting out into the field to give Apprentices the opportunity to learn 1st hand about urban agriculture and green urban landscaping. This summer we would love to visit:

• Field Trip #1: Working Farms in East Contra Costa County
• Field Trip #2: The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
• Field Trip #3: EcoHouse, The People’s Grocery & The Spiral Gardens

A donation of $500 will cover the transportation costs and other fees needed to take the Apprentices on one of these adventures that would undoubtedly help them expand their worlds.

For a generous donation at this level you can change the life of one West County teen!

Sponsor a youth Apprentice and and give a teenager the opportunity to join a dynamic and positive group of their peers for a life changing summer of intensive urban agriculture training, community engagement, mind-opening field trips as well as  part-time summer employment.

Help us get our youth off the couch and off the streets this summer.
Help them discover the leaders they are meant to be.

In order to give each Apprentice the attention they deserve Urban Tilth matches up one specially trained staff mentor with no more than 5 youth Apprentices. This ratio allows a unique bond to form between both Apprentice crews and their staff mentor. Because many of our staff mentors actually began as youth Apprentices, the Apprentices almost immediately recognize the unique perspective each mentor has to share. This mentoring relationship opens up opportunities for real conversations that only begin in the garden but reach so much deeper into the lives of both staff and Apprentices.

Your generous donation of $7000 allows us to fully staff and properly train our staff mentors so that this program can be a brilliant success.