FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. — Several cities across North Carolina are among the best places for urban gardening, but the highest ranking city is Winston-Salem, which ranks seventh, according to a report by LawnStarter.

What You Need To Know

• Winston-Salem is ranked as the seventh best place in the country for urban gardening
• The Urban Farm School in Germantown offers a free 12-week course
• The course helps students learn about creating and running a small market garden or urban farm

The Urban Farm School in Germantown is helping people learn the tricks of the trade.

“The goal of it really is to basically teach market gardening for individuals who are looking to supplement their income through producing produce,” said Celine Richard, the horticulture extension agent with N.C. Cooperative Extension.

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension launched the Urban Farm School in 2016.

“It's a 12-week program. We meet twice a week, and throughout that program they are learning soil basics, nutrition, plant health, vegetable 101 basics,” Richard said.

The free course returned in March after being put on pause during the pandemic.

“The best part of it is that we have this field space that we get to bring them out to to put all that knowledge to work,” Richard said.

Richard says so many people were interested this year that they had to turn some away.

“A lot of people who live in apartment buildings, or condos, or have houses or they live in spaces with very small green space, they are seeking opportunities to reconnect with nature in different ways,” Richard said.

She says she wasn’t surprised when she heard that Winston-Salem was ranked as the seventh best city in the country for urban gardening.

“Out here I am teaching farming, as far as efficiency practices, to hopefully make money off of growing even if it's on a really small scale. We also have through the cooperative extension service the Community Gardens Program, which is really robust. There’s over 80 community gardens across Forsyth County,” Richard said.

Richard says the city of Winston-Salem helped make that happen.

“Winston-Salem does have an urban agriculture ordinance, which essentially allows gardening in a lot of spaces that other municipalities don't automatically allow for,” Richard said.

Urban farming and gardening are nothing new but they’re gaining popularity, and Richard believes this is just the beginning.

“I think with the overall urbanization of our world of our communities, I think urban farming is going to have a much larger role,” Richard said.

Celine Richard says she hopes the Urban Farm School continues to expand and grow so that more people can take advantage of all that gardening and farming has to offer.

The ranking by LawnStarter looked at things like the number of community gardens per 100,000 people and the access to supplies.

Other cities that made the list include Fayetteville at 26, Durham at 30, Raleigh at 45, Greensboro at 50, Charlotte at 93 and Cary at 136 out of 196.