Urban Farmer Store

Amazing service.
I had to do a small irrigation system for the front of my house and redo some line and connection on the back of my house.
The vendor based on pictures sold me the minimum of what was needed.
For small irrigation work, I advise you to go and purchase at Urban Farmer, it may save you a lot of money.

These guys are amazing! They are truly experts in this stuff. I walked in looking for a particular part and had no clue what system I had. We've basically dug up our lawn and putting in pavers and want to cap the lines. Guy helps me understand what I have and the different options and ultimately the best option to cut off at the valve. These guys are super patient and willing to help and advise and ensure you're doing the best thing for your situation.

An unexpected find that really has everything you'd need and expect to find at a large suburban store for irrigation, water features, water recapture and landscape lighting. Super knowledgable and friendly staff too.

I've never been inside this store at all so this review has nothing to do with this. I was on the phone with an employee at this store instead and was looking into irrigation systems. The person was SUPER helpful and went out of his way to give the name and phone number to someone else who could help me instead. So thank you for being so kind.

If I were anything more than a 'weekend gardener', then this place would be perfect as it's geared toward the professional landscaper. That being said, us hobbyists will find bits and bobs at Urban Farmer that suit our needs.

My focus while shopping has been finding good gardening gloves, bug and slug killer, hoses, shears and shovels. I scored on all but a hose as I'm after a collapsible/cloth one and UFS doesn't stock them.

The staff have been helpful each time I've visited and that's always a huge bonus. UFS has landscapers'/gardeners' contact info. on hand for those us wishing to turn their outdoor space into a verdant, user-friendly delight. (I haven't had luck in any of them returning my calls, but that's for another post!)

The Outer Sunset is lucky to have Urban Farmer! Head on out there, if you're in need of some gardening expertise!

Man I really like their product cause they have what a lot of other stores don't have....too bad their not kid friendly, came in to purchase some items and my 10 yr old daughter had to pee bad but he wouldn't let her use the bathroom so she had to run to the park across the street....I know there's Covid and all but 75% of sf has gotten all 3 shots and even restaurants and other facility's allow usage of their restrooms.....oh well

We've been shopping at this store for years. Their stock is always just what we need for our urban farm (chickens, waterfall, fruit trees and veggies galore). Our waterfall pump failed after running day and night for four years and 7 months. The warranty was 1 year for certain parts and five for others.
When I brought the failed pump back with my receipt, no hassle, no reluctance , we were out the door with our new pump in 3 minutes!
Just a smile and a come back soon, no hassle.
There aren't many stores as good as this one around anymore.
What a pleasure!

Helpful staff, though a tad brusque. They knew what they were talking about, and were able to get me what I needed with minimum fuss. They had all the irrigation stuff, fertilizer, and gardening hand tools that I'd need. Ample street parking.

Great folks. The place looks great. Wish they were open a bit more on the weekends. But once there, incredibly helpful service. I look forward to going back again.

As much as it pains me to share my experience, it might be informative to those needing lighting transformer/timer work here in San Francisco. And to preface, this review is NOT at all a reflection on the Urban Farmer retail store - the San Francisco Sunset location is a wonderfully reliable resource and institution. Rather, my experience is with that side of their business working under a separate entity/billing address 'Urban Irrigation & Landscape Lighting'.
My issue is not so much that this entity misrepresented their capabilities as electricians or that they disregarded my assessment of the situation out of hand, or that they fashioned a makeshift repair and deemed it as working fine upon leaving.  Nor did I even take issue with being given zero guidance whatsoever on how/where to procure replacement parts for an actual, permanent solution. No, my complaint is that their owner conveniently claimed amnesia to my initial complaint made immediately following their November 5 visit - and then, during a January 10 call, implied I was being petty in recapping the experience and derelict in not remitting payment prior to receiving his USPS mailed invoice, received the week prior on January 7.  That a customer should somehow be grateful for a borderline dangerous makeshift repair - and happily pay for it prior to even being invoiced - strains credibility.
Nevertheless, the invoice has been paid, and after some back/forth negotiations a goodwill accommodation has been reached.   For transformer/lighting timer repairs though, there might be better options in SF than the  'Urban Irrigation & Landscape Lighting' unit of The Urban Farmer retail store.  A homeowner of 25 years, landlord of 10 years, knows the difference.

I've been to two different locations and one, while somewhat helpful, gave me pricing for the wrong FX Luminaire transformer given that I'm doing color.  Fine, I figured it out but the pricing is much higher for the transformer I need and I already told my client what to expect.  Not great.  Especially since I'm just getting started in color landscape lighting.  Went into the same store a second time and was not treated as warmly because, essentially, I'm nobody to them yet.

So, I had another job where I'm retrofitting existing fixtures to color and led and decided to call the SF store.  It was just before closing on Friday afternoon.  I asked a few questions after doing a little homework and they were more than helpful and gave me no attitude when I wanted to place a small order for a few bulbs just to test them out.  I was given a deliver by date of the following Wednesday and to my surprise I received the bulbs on that Sunday!  I since called back to order a couple different bulbs, just to test and they were just as helpful.  So far, the San Francisco location is just awesome!  I will definitely continue to do business with them.

Super helpful staff and reasonable prices on a wide selection of garden-related supplies. I was actually shocked at how much handy stuff they had that I'd assumed I'd have to order off the internet or something and hope it worked.

Great service and knowledge staff. Got everything we needed in just a few minutes. They have an awesome selection of quality garden tools and fertilizers I wasn't expecting. I'll definitely be back

Very knowledgeable staff and everything you would need for a drip irrigation system! A true gem in SF for anyone that has a landscaping project.

Always super helpful, huge inventory and clean and organized displays. Today Jessica went above and beyond by helping us plan our drip irrigation system. She patiently and knowledgeably walked us through each component and left us feeling way more confident about our project then when we walked in. We'll be back, and we'll be asking for Jessica :)

Have had a number of excellent experiences at the Urban Farmer Store. I went up to American Soil & Stone in Richmond and stumbled upon this amazing store next door. While they specialize in irrigation and outdoor lighting, they have a large inventory of other garden supplies.

In particular, I really appreciated all of my interactions with Jennifer, who is usually based out of the San Francisco location, but whom I've happened to run into a number of times at the Richmond location. She never makes me feel dumb for all the questions I ask, never rushes me, and is super friendly and knowledgeable. She kindly & patiently answered all my questions about a broken fountain in the garden. More recently, I sought her out specifically to design the drip irrigation system for my backyard. Urban Farmer provides a fantastic service where they will design your drip irrigation system for free (!!). In exchange, they politely ask that you purchase the equipment/hardware from them, which I'm very happy to do.

They stock Felco pruners, as well a small, but nicely curated selection of gardening books.

Working on the garden and needing to buy anything from sprinklers to water system, these guys are the best to go to. Had to install sprinklers on a property and didn't know what the water pressure was so they taught me a simple way of testing roughly.

Next project will be a system for storing and using grey water.

Amazing services with very knowledgeable staffs. The staffs really takes time to assist customers on variety of products. They show you the best products and the best product for your needs. We ordered some landscape lighting and they really helped us to pick the right choice. Very nice local business that we should support. Thank you!

I'm about to do my first landscape lighting project and Jose spent a ton of time educating me. He was unbelievably helpful. And now I'm feeling much more confident about my upcoming project.

The best place in the Bay Area for all your irrigation and landscape lighting needs. Trust me: Don't go to Home Depot or Lowes. The customer service here is top notch. Every time I've gone there, they've talked me into a simpler, lower cost solution that actually met my needs better than the elaborate approach I would have taken on my own. Their products also last forever -- far higher quality than the junk they sell at the big discount yards.

The only downside: Each time I go there I start fantasizing about my next backyard project.

Great Service!
They knew what I wanted and told me what I needed... and helped me with all questions and sold me additional things that customized my system very nicely.
Even their prices are very fair.

We love them! We had major issues with our irrigation system, and came over here for help. Shane was awesome and spent a good half hour educating us and helping us resolve our issues.  We feel so much better, and I would refer anyone to them in a heartbeat.  I wish we could have hired them to install our irrigation system!
Bonus points- they are around the corner from Sloat Garden- so once you are inspired by them, you can go shop for more plants!

I was helping a client make some improvements to his yard before selling his property. He wanted a drip system so his yard would keep from dying off when he was not there. My friend at Sloat Garden Center highly recommended the Urban Farmer Store and they had it all! Jen helped us out and she was knowledgeable and efficient, for example: she knew exactly what parts we needed to put a drip system together that met my client's needs. What I thought was going to take hours took mere minutes! Also, the shop is nicely organized which makes it fun to peruse. I had a great experience and will definitely be returning as well as referring family, friends, clients and colleagues.

What a nice resource for people to use when planning a landscape project large or small!

The staff are knowledgeable and give advice regarding the various graces and pitfalls of the Bay Area's unique soil composition and I have found them helpful on several occasions.

While some of my clientele has complained about high-ish prices and bundling of services/products into landscape packages for a given location, others have really liked the one-stop element of product, services, and planning. It is important to note that if you have a strict budget that is not flexible you should communicate that to the friendly staff. There's no guarantee that you can get what you want on a shoestring but it may be possible to tweak your imagined landscape into a nice reality.

Also of note, these guys carry some outdoor specification grade low voltage exterior lighting as well as all sorts of bright twinkly things to make your garden glow.

First, I consider myself barely a DIYer. Yet, I've done 3 projects with Urban Farmer's help because of their awesome customer service. First, you will be quickly greeted by someone asking, can I help you? Including ALL retail stores of all types, this is unusual. After a short discussion on what you are trying to accomplish, you will find yourself a customized collection of things that you need, following by instructions (as you need) and guidance with any questions after you start.  I had a problem once with a piece of equipment I bought. The keep your purchases in their system, allowing them to quickly bring it up and address the issue. Fast, easy and no issues. The team there is great!! Jeff specifically helped me with 2 of my projects though I've had positive experiences with LITERALLY everyone I've interacted with there. I highly recommend Urban Farmer for your next project!!

Hula Hoopers . . . This is a Great place to find irrigation piping to make weighted hula hoops.  They have 50' of 160 DPI and I think that still have 125 DPI.  It is cheaper to get it here than traveling out to the various warehoused in the burbs.  

I can speak for anything else in the store since I only shopped for irrigation piping.  

The store is nicely laid out and things are easy to find.  The staff are pretty cool.  

Parking is plentiful since the streets are pretty empty.  Take the L Muni Train and get off at Walgreens and walk down 5 blocks.

The staff at Urban Farmer are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I wanted to set up a drip irrigation system in my garden and an arborist friend recommended I go there. The staff there take you through the set up process step by step and give you every piece of equipment you need (a lot of which they will set up for you in the store). You can return almost anything you don't use. They also have video tutorials on their website, in case you forget how to do anything. If you're considering setting up an irrigation system in your own garden, this is definitely the place to go.

This place is great!  My assignment of stars is based mostly on the selection of products, since I didn't need a lot of help from the staff, as I had already read a how-to book on drip irrigation.  They have stuff that is quite difficult to find elsewhere (for example,  1/2 inline emitter drip tubing).  In fact, the only reason Urban Farmer Store got my business is because I had such a hard time finding some of the items I was looking for anywhere in the South Bay (or perhaps I should say, I had a hard time finding the items in a store that sells to the end customer, not to landscape professionals).  

I purchased every single item for my project from Urban Farmer Store.  No, it wasn't as cheap as someplace like Home Depot might have been, but it was well worth it to get precisely the parts I wanted.

If you're working on any sort of irrigation project, this is the only place to turn. They are super helpful and will work with you to figure out what you need. They even helped me devise a misting system for our Burning Man camp using some odd constraints.

Just wish they were open on Sundays.

great people here. in general i have found them to be one of the most helpful and most accommodating retailers i have done business with.
the help seems to enjoy working there, there is a sort of family attitude (even though they are not family) evident.  too bad its not a bigger place with more merchandise, but what they do have is well chosen, complete, and they can advise you quite well on installation and maintenance.....stores like Home Depot or Lowes could learn a lot from UF, but then a retailer is only as good as the staff and this probably helps to explain why the aforementioned fall short. of course, another BIG shortcoming of the big box stores is the corporate mentality, and HD and Lowes are interested in ONLY one thing - PROFITS....anything else is immaterial, and it shows

This store is awesome and Jose, the SF manager gets the highest marks for customer service.  I am not a frequent customer but I had a pesky project which required some PVC pipes and special fittings.   They have the full assortment and Jose, despite being busy, helped me to find the right components throughout the store.  My filtration unit is up and running again.  I can't recommend them highly enough.   Thanks.

Been using these guys for years and years. Totally knowledgeable and mostly patient staff. Have irrigated 3 different homes with their equipment. I am generally willing to pay a little extra because it's super valuable to have them in the neighborhood, and as an acknowledgment that it costs more to staff a real store than it is to automate a shipping center. That being said, I was a little surprised to get home and find that the $236 irrigation controller I just purchased was $143 online. (Have purchased 3 previous controllers from UF as well.) The price difference seemed a bit excessive so I called the store to ask about their price policy. Jose explained that they just charge official retail price, no exceptions. Had hoped for something a little more flexible. Will continue to use them, but will consider shopping around for higher priced items.

What a treasure trove I found in the Outer Lands.  Staff was enthusiastic, helpful, and personable.  Great selection, superior customer service, good prices.  If they don't have what you need, they're on the phone immediately to help you find it.  Turned a boring plumbing chore into a fun experience!

The sales associates at Urban Farmer are absolutely helpful EVERY time I walk through the front doors.  

Unlike large warehouse stores, they take the time to explain each tool's purpose and even where to rent them if you don't need it with much frequency.  Located in the Sunset District, they know all too well the composition of the soil (i.e. - sand) and its drawbacks relative to watering and drainage.  The person who helped me last clarified the phenomenon known as thatch that occurs in old lawns and how a tool called a dethatcher could work without killing the grass, since grass roots go deep.  That level of knowledge and commitment to share it with customers only seems to happen on TV commercials for The Home Depot.

Their prices are not the lowest, although they frequently give me unsolicited discounts, and their store is so jam-packed with stuff that one almost needs a salesperson to help find items if one is not familiar with the layout.

I'm pretty sure I'll be headed back here for help with the failing lawn sprinkling system.

I recently needed to replace my garden lights.  I worked with Kat who was extremely knowledgeable and provided many suggestions.  There was no hard sell.  In fact she helped me to save money by suggesting light bulb enhancements instead of more costly fixtures.  Bill and his crew did the instillation.  They were punctual, helpful and very neat.  Bill also suggested additional light bulb changes and I returned two fixtures that were easily returned via their staff which saved a trip to the store.  Bill followed up with a call the next day to be sure all was good.  I appreciate a business with integrity in todays environment. I would give them 10 stars if I could.

...Just experienced some of the best customer service this afternoon.  Jennifer solved my landscape lighting dilemma with a simple, free, and hassle free fix.  I don't think it gets any better than this.  Thank you.  I'm a customer for life.

I have depended on Urban Farmer for all my irrigation and lighting issues in SF since 2001.  I feel remiss that I have not given them a review on Yelp until now. Plants and gardens grow and change over time and that means irrigation & lighting needs are changing too.  I always have them come once a year to tune up irrigation, examine lighting and review my garden's water needs. Believe it or not - over all these years I have had the exact same team and they are fantastic. Urban Farmer is a treasure, reasonably priced and masters at what they do.

Good selection of gardening tools, outdoor lights, and sprinkler system parts, among other things. It's great to have a place like this nearby, instead of going to Home Depot. What I appreciate most is that they only stock products that they believe in. By that I mean that they won't sell you cheap crap that they know will break in six months and you will then want to return.

Great service! John Paul set me up with the rebuild kits for my 20 year-old dripper system's leaky valves. He even spent 25 minutes showing me how to do the rebuild. This store has it all (garden tools, dripper hardware, and great knowledge). If you've ever been frustrated digging thru empty parts bins at a big-box store, then try the Urban Farmer store. Excellent!

Talk about a great experience!  We walked in, knowing that we needed low-voltage lighting for the front yard, and knew absolutely nothing about it.  We ended up working with John-Paul, who was incredibly informative, and worked with us to pick the right choices for our coastal yard.  Definitely a great experience.  We don't often see such great customer service.  Everyone working at the store was very cool!

And a great bonus--the store has lighting kits that you can take home so that you have an idea what the lighting will look like in your yard.  Brilliant idea, and made all the difference in the world.

I am so grateful this place is still around in San Francisco.  They always have everything I need for my garden and Koi pond. Parking is easy and they know what they are doing. I would like to give a special thank you to John-Paul for his help in steering me in the right direction so I could buy what I needed today.

My new favorite gardening helper. Wide variety of asian garden tools. I picked up a hand held fork hoe with an axe blade on the opposite side. The fork is perfect for loosening clay soil and pulling out unwanted raspberry cane roots. Irrigation selection is immense and esoteric and many rain catchment products. Staff is exceptionally well versed, prices are fair for quality.

They are truly an exceptional store with the best service you could ask for!!  I have been using them for 10 years now and each time I need help with something, they always have a solution for me.  They genuinely want to provide you with good service and it shows!!  There is a young lady with glasses that I can't remember her name (sorry) who is especially courteous and helpful!!  

I also use Urban Farmer to repair sprinkler system problems and landscaping lights.  Each time, they have made their appointment on time and completed the work quickly and appropriately and at reasonable cost!!

I highly recommend Urban Farmer if you need any help with your garden.

I've been very happy with this store.  I started out buying a couple of felixible pipes, thinking I would just to some limited drip irrigation, turning it on manually when I needed it.  

This was not to be - it quickly became an obsession.  I now have pipes running through eight different raised beds, and individual drip lines to every berry bush and flower along my fences, with an automatic timer running everything so I can focus on things like planting, harvesting and weeding in the limited time I have.

I guess you can buy some of the parts at chain stores for cheaper, but the service is unequaled here. They always take as much time as they need to explain everything thoroughly, which is very important if you're mechanically dyslexic like I am.

One time I had done a bad job of taping one of my brass valve fittings -- I ran the tape around the wrong way. So when I fitted the parts together, there was a leak.  I couldn't get the thing unscrewed.  So I brought it to the store, and they took it in back and fixed it, and patiently explained how to do it right the next time.

I had a very old lawn sprinkler system that had been broken and making a big mess. They sent over a super nice guy, who with the right tools and technique fixed my problem in 15 minutes, and adjusted the rest to work optimally.  he showed up right on time, no upselling, very friendly.  He showed me what he was doing, and I'm sure I would have spent a whole frustrating weekend trying to figure it out myself.  It was so worth the $75 house call.

I have been into the Urban Farmer before for parts but this is the first time I came in with a larger project.  John greeted me at the door and sat me down at his desk where he designed an irrigation system for my backyard.  I was considering hiring someone to do it for me but after he broke it down in plain speak, I was pretty confident going forward myself.  I probably could have save a few bucks going to a big box store but I really appreciated the help and the selection available in the city.

Wonderful store with a nice selection of products for landscape lighting and irrigation.  Thankfully a kind employee at Lowe's told us about this place.  Jennifer (the store rep at Urban Farmer) was a great help to us, providing the low-down the various timer irrigation models and submerged lighting options; she also took a lot of time to show us the many options they have for LED lights to replace the halogen lights we currently have.  

I was so happy to see that Urban Farmer has a BIG SELECTION of LED lights. At Lowe's on Bayshore (such a huge store), they only had room on their shelves for 2 (count 'em!!!  TWO) different types of LED bulbs for landscape lighting replacement.  We bought one of them from Lowe's ($10), and it was terrible!  Very low light, and only on one side.   Anyway, that was pathetic ... but the situation is the exact opposite at Urban Farmer.  They have may different styles of LED bulbs, in different wattages and with different illumination sweep angles.  You can buy whatever combination of wattage and angle that you want.  On top of that, they have all different types of LED bulbs, in the warm white color.   I was so happy to find this.  Now we are replacing all of our halogen bulbs with LED bulbs from Urban Farmer.  Because the LED's run on less watts than the halogen bulbs, we can also run more lights with our 200 watt transformer.   It is going to be so awesome!

Hurray!  Thank you, Urban Farmer.

one of the very few stores left where people  are helpful and care. i am landscaping profesional and this store is your go to if you are profesional and need serious supllies like gardening tools, landscape lighting, drainage items, water features building items and most important irrigation. all staff is incredibly nice and helpful. i always look forward going to the store. feels like coming to meet with friends you like.

This is truly an exceptional business - and with great products and highly knowledgable and competent staff - with real expertise in drip systems and solar/green products.

John-Paul spent hours going over the design on the phone and in person - in the end I walked out with everything I needed including photos, diagrams and supplies. I was in great hands every step!

I came in to price the Felco pruners (they carry a large variety of them) which are behind the register on the wall because they're so expensive.  A landscaper recommended Felco to me because they're that good.  A hand held pruner will run you over $35 to nearly $60 or more for one. They're imported from Europe. But, you can get a better price on-line (Amazon sells them too).  I'm not able to find too many places where I can find Liquinox iron & zinc liquid supplement for my Camelias aside from Sloat Gardens and they have them here for double the price (over $5 for 16 oz)  compared to what Sloat charges ($5 for 32 oz)  Additionally, this is the only place where I've found Rain Bird, the irrigation supplement (Dri Water) which you can use to water your indoor plants while you're on vacation.  The gel packs are placed over the soil of your potted plants and the gel will break down over time and release water into the root system.  It keeps your plants watered for 30 days!   Saves you from the worry of your plants dying while you're away.  I opened packets for each potted plant and returned 10 days later to find the plants all perky with leaves standing up and the soil well watered.
The staff are friendly and helpful but things here are pricey.  Street parking is rather challenging.

Drip irrigation means no wasted water - you control everything.   This shop has it all and for every budget, and every garden.

it's a schlep to get out to this place, but it's worth it. I had been looking all over town for the perfect garden fountain pump--harder to find than you might imagine, and the strength has to be just right: not too strong or weak. Someone really helped me pick one out, then when it didn't work out, they were completely courteous about taking it back and getting me in one that was just right. I am really impressed at how customer - focused this place is.

Jeff give great tips to fix problem with knocking in my irrigating system...free!  They are specialist in irrigating systems.

I went there today knowing what I wanted to accomplish but not exactly knowing what I needed to buy. The woman who helped me was so knowledgeable and helpful. I left there with stuff and confidence that even I could convert my sprinkler system to drip irrigation.  Great place.

Easily the most expensive irrigation store around.  Try comparing prices at online stores and other sources in the bay area, you'll be suprised!

This place is the best. This place not only sells quality products but every single employee knows tons about irrigation and if you have a problem w anything you can just call and get advice. I live completely across town and go there. Today I was fixing something and ran over to loses instead and then because of an arcane hose threading issue I still didn't have the right parts. Yet again going to urban farmer where you can talk through even a seemingly small issue and they go over your purchases for you means that even if its across town you are actually saving time by going there. Seriously. This is on my top businesses in SF list. Love love love everything about urban farmer.

This is an awesome store. They are very helpful and knowledgeable. We do a lot of custom fountains and they are a great resource.  Pumps, fittings, lighting, they have it all or, know how to get it. Highly recommend them for all your garden needs.

An extraordinary store! Fantastic selection, exceeded only by the conscientious customer service. Here is a typical experience: I had a problem with an item 3 years after I purchased it -- and Cat was super-helpful, and even convinced the manufacturer to give me a new replacement for free!

After visiting Lowes and several other garden stores I made the trip out to Urban Farmer and my god what a difference. These guys know their stuff, within the first five minutes Jose was putting together the entire irrigation system for the garden and educating me on exactly how to install it.

I come here for all my pvc supplies. Will always find the parts I want. Much more organized than HD. Great customer service. You cannot get that kind of service on-line.