Exact dates and locations TBA
October: Permaculture Design Course (PDC)†
November: PDC for Farmers*
December: RetroSuburbia
January: PDC
February: RetroSuburbia
March: Regenerative Social Structures
COURSE BRIEFS:
Permaculture Design Course (PDC)
72 hour course leading to an internationally recognized certificate in Permaculture. This enables the permaculturist to practice permaculture design and to teach others. We follow a prescribed curriculum based on Bill Mollison’s work “The Permaculture Design Manual”, and draw on various other resources to complement the material. This is considered as Master’s level course, given at a grueling pace over two weeks’ time. At completion, you will have a portfolio of work and a completed site design.
† October course is proposed to be in-person only. This course will be recorded to be used for a future online on-demand course, which will be translated into Bulgarian and Turkish for my overseas students. Tuition is waived for participants, but a free-will offering is gratefully accepted to defray the cost of translation.
PDC for Farmers
Exactly the same as the regular PDC, except that the principles we work with will be focused on farm-scale projects. If you are not yet farming, but plan to be farming within the next 12 months, you are welcome to join the course. If farming is still over 12 months away for you, please take the regular PDC offered in October or January.
*PDC for Farmers is part of a multi-year study I am conducting to evaluate the impact of Permaculture Design and principles on a farm’s productivity. If you are interested in participating in the study, your tuition will be waived. This is only offered to those actively farming.
Retro Suburbia
This is a course based on the book of the same title by David Holmgren, co-originator of Permaculture.
This is probably the most important course I will offer to American students. We’re going to talk about how to completely retrofit your suburban home and property to go beyond even sustainability and carbon-neutral to being regenerative – having a POSITIVE impact on your own health, the environment, and on your neighbourhood.
If you haven’t taken a PDC, it is highly recommended that you take that course to help you better understand the concepts we will cover in this course. That does not have to be done prior to this course, but you should plan to take it within a year of this one.
Regenerative Social Structures
We will look at existing social structures and practices through the lens of Permaculture principles to see how we can design better, more regenerative systems for supporting people, families, and communities. I welcome a diversity of individuals to participate and share their own community’s challenges. A PDC is not required for this course.
All courses $1000, includes required texts. Your tuition may be paid in installments. I operate in a gift economy. If you have a particular hardship and really want the course, please let me know what you can offer in exchange for part or all your tuition (i.e. volunteer hours, fundraising). These courses are a commitment of several hours a night, several nights a week for 4 weeks. These may be a combination of in-person and online interactions.
