Our Permaculture Design Certification Course, which is taught in a 12-14 day format, is designed to give the participant a thorough understanding of the principles and applications of permaculture in their lives and communities.  Permaculture provides a tangible foothold in developing your next best steps toward living a sustainable lifestyle. This coure can be taught in settings from remote villages to urban sites any where in the world. Our main goal of facilitating these courses is to give the participants tools to create lasting sustainable systems in their area and to prepare others to become Permaculture Teachers for their regions of the world.

Permaculture Design Course Layout:

1. Introduction

            The course commences with an introduction to systems thinking and patterns in nature to provide a context for introducing Permaculture, its influences, history, principles and ethics, and issues of energy and sustainability.

            Participants are introduced to some of the concepts of creative problem solving as a learning process, different approaches to problem solving and individual learning styles and how to use these tools effectively in teamwork.

2. Eco-literacy for Sustainability - Patterns & Processes in Nature

            This section of the course introduces the basic underlying earth sciences and ecological process required for sustainable design and earth stewardship. Building on the introduction to patterns in nature, this section comprises detailed sessions on the patterning of ecological processes & their role and function in the design of sustainable systems;

            • Landform & landscape reading, interpreting contour maps, key points,  topographic features and their influence on soil, vegetation, water & microclimate

            • Water in landscape: water management, collection & storage strategies, erosion control, dam construction & earthworks

            • Soil: understanding & maintaining a healthy, living soil system and processes, mulches, soil testing and correcting common soil problems, minimum tillage and composting processes

            • Forest ecology and forests role in the environment and bio-spheric processes: wind energy, water cycle, nutrient cycle, succession etc.

            • Global climate systems, Biomes and climatic factors & influences, climate change & instability

• Microclimates: influencing factors and strategies to create specific microclimates

            • Major climatic zones and their landform profiles. The major features and resulting management strategies for humid and arid, tropical and temperate areas – emphasis on examples of traditional sustainable systems

3. Sustainable Design  and Production Ecology -  Patterns in Design

This section begins with the design process and various concepts of patterning in design (zones, sectors, keyholes, spirals, flow etc), permaculture design methodologies and site analysis. This provides the framework for a more detailed exploration of the following design systems in permaculture:

ZONE I

            • appropriate technologies, energy & resource efficient house design, selecting a house site etc 

            • home garden design: edible landscapes for urban & rural situations, small scale intensive vegetable production and functional design for home gardens

ZONE II

            • Small Livestock & Poultry systems: small & large scale free-range chicken forage systems, chook tractors, chicken house design, chicken/ glass house. Also ducks, geese, quail, rabbits, guinea pigs.

            • Orchard and food forest systems for temperate, subtropic and tropical environments, low maintenance strategies, diverse multi-story plant selection, site selection & preparation, implementation, planning for year-round production. Appropriate use of animals in integrated fruit production systems.

            • Honey bees: husbandry needs and forage systems

ZONE III

            • Windbreaks: location, design, function, yield, species selection, implimentaton

            • Main crops: growing staple foods and major income generating crops

            • Animal systems for Zones III and IV: characteristics, husbandry needs, forage systems, yields & functions of cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs & other common domestic farm animals.

ZONE IV

            • Tree crops: design and management systems for low maintenance structural forests for fuel, timber & other yields, agroforestry, coppice woods and Integrated sustainable broadacre farming strategies

ZONE V

            • Conservation forests for watershed management, native flora & fauna, spp refugia,  reforestation, wildlife management, wildlife corridors, bushfoods and restoration ecology

THEMES

This section concludes with design strategies for various themes

            • Utilities: roads, access ways and fences

            • Aquaculture: low maintenance freshwater aquaculture systems for ponds & farm dams, edible water plants,  biological water purification and treatment systems

            • Fire & other catastrophe (flood, cyclone, earthquake, tsunami, greenhouse & climate change) impact of climate change on increasing frequency & severity

            •  Integrated pest management and weed control in Permaculture systems

4. Social Ecology & Sustainable Settlements

Bioregionalism and Transition planning sets the tone for this section followed by community economics and ethical investment, legal structures, land access, land ownership and settlement patterns, and features of eco-villages. This section introduces social factors, community planning & action strategies for waste recycling and municipal sewage treatment and urban strategies for inner city, suburbs, urban forestry, community gardens, city farms and other community supported agriculture systems

5. Conclusion - Permaculture at Work.

This introduces local, national and global permaculture networks and organizations, work opportunities and fields of operation, pathways to achieve skills and knowledge for different kinds of permaculture applications, further training options