Permaculture Design Courses

What is Permaculture?

If we define permaculture, we can look back to its origins. Permaculture was concepted from two words permanent and agriculture, forming one-word Permaculture. However the definition of Permaculture is more ambiguous, in simplicity it is a design science that uses observation of the site, its climate, the animals and plants present among other elements to work out a way that we can maximise the inter connections between individual elements to form a resilient productive system that requires minimum inputs for maximum outputs. The meaning of permaculture has now transformed from permanent agriculture to permanent culture. Permaculture is not just about agriculture it embraces many systems and can be used in designing houses even cities, that can be significantly more efficient and requiring lower inputs.

What is Permaculture farming?

Permaculture farming, is purposely designing a system that links individual elements together to reduce energy inputs and increase yield. For example, a chicken produces manure, and crops benefit from the nutrients in the chicken manure. By placing the chicken house uphill of the vegetable garden, gravity and rainfall will wash the nutrients from the chickens down to the plants. The output of one element feeds the needs of another. A permaculture farm, is a farm that has been designed by someone who has followed the ethics and principles of permaculture to design the permaculture farm.

What is permaculture gardening?

A permaculture garden aims to feed the owners of the house with a good variety of nutritious healthy organic fruit and vegetables. There is no need to use chemicals such as pesticides, if you have designed habitats where pest predators can live. There is no need to use artificial fertiliser if you can make your own amazing soil with composts. It is knowing how each element works and then placing them in a way that each element interacts with another in a beneficial way providing for our needs.

What are the ethics of Permaculture?

Permaculture design is defined as an ethical science, so what are those ethics? 1 Earth Care  2 People Care 3 Fair share and return of surplus, setting limits. As a permaculture designer you should design systems that benefit the earth, look after people and any extra should be shared and returned to the system. The user should pay.

What are the principles of Permaculture?

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren are credited jointly as the founders of the permaculture movement and they both have slightly different versions of

Permaculture vs Agriculture

Agriculture is a very broad term and you can say that Permaculture is a sub topic of agriculture, however if we think of agriculture as industrial farming, we get a very different perspective. When I consider industrial farming and agriculture, I think of large fields, mono culture, chemical sprays, mechanisation, long distance transportation, animals kept in small spaces and fed with hormones. This is factory farming, and the end product is low quality and full of chemicals which affect human health detrimentally. Permaculture on the other hand, promotes diversity, organic, free range animals, local solutions and production, with the end product being high in nutritional value, increasing human health, animals kept in good living conditions and actively benefiting the soil and absorption of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. 

What is a Permaculture design course?

Courses that teach permaculture are generally giving an overview of what permaculture is, how you can use permaculture principles and permaculture design methodology. The students should finish a course feeling transformed and informed about how and why permaculture systems function and how everyone can use permaculture to design sustainable regenerative systems.

What kinds of Permaculture design courses exist?

Permaculture courses can be taught in a number of ways. The most basic would be a simple short introduction to permaculture course or maybe a site tour, that lasted a few hours. Then you can have longer introduction permaculture courses that cover the main topics of the permaculture curriculum but don't go into them in too much depth. The main format that permaculture is taught, is what is called the PDC permaculture design certificate.These courses are taught using a curriculum that is based on the original Bill Mollison PDC structure. The course is taught over a minimum of 72 hours and students have to complete a final design project. Go to our courses page for full details.