Permaculture Design Certificate Course
We teach this course by request. We require a firm commitment in advance, demonstrated by a 50% nonrefundable down payment with balance due at the first class or by special arrangement. Work trade and barter arrangements are available.
Duration
--72 hours classroom time, additional time for hands-on skills building
Dates
-- to be scheduled.
Cost
--$600 (Limited work trade and barter available)
--$550 each for two or more members of the same farm or household
No refunds after start of course.
The Permaculture Design Certificate Course teaches students of permaculture the ethics and principles upon which the science of permaculture design is based, and the practical skills to implement them in daily life. The course includes at least 72 hours of instruction, and follows the curriculum developed by Bill Mollison. It is usually offered as a 2 week intensive residential course, but in recent years teachers have been offering a wider variety of options in order to make permaculture more widely available. The schedule for this class will be developed by the class participants and instructors as an exercise in collaborative design.
Palouse Permaculture’s Permaculture Design Certificate Course
Palouse Permaculture offers Permaculture Design Courses on either an individual basis or as a seminar-style course, with a class size limited to 12 people.
The PDC follows the standard Permaculture Design Course curriculum, and include lectures, Powerpoint presentations, design exercises, outside speakers, field trips, games, and teaching of practical hands-on skills. The goal of the class is to have students master the principles of permaculture design, which can be applied anywhere in the world, under any conditions.
The small class size allows for a lively give-and take between instructor and students, and allows us all to benefit from the varied points of view and experience of each class member (and it’s fun!). University of Idaho students can receive U of I credit for this course through directed study. We can accept barter or work-trade for all or part of the course fee. Discounts are available for members of the same family or farm.
Topics covered:
permaculture ethics
principles of permaculture
zone and sector analysis
design basics
nature awareness and reading the landscape
plant communities and guilds
soil-building techniques and garden strategies
food forests
forage forests and silvopastoralism
livestock in permaculture design
livestock and carbon sequestration
introduction to beekeeping
introduction to aquaponics
water harvesting and management in the landscape
rainwater catchment
greywater treatment
composting toilets
solar cooking
passive solar design
natural building
introduction to nonviolent communication
introduction to conflict resolution
ecovillages
transition
and much, much more
Course Instructors
Deborah Berman and guests
Directions
Contact us.
PDC Course Instructors and Guests
Deborah Berman, MPH, PhD
Deborah has been practicing permaculture for more than twenty years. She has a background in environmental toxicology and alternative dispute resolution. She was a cofounder and founding board member of the Palouse Center for Conflict Management, the founder of Palouse Permaculture, and is President of Rural Roots, an organization dedicated to promoting sustainable agriculture and vibrant local food systems in the Inland Northwest. She has taken three Permaculture Design Certificate Courses, has studied with Michael Pilarski, Penny Livingston, John Valenzuela, Brock Dolman, Jude Hobbs, Andrew Millison, Owen Hablutzel, Neil Bertrando, Toby Hemenway, Geoff Lawton, and Sepp Holzer, and has an Advanced Permaculture Certificate in Teaching. As a co-owner of the Lazy M Permaculture Oasis, one of the oldest suri alpaca farms in North America she and her farm partner received a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant from the USDA to study browse polycultures as a method of extending the forage season for ruminants on small farms.
