Permaculture Design Course

Text Box:

Rainbow Valley Farm

New Zealand

Permaculture

in Action

Joe Polaischer & Trish Allen

Interns & Volunteers

Joe’s Articles

101 Things You Can Do

Recommended reading:

“Introduction to

Permaculture”

by Bill Mollison,

Tagari Press

“An Earth Users Guide to Permaculture”

by Rosemary Morrow, Kangaroo Press

.

Text Box: PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE on Rainbow Valley Farm, New Zealand International Certificate from Bill Mollison‘s Permaculture Institute in Australia 5 February—20 February 2010 and 26 March—9 April 2010 Course Fee: NZ$1,500—$2,060 depending on accommodation option chosen (see options on Enrolment Form below) What is Permaculture? Permaculture (a contraction of Permanent Agriculture or Permanent Culture) is the design and maintenance of productive ecosystems, which have the stability and resilience of natural eco systems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Permaculture Design is a comprehensive design methodology, which enables us to consciously assemble and manage environmental systems as envisioned above. The course covers sustainable living systems for a wide variety of landscapes and climates. It has five key components: Ethics, care of the earth, care of people, limits to consumption/share the surplus. Principles, the principles of ecology applied to human needs. Patterns, observing and understanding the patterns inherent in our environment, as a basis for living in harmony with them. Working with nature not against. Strategies, achieving the lowest entropy in desired outcomes. Techniques, specific detailed methods of permaculture design. The aim of the course is to extend your ability to interpret your environment, and then apply sustainable solutions. Course Outline This course enables participants to gain a permaculture design certificate (PDC) while studying on a working permaculture farm. The course will: · give you a good understanding of the ethics, principles and patterns of permaculture design · convey a general understanding of a wide range of common strategies and techniques · explore the implications of social change towards ecological sustainability · visit and observe some of the strategies and techniques within our bioregion · practice the design methodology amongst the group, supervised by the tutors · assist each student to access resources required to actively take the course philosophy and methodology into their future lives. This is an intensive 14-day course, where you have the chance to get fully immersed in the permaculture way of thinking and acting. The tutors: Darren Doherty, Australia. Darren is an experienced permaculture teacher and designer. He began teaching in 1994 and has taught in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Argentina, Vietnam and the United States. He has over 1,200 permaculture designs to his name and is in demand internationally. Trish Allen and her late husband Joe Polaischer founded Rainbow Valley Farm in 1988 and set about putting the ethics and principals of permaculture into action. They achieved this with great success and have enthusiastically shared their knowledge and skills with others ever since. Dion Workman, farm manager of Rainbow Valley Farm and teacher of sustainable rural development courses.