What is Permaculture? Creating Resilient Systems for the Future

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The Importance of Permaculture:
Design for the Future

Permaculture is a design system that applies ancient wisdom in a modern context. There is something deeply amiss in how we relate to ourselves, the earth and each other. Permaculture reframes your relationship with everything. Humanity is going through an evolutionary upgrade; those who thrive in the new paradigm have the ability to think like nature. Permaculture grounds you in common sense teaching you how to think like nature -because you are nature.

What Is Permaculture?

A Holistic Approach to Living

Permaculture integrates ecology, agriculture, and community. At its core, permaculture is about creating systems that mimic natural ecosystems, ensuring that every element in the system supports and sustains the others. Whether its a small urban garden or a large-scale farm, permaculture can help you grow food, conserve water, build healthy soil, and create a thriving, self-sustaining environment.

THE BEST WAY TO LEARN IS WITH A

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

If you want to grow food in harmony with nature. You NEED to understand nature. Nature is complex, but not complicated. To be grounded in the basics, you need to understand;

Patterns: in thoughts, words, actions, nature and design.

Climate: global, bioregional, local and seasonal cycles.

Geography: landscapes, maps, contours and baseline data.Water: rainfall, storage, cycles, catchment hydrology

Ecosystems: ecological succession, plants and animalsSoil: how it works physically, chemically, biologically

Believe it or not, this is the easy part. The basics of the objective physical world. (The basis of the Earth care ethic)

Then you have the HUMAN elements to deal with…(this is where things can get complicated)

Design Priorities: figuring out what you want.

Decision Making: based on your values, not goals!

Communication: sharing your ideas and onboarding others.

Group Dynamics: cultivating a healthy group ecology.

Invisible Structures: that govern our lives, consciously and unconsciously.

Alternative Economies: capital in all its forms and how we exchange it.

All of this is quite broad in scope, and it’s impossible to be a specialist in every aspect.

But what you can do is be a good generalist, knowing how it all interacts and who to call if and when you need support.

By far the best way to get across all of this is with a PDC. (Permaculture Design Course)

WHICH PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

IS THE RIGHT FIT FOR ME?

Not all PDC’s are created equal. Ideally, you want to learn from someone you resonate with. Someone who has demonstrated practical experience. Delivered in a format that works for you.

The traditional format is a two-week immersion. This is how Bill Mollison originally developed this transformative training. This format has some limitations and is hard for people who live busy lives.

With family, life and job responsibilities, taking two full weeks for the transformation of a lifetime is not always an option. The other disadvantage of a two-week PDC is that so much content is crammed in - lots of theory is lost or not absorbed. Often, this style of PDC is not recorded, so unless you consistently take good notes, much of the information shared is forgotten.

With the emergence of the internet, doing a PDC online, spaced out over time, helps mitigate these limitations. It allows you to absorb knowledge and practice the skills from each module before moving on to the next.

BUT if it’s JUST online… You miss out on a critical component built into the original two-week immersion format. That is the hands-on practical training at a real-life working site with a group of people who are on the same journey as you. This is where the real magic happens. The embodied learning. The transformation.

This is why we developed our innovative Hybrid PDC, to cause minimum disruption to all the other parts of your life. It allows you to absorb the knowledge and practice the skills from each module on your own time before moving on to the next.

BUT you still receive the immense value of real-life face-to-face embodied learning by getting your hands in the soil with the practical immersion over an extended weekend.

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The Key Benefits of OUR HYBRID

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

Our Hybrid PDC allows all theory to be delivered online over 13 weeks, so you can learn from the comfort of your own home and have lifetime access to the recorded content. The practical immersion is condensed into 4 jam-packed days where you don’t need to sit in a class-style setting.

Our Grounded Hybrid Permaculture Design Course gives you the following:

Solid foundation in permaculture ethics, principles & design.
Overview of the earth sciences (climate, water, ecology, soil, geography etc)
Practical planning and design skills for any climate at any scale
Competency in Google Earth Pro to build your base maps and designs.
A professional support network and friendships for a lifetime.
A new way to see the world & hope for the future.

During the 4-day fully catered practical immersion, hosted at the Grounded Regenerative Living Hub, Natural Bridge, you get hands-on with:

Seed saving & propagation (take home a bounty from our gardens to yours)
Natural bare-foot beekeeping (both European and native)
Growing sub-tropical survival foods (& how to prepare, preserve and cook them too.)
Syntropic food forest systems (how to plan, design, implement & manage)
Establishing resilient off-grid systems (power, water, grey-water, communications)

AFTER YOUR PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE

Live a Life of Abundance

A Permaculture Design Certificate is an internationally recognised initiation into the world of permaculture. Most graduates integrate their learnings into their passion, profession or project to embody a more holistic approach to life.

Whether you already have land or are still dreaming, this course gives you with the knowledge and skills required to plan, design, develop and manage it holistically. A few crazy graduates go on to start permaculture businesses or work at ours.

Technically, once you've done a PDC, you can start offering permaculture design services - but like all things, it's important to work within your experience and competencies. There are many excited newbie permies who go out into the world developing grand designs that might seem good on paper, but are simply poor designs in real life. But don't worry when you do our Hybrid PDC and become a part of the Grounded Community, we ensure that won't be you!.