Permacoach Permaculture Design Course (part time Saturdays: real world)

PLEASE NOTE: This course is designed for people living within the NSW Central Coast bioregion. If you live further away, we encourage you to find a course within your own area. Permaculture design is context based, and knowing what works in your own area makes a difference. 

Please read all the way to the end before enrolling; this description includes important information about our course. Feel free to contact us if you need more information. 

"I am yet to find a design task that cannot be improved by permaculture" Rowe Morrow

Are you ready to take your permaculture designing to the next level and become part of a growing community of people that find solutions where others find problems? Our popular Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at Matcham on the NSW Central Coast is happening again soon and is open to local people that have completed our Permaculture Fundamentals introductory course, or those with equivalent experience.

Join us every Saturday from the 17th of June to the 2nd of September 2023 for our engaging and interactive course. Learn everything you need to know to create integrated systems that rebuild the ecological health of the earth while providing for the needs of all living things. 

Your 72 hour in-person content includes the full PDC curriculum and site visits to see permaculture in action. You will also spend 2 to 4 hours each week in your own time, working on designs and reading our text for the course, The Earth Restorer's Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary (Rowe) Morrow. (Copies available at cost from us)

There will also be opportunities for you to extend your learning by attending optional events, including our local Produce Share, Permaculture Central Coast gatherings and local Indigenous tours. 

Subjects covered include:

Permaculture ethics and principles
Ecological principles and global boundaries
The permaculture design cycle
Design tools, including sector and site analysis
Permaculture strategies, tools and techniques
Designing for clients
Weather and climate
Soils, topography and earthworks
Forest systems and nutrient cycling
Seed saving and propagation
Ocean permaculture and bush regeneration
Integrated pest management and designing for disaster
Energy efficient homes and designing for different climates
Social permaculture and systems thinking
Applying the design model beyond house and garden

We are best known for our innovative teaching and strong design focus. You can look forward to sharing each stage of the design cycle with other students to produce a high quality permaculture design for a property of your choice, regardless of your prior design experience or artistic ability.

You can also experience the joys of truly effective teamwork as you learn to work cooperatively with other students to develop a group design for a real world property.  

While some of the basics of growing food are included in the curriculum, this is primarily a design course where you will learn to apply the permaculture design model in a range of different contexts. 

Our courses are aligned with the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. We use interactive and creative teaching processes, aligned with best practice in adult education. Our students remember and apply our content and use it to grow food, businesses and social enterprises. There are no tests or exams and we keep classes small to ensure great outcomes for everyone. Nobody "fails" our courses and ongoing mentoring is available whenever you need it. 

Why our course won't cost you money
We are passionate about making permaculture available to as many local people as possible, regardless of your financial circumstances. That's why we will happily trade an hour of help in our garden for every hour of teaching. You may choose to bank hours in advance of the course, or work here on Tuesdays and/or Sundays during the course. We will send details when you enrol. 

We cost teaching time at $25 per hour per person, so those wishing to pay in full ($1,800) or in combination with work in the garden can still find it affordable. You can pay in full for the course on enrolment if you prefer not to work in the garden.

Please message us if you would like to arrange a combination of paying and working. We are also happy to work with you on a pay-as-you-go basis, where you decide each week whether work or payment is the better option for you. Just enrol in our free option and make up the difference in hours each week at $25 per hour. 

Feel free to message us if you need more information about anything else before enrolling. We seek to make all of our courses welcoming and inclusive. If you have special needs, please message us before enrolling to ensure we can support your learning. 

"Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple" Bill Mollison

It might be that you're already part of those solutions and looking for a way to leverage your energy, or it might be that you are struggling to know what to do in the face of so many overwhelming challenges. Wherever you're at, we will meet you there. This course is for you if you would like to:

* Relocate your ethical compass and your planetary passion
* Rediscover your deep and essential place as part of the natural world
* Reignite your vision for being part of a regenerative and adaptive future 

We look forward to sharing this learning adventure with you. 

Your teachers
Meg McGowan
With over 30 years of permaculture design experience and a merit based diploma for her innovative approach to permaculture teaching and practice, Meg is well known to Central Coast people for her generosity and commitment to getting more permaculture happening on the ground. Meg is a passionate gardener, writer, designer and permaculture advocate.

Graham King
With a background in science and engineering and a passion for alternative technology and construction, Graham is also recognised for his expertise in disaster management and permaculture earth works. He is the treasurer for Permaculture Central Coast and completed his PDC with permaculture co-originator, David Holmgren.  

Adagio
Meg and Graham's property, "Adagio" is on three and a half acres at Matcham on the NSW Central Coast. The property has been designed and managed using permaculture for over 25 years and includes food production areas, a forest garden and over an acre of regenerated bushland. Meg and Graham consider the garden to be their greatest teacher, and recognise the benefits to students of learning within this environment. 

Our course also features guest teachers with expertise in various aspects of permaculture

Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge that our course takes place over Country that was cared for by Indigenous people for over 100,000 years. We pay our respects to Elders and Knowledge Keepers, past, present and emerging, and recommit to never speaking on their behalf, but for holding space for them to share their own voices. As part of our ongoing commitment to reconciliation, all of our courses are offered free to local Aboriginal people. Please contact us if you would like to join our course. We would welcome your perspectives and knowledge. 

Donation Option
If you can afford to do so, please consider making a donation to The Ethos Foundation during check out, as part of your commitment to the permaculture principle of "fair share". Morag Gamble's charity gives 100% of all money donated to support people in the majority world wanting to learn permaculture. You can find out more about her charity here:
https://www.moraggamble.com/et...