Midwest Permaculture Presents

Suburban & Urban Permaculture

8-Day Permaculture Design
Certification Course

April 19- 26
Boulder, Colorado

 Sponsored by BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL

Permaculture – Creating a ‘Permanent-Culture’

Permaculture is much more than just how one goes about securing their food. Permaculture is about relationship, our relationship with everything around us. It is about finding or designing ways of using our energy and resources that are sustainable and authentically in tune with the abundant, natural forces that surround us – the wind, the rain, the sun, the soil, and human love & ingenuity.  It is about working with the forces of nature rather than fighting them.

Webinars Make the Course More Available for Many

Most permaculture certification courses run between 10 and 14 days at a specific site or location. This is because certification requires up to 72 hours of actual instruction and training. With the use of the Internet, students will begin this course from their own home during the 3 week period prior to the week-long, on-site intensive, being hosted in the Boulder area.

More About the Webinars near bottom of page

Focus on Suburban and Urban Permaculture

The full-design course curriculum as outlined by Bill Mollison (founder of the permaculture movement) and the Permaculture Institute of Australia will be covered, but the examples used when explaining certain permaculture principles will focus on practical applications for the suburban and city dweller. The emphasis in this course will be on residential and urban permaculture models.

Certification

Students who take this 72-hour design-certification course will receive a Certification of Completion with the Permaculture Institute of Australia and have their names registered with this institution. This is Mollison’s accrediting organization. Click here for more on certification.

Instructors

Wayne Weiseman of The Permaculture Project is the lead instructor of this course. He has been certified by Bill Mollison to teach this comprehensive training.

Bill Wilson is co-founder of Midwest Permaculture along with his wife Rebecca. He is a long-time advocate for a sustainable, ecological and compassionate society – a ‘permanent-culture’.

Mark Shepard has been applying a permaculture design to his 100-acre farm for 14-years and will be assisting with the webinar portion of the course.

Others:  Several other instructors with direct experience in the Colorado bioregion will assist in the training, including:

Jerome Osentowski
Being an avid skier, Jerome purchased a small piece of land up in the mountains of Colorado in the 1970’s. Never considering that he would be able to eek a living off the land at 7000 feet, and on a 35 degree slop, he heard about Bill Mollison and permaculture. Intrigued, he took a design course from Mollison in 1987 and shortly there after founded the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.  Today, this harsh mountain landscape produces bountiful crops of fruits, vegetables, herbs, chickens, eggs and flowers. He has even grown banana and fig in his all season greenhouse. 

Sandy Cruz
Originally from New York, Sandy fell in love with the mountains of Colorado as a young woman and has lived there ever since. After transforming the mountain garden around her home (9,000 feet) Sandy Cruz founded High Altitude Permaculture in 1992 to demonstrate strategies for working with Nature even the harshest of conditions. She holds a Diploma of Permaculture Design from the International Permaculture Institute, has taught extensively, and has been widely published and interviewed.

Marco Lam
Marco is a licensed acupuncturist, permaculture teacher and designer, and raises and sells herbs with wife Jamie through their business, Divine Farmer Herbals.  Marco trained and traveled with permaculture originator Bill Mollison for three months gaining an insight into the topic of permaculture that few poses.   He is also a founding board member of the Boulder Biodiesel Cooperative and acting as Executive Director of the Boulder Institute of Sustainability.

Facilitators

Bill and Becky Wilson, co-founders of Midwest Permaculture, will facilitate this course from registration to graduation, and beyond.

Continuing Support Following Graduation

Students who have completed a Midwest Permaculture design course are then invited to become part of our growing network of graduates. There are three ways we attempt to support our students:

• We have established a separate website where all graduates can connect, share ideas and look for some assistance.
• We host an annual reunion for all of our graduates during the Midwest Renewable Energy Associations fair in Custer, Wisconsin, each June.
• Graduates may audit any future 72-hour certification courses at half price (provided that there is room).

Our objective is to support our students for as long as they need it or want it, and to encourage them to support each other.

Already a Permaculture Design Course Graduate?

We offer a 33% discount to students who have already graduated from any other design-certification course (from anywhere in the world) who wish to take our 72-hour course as a refresher. Please email for details.

What is Covered in this Full Design Course

What is important to understand about a full-design-certification course is that all the basic principles and ideas behind a permaculture approach or design must be covered to meet Mollison’s requirements for certification. So, it doesn't really matter if you take a design course in Illinois, Colorado, California, Arizona, Hawaii or Australia, you should be exposed to all the fundamentals which will allow you to create a simple permaculture design for just about any piece of property or location on the planet. The fundamentals and the principles don’t change.

However, for the purposes of this course, when we explore how certain permaculture principles or ideas can be applied to a given situation we will tend to focus on the suburban and urban applications.  The majority of the U.S. population lives in a city, suburb or small town with little or no land.  How can this demographic begin to provide for their own water, food, energy and fiber on a local basis?

Design Course Subject Areas

• Principals and Ethics of Permaculture
• Observations and Patterns
• Soils, Plants, and Trees
• Guilds and Polycultures
• Water and Earthworks
• Climates and Micro-climates
• Succession
• Aquaculture
• Eco-Building
• Authentic Community
• Zones and Sector Analysis
• Planning the Homestead
• Bio-Fuels
• Economics
• Niche Marketing
• Urban and Suburban Permaculture
• Garden Management
• Small-Farm Strategies
• Large-Farm Possibilities
• International Implications
• More….

Fundamental Permaculture Design Principles and Ideals

Regardless of the subject area being explored, these fundamental permaculture design principles will be revisited regularly:

• Each function is supported by multiple elements.
• Catch, store & recycle energy and materials.
• Use biological and renewable resources.
• We can turn problems into solutions.
• Mistakes are tools for learning.
• Abundance is unlimited.
• Observe & connect.
• Accelerate succession.
• Use small scale, intensive systems.
• Use the edge effect to maximize yield.
• Each element performs multiple functions.
• Make the least change for the greatest effect.

What Student Should Come Away With

Upon completion of this course students should not only have a working knowledge of the different aspects of permaculture design, but they should have the foundational knowledge to begin to create a permaculture design for their own home, property, business and life.

This Course is Designed to:

• Give our students all the basic tools and facts related to a full, permaculture-design education.
• Continually bring everything back to the fundamentals so that everyone can see how the specifics all tie together.
• Keep the information and the class interesting, engaging and fun.
• Inspire confidence in each student.
• Deepen the understanding that each of us can make a difference, from where we are, and with what we have.

Course Textbook

Free with early registration (by 2/29/08)

Bill Mollison's foundational work,

'Permaculture - A Designer Manual'

Owning or having access to a copy of Mollison's manual is a required text of the course. Those who fully register by February 29th, 2008, will receive a copy of this classic text at no charge as an early registration discount. After 2/29/08 students can purchase the manual at our regularly discounted price ($97) when registering. You may also borrow a copy from a friend or the library if need be, but Wayne has asked that each student bring a copy with them to the course. Couples or family members participating in the course may share a copy.

The Designers Manual is mailed out to students shortly after they register for the course. This is a book that is continually referred to by committed permaculturists as 'the' definitive text. Both Mark and Wayne's manuals are worn out from use.

Schedule
The on-site portion of this course begins on Saturday afternoon, April 19, 2008, at 1:00 and runs through Saturday noon, April 26th. Since 12 hours of instruction will be accomplished during the webinar portion of the course, the remaining 60 hours will be delivered during the eight days on site. To accomplish this, the classroom time runs from 8 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. with 1 to 1.5 hours off for lunch. We will have some extra, but optional, evening activities (permaculture videos, guest speaker, etc.) but promise to leave a couple of after dinner slots open for some free time during the week. Students should come ready and focused to work.

Course Location
We are looking at several options in the Boulder and surrounding areas to host this course.  We will post more information here when the site is selected.

Meals
Students are responsible for arranging their own breakfast and dinner. Lunch will be provided from Sunday, April 20th, through Friday, April 25th, as well as coffee, tea, water and light snacks (for morning and afternoon breaks). Most of the lunch food will be organic, and as often as possible, locally grown. There will be a meat and vegetarian option at each meal. Persons with other food requirements may be asked to supply some of their own needs.

What to Bring:
4-6 weeks before the on-site portion of the course begins, every student receives a welcome packet (by email) which includes a list of things to bring as well as more details about your course, your webinar classes, and your fellow students.

Local Accommodations
Students will be responsible for their own accommodations during the course. There are numerous motels in the Boulder area.  For local area residents who are willing to host a fellow student from out of town, we will attempt to facilitate connecting you with each other in the weeks immediately preceding the course. This might be a spare bedroom, the sofa in the den, or the living room couch. The suggested rate is $150 that the out-of-town student would pay to their local host for a place to stay for the entire course week.

Course Fee & Registration:
The price for this course is $1,295. Register by 2/29/08 and receive the $97 Designers Manual at no charge as an early registration discount. A discount of $200 is available for your spouse, significant other, or a second (immediate) family member. (second copy of text not included, nor required)

Down-Payment / Course Reservation
Our simple e-commerce page is not set-up to handle partial or down-payments. If making a partial payment is an important factor to your ability to participate, please call Becky at 815-256-2215 to work out these arrangements.

Cancellation and Refund Policy - Should you have to cancel your enrollment in the course there will be a full refund less $150 if you cancel before the webinars begin (you keep the Designer's Manual). After March 30^th, you will receive a full refund less $350 (you have access to all remaining webinars, receive a $165 credit towards any future course, and keep the Designer's Manual).

Still Have Questions?
You are welcome to email Becky at Becky@MidwestPermaculture.com or call 815-256-2215.

More About the Webinars

The webinars will be taught by permaculturists Wayne Weiseman and Mark Shepard and will be hosted on three Sunday and Wednesday evenings prior to the course (March 30, April 2, 6, 9, 13 and 16).  Each live webinar will last approximately 2 hours. Some reading and homework will be assigned between classes. The webinars provide 12 hours of instruction before the on-site portion of a course even begins. The remaining 60 hours is covered within the eight, very-full days. 

The webinars are used to tackle some of the more text-book-type subjects. Students are able to access whatever photos, graphs, or illustrations that Mark and Wayne have prepared for viewing while simultaneously listening to their live instruction. Students are able to ask questions through a special chat feature. Besides being a way to effectively deliver and receive information, it also gives students the opportunity to get to know one another and the instructors.

Computer Requirements

Anyone with a computer that can access the internet with the minimum of a 56K modem can access the webinars.

Recorded Webinar Classes

Each webinar will be recorded, both the audio and the images, for those students who might have to miss a class or more. All recordings will be posted on the internet in a special ‘Student Resource Area’ and can be reviewed by registered students, over and over again. There have been a few students that had to miss every webinar (conflicting work schedule) but kept up and enjoyed them by accessing the recordings in their off time.

Interested in the Webinars Only?

We welcome anyone to register and participate in the webinar portion of a course. Tuition is $165 for all six webinars and the full amount may be applied to any future-design course with Midwest Permaculture. Webinar students must purchase their own text book (Mollison’s Designer’s Manual) and will be expected to do the reading and homework assignments.

A Bit About Boulder

If you haven’t been to Boulder before, we recommend that you try to get in a day early and/or stick around a day later. Rated as one of the ‘Best Cities to Live In’ in the world it is certainly worth spending some time just roaming around.  Boulder is also considered one of the most environmentally aware and socially progressive cities around.  BCGL, the host organization of this course, is a good example of this.  We will have some extra, but optional, evening activities (permaculture videos, guest speaker, etc.) but promise to leave a couple of after dinner slots open for some free time during the week. Click Here for a quick link to some Boulder info.