Permaculture and Self Sufficiency Courses

Take Your Permaculture Skills To The Next Level

For people serious about permaculture and creating sustainable living systems as professionals in the field - or for the ultimate knowledge needed to create an all-encompassing permaculture environment.

This course is right for you if you have some prior experience in permaculture, it develops further skills beyond Permaculture Systems, covering:

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Organic Gardening

Learn to become less reliant on the electricity and gas companies and save money through alternative energy sources. This course will equip you with knowledge and understanding of the types of alternative energy, better ways to manage energy consumption, how electric and non-electric systems work, different techniques for storing electricity, and use this knowledge to plan how to convert a buildings energy supply to an alternative system. S1

Learn about building construction and renovation -

• floors, roofs, walls, windows, doors,
• painting, plumbing electrical and more.

Could your home or workplace be making you sick?

Develop skills to determine the impact of building construction characteristics upon human health, and to recommend innovations in building design to improve habitability.

This course covers building materials, construction techniques, electrical wiring, temperature & light control, ventilation, plumbing, ergonomics and psychological factors.

Learn how your environment can significantly impact human health

This course develops skills to evaluate, describe and explain how physical characteristics of a building and its surrounds have an impact upon human health.

Grow Sustainable Organic Gardens

This great course covers all the fundamentals and will help you to start growing organically it covers edible but also ornamental gardens.

A growing interest in more environmentally sustainable gardening methods offers the chance to provide you with the quickest, safest and most enjoyable organic garden practices. This course will lead you through these practices and guide you to develop and maintain your plot, large or small.

Organic plant growing is the production of plants without the addition of artificial inputs such as chemicals that have been artificially manufactured or processed. This includes herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers.

Organic growing has increased in popularity over the past ten years due to the increasing awareness of safety in the garden and on the farm and the desire to produce food that is free from chemical inputs. For decades, farmers and growers have relied upon chemicals to control pests and diseases in order to produce crops for sale. Unfortunately it is only recently that we have become aware that many of those chemicals can sometimes cause health problems to humans, as well as long-term damage to the environment such as soil degradation, imbalances in pest-predator populations can also sometimes occur. As public concern grows, these issues are becoming increasingly important. However the organic grower or gardener should understand that not all organic practices always guarantee a healthy environment, over-cultivation for example can also lead to soil damage. Organic growing practices should aim to ensure quality of both the environment in which we live and of the produce we grow in our gardens and on our farms.

Organic growing of plants works with nature, rather than against it. It recognises the fact that nature is complex and accordingly endeavours to understand interactions between plants, animals and insects. It therefore encourages the gardener for example to learn about the life-cycle of pests and to use this knowledge to control them. It also recognises that the use of chemicals has to be replaced with labour and management. Organic gardeners/growers have to manage pests rather then eliminate them. They need to be vigilant and have the ability to recognise problems and act quickly to minimise the spread of both pests and disease. They may also need to accept some insect damage to the plants they grow as inevitable. 

LEARN FROM EXPERTS!

This course introduces the basic concepts of Permaculture

It develops a basis for permaculture design by explaining the patterns which occur in nature, such as weather systems, water cycles, topography, soil-plant interactions and forest ecology

Learn how a knowledge of these patterns can be used to reproduce balanced and productive garden growing systems.

Learn to Manage Animals in a Permaculture System

• Domesticated animals
• Wildlife
• Bees
• Poultry
• Dairy
• Aquaculture

There are many different ways of managing land sites. More often than not, they emphasise a single purpose. We farm to produce a harvest; and everything else is secondary to thew harvest. We designate areas as protected reserves, to conserve nature in it's original condition; or we develop residential estates with the primary purpose of housing people. These and other purposes are valid of course. The idea of permaculture differs to other land management ideas though, in that it attempts to manage land in a way that gives significance to a multitude of purposes.

Learn How to Design and Plan Natural Gardens

Learn to prepare plans for permaculture systems (i.e. a unique landscape where plants and animals live in a balanced and self sustaining ecosystem).

Permaculture copies patterns from nature, it focuses on the way elements are placed in the landscape and in the way they inter-relate, rather then on the individual elements. Permaculture embraces three main ethical principles as follows: 1) "Care of the Earth" This includes all living things and non living things which together comprise the environment (i.e. animals, plants, land, water and air). 2) "Care of People" Permaculture systems should be developed to promote self reliance and community responsibility. 3) “Fair Share”  Set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus - pass on anything surplus to an individual's needs (e.g. labour, information or money) in an attempt to pursue the above aims.

This is an "intensive" foundation course. If you are only going to do "one" permaculture course do this! If you do this, do not do Permaculture I, II, III or IV as well (Permaculture Systems contains parts from the others).

STUDY SELF SUFFICIENCY AT HOME

Learn about food and nutrition, and making the right decisions about changes in lifestyle; as well as showing you how to do a whole range of practical things such as mud brick building, making crafts, growing fruit, vegetables, herbs, and other crops; raising poultry, sheep and goats, extending the life of clothing, conserving energy, recycling, simple home medical care and first aid, and lots more.

Learn to be self sufficient with your food.

You learn about nutrition and how to balance your diet, as well as how to produce, process, store, and use different types of food. This includes berries, nuts, milk, cheese, eggs, bread making, preserves, and dried food. Cooking, freezing, drying, bottling, making bread, planning a vegetable garden to give produce all year round, and lots more are covered during the ten lessons.