Introduction to Permaculture Mini Course: An online, self-guided class for beginners interested in sustainable farming and gardening, as nature intended
Are you interested in learning about permaculture gardening and farming? Do you want to farm or garden more in alignment with nature? Does it seem completely overwhelming and you have no idea where to start? I've created this online, five-part, self-paced course for you. I'm a certified permaculturist, author, and speaker who has been practicing myself for over a decade.
Permaculture is the practice of sustainable farming and gardening that strives to mimic patterns already found in nature, and more specifically within the immediate ecosystem that surrounds us. It's incredibly powerful to grow food, care for animals, and steward your land as nature intended. But it can be challenging as there is no instruction guide, no set plan, and no blueprint because permaculture is about micro-solutions catered to your exact location. No two gardens, farms, or sites are exactly alike and so every approach is different. After all, permaculture works because it's about tuning into your own specific surroundings and adapting your practices to complement what already exists.
What's Inside the Online Course:
In this course I'm teaching you how to properly and thoroughly assess and then map your own site. Once you've observed and gathered the necessary data, you'll find all of the information you need has been there all along. I simply help you to learn about working with your natural ecosystem through understanding what soil you currently have, what animals and wildlife already thrive in your habitat, and how to incorporate working plants and animals to complement what nature currently provides.
Here's the course outline:
Chapter 1: Gathering Your Data
- What you need
- Data Collection Point 1: Sun Exposure
- Data Collection Point 2: Wind Direction and Speed
- Data Collection Point 3: Water
- Data Collection Point 4: Soil Survey
- Data Collection Point 5: Pollutants and Other Factors
- Mapping
Chapter 2: Creating a Zone Map
- What you need
- What is a zone map?
- Learn to map for accessibility and function
Chapter 3: Building Soil
- Understanding fertilizer
- The animal-soil cycle
- Compost and compost tea
- No-till and sheet mulching
- Cover crops and green manures
- Additional efforts for healthy soil
Chapter 4: Adding Plants
- Understanding weeds
- Solving problems with plants
- Companion planting and polycultures
- Permaculture planting systems: guilds, food forests, mandala gardens, keyhole gardens, and swale gardens
Chapter 5: Incorporating Animals
- Native animal inhabitants
- Native existing forage
- Your climate
- Identify challenges
- Animal resources and videos
By the end of this self-paced online course, you should hopefully know your site like the back of your hand. From there you'll have the problem-to-solutions-based permaculture thought process in place to start formulating plans and implement working resolutions.
How it works:
Once you've completed your purchase for the class, you will receive an email containing a link to a welcome PDF. This PDF file contains the username and password information you will need to access course content. There are five webpages (one for each section of the course) that you will be able to access with this log in information. The class is accessible to you forever, no expiration.
