Online -Permaculture Design Course (PDC) 2025
A full online, 72 hour,
Permaculture Design Course
Join Chris Evans with lead tutors Tomas Remiarz, Barbara Scheltus and guests tutors Looby Macnamara, Morag Gamble, Alice Gray, Clare Bonetree, Paul Paine and Ansiima Casinga Rolande, for this full PDC where you will learn how to bring permaculture design principles and ethics into all areas of your life. Course participants will be awarded the Permaculture Association (Britain)'s internationally recognised Certificate in Permaculture Design.
Dates
Feb - June 2025
Dates below
Cost
£250 - £400 (payment plan available)
Facilitators
Chris Evans - lead tutor
& Guests
Course Description
Our course team will deliver eleven live teaching sessions on zoom that will bring permaculture to life with a mix of interactive lectures, group work and design exercises. We will draw on our own decades of experience from our own work, and that of the wider permaculture network. In addition, we will invite inspiring guest speakers to share their specialist subjects. In between sessions will be many opportunities to practice designing on your own site or a local project, and to deepen the learning with your own exploration of videos, handouts, websites and literature. You will be also able to team up with others in a peer group for mutual support and inspiration.
As this is an online course, you can join us from wherever you are. We look forward to a diverse group of students from many backgrounds and different parts of the world sharing their experiences and perspectives.
What you will learn
Empowerment is the essence of the course. We will be using diverse online teaching methods that will get you outside and interacting with your home, work and garden environment for over half of the course to create a fun, lively & inclusive learning environment. Running as a thread through the course is a design activity that helps to consolidate all of the learning & empower students to apply permaculture back into their own homes, lives & community. As a group we will benefit from collaborative learning & from having fun together. We don't expect any previous knowledge & recognise that everyone has their own unique skills, knowledge & areas of interest to bring to the course.
During the course you will:
- have 38.5 hours online contact over 11 x 3.5-hour zoom sessions (including interactive time and breaks); participants must attend at least 9 sessions to receive accreditation
- 40+ hours self-directed learning with observation and design activities, group tutorials and peer group exercises
- a chance to apply permaculture design principles and process on a real home design of your choosing
To see a full list of all the topics covered during the online PDC see course overview below
Appreciation from Past participants
Making connections and seeing the potential to connect everywhere
(I gained) Skills, self awareness and a new path in life
(I gained) Motivation, inspiration, knowledge and confidence!
(I gained) Confidence, understanding, resilience, tenacity, time organisation
Feeling inspired, feeling empowered to be an agent of change going forwards. Feeling excited to incorporate regenerative principles in my life.
… wanted to say thank you for a great course. Have finished feeling thoroughly inspired and excited to further my education.
Thank you so much ! This course gave me such joy, great quality of teaching and kindness
Thank you so much for this journey ! I'm looking forward to the next steps on my permaculture life steps. It was a wonderful, inspiring and supportive course.
I have enjoyed every second and have learned so much throughout the course. Thank you
Thank you so much for the teaching and facilitating, it was an absolutely incredible journey so far and I can´t wait to keep going.
I am optimistic and excited for my future with permaculture, and this is down to you all. My sincere thanks.
The whole design process empowered me to design a project with no previous experience of design.
Practical Information
Dates
February - June 2025: dates (times all 09.30-13.00, including breaks)
Note - participants must attend at least 9 sessions to receive accreditation
Session 1: Sat 15th Feb
Session 2: Sun 16th Feb
Session 3: Sat 1st March
Session 4: Sat 15th March
Session 5: Sat 29th March
Session 6: Sat 12th April
Session 7: Sat 10th May
Session 8: Sat 24th May
Session 9: Sat 14th June
Session 10: Sat 28th June
Session 11: Sun 29th June
Booking
For enquiries and booking please email Emma at applewoodcourses@yahoo.com
- Concession £250
- Low waged £290
- Waged £330
- Bursary Support £400 (this will enable us to provide bursary places)
- Payment plan available
10% discount if you sign up a friend!
Who do you know that could also benefit from learning permaculture skills for life? We are offering a 10% discount on your course fee if you can sign up a friend to attend the course. This offer is available any time after you book your own place, right up until the course starts.
The course cost includes a year's membership of the Permaculture Association Britain.
Making Payments
We offer this sliding scale on an honesty basis to try and make courses more available for low-income groups. We trust that you will pay what is right for you. Payment by installments are also accepted - please let us know your needs. Secure your place with a £30 deposit.
Applewood Permaculture Centre
Online Permaculture Design Course 2025
Course Overview
Topics
Online tools’ orientation PDC overview: aims, structure, content
Course culture/ Course Goals
What is Permaculture? Origins, Definitions, Components
Permaculture in Practice - Examples
Permaculture Ethics
How Nature works
Parable of the chicken
Permaculture Principles
Building blocks/ Limits/ Resource Audit
Design projects - Goal setting, Peer groups
Design process – Overview, Observation
Design concepts: Zones & Sectors (Theory)
Mapping & Site survey
Garden planning
Soil basics, conservation & improvement
Plants and Polycultures
Design process: Analysis
Design Tools & Methods
Landscape profile
Cultural Emergence
Trees & Microclimates
Scales of Permanence/Water in the landscape
Design process: Design stage
Working effectively in groups
Earthworm Housing Co-op Story:
Co-operative living and working
Project management
Design Process: Implementation & Maintenance
Animals in permaculture
Rewilding
Forest Gardens
Self-care and Interdependence
Urban PC
Building and Retrofitting
Commercial permaculture/ Fair Shares
Designing futures
Diploma Q&A
Nepal story
Design Presentations
Design your future
Course Evaluation/ Celebration
Frequently Asked Questions
Not found what you need to know?
Visit our FAQ page for more information or email Emma at applewoodcourses@yahoo.com
Facilitators & Venue
Chris lives at Applewood with his partner Looby and children Shanti and Teya. He has taught permaculture in the UK, Europe, Nepal, India, U.S.A. and Mexico. He is also a UK assessment level tutor for apprentices working towards their diploma in applied permaculture design with the Permaculture Association Britain.
Looby Macnamara is co-developer of the Cultural Emergence toolkit with Jon Young. She is an experienced permaculture teacher, author and designer. She is author of 4 books, Cultural Emergence, People and Permaculture and 7 Ways to Think Differently.
People and Permaculture is the first book to directly translate the principles and design methods of permaculture from land to people. Looby enjoys using creative teaching methods to create a fun and collaborative learning environment.
Tomas has been working in permaculture since 1997. He is author of Forest Gardening in Practice. Over the years he has designed and helped to create private and communal gardens, commercial and amenity woodlands, wildlife reserves and ecological restoration sites. He has taught many courses in permaculture and related subjects, both in the UK and across Europe.
I am Ansiima Casinga Rolande, an award-winning permaculture educator, Permayouth hub leader, and nutrition advisor from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. My passion lies in promoting resilience and sustainability in refugee communities through permaculture design, women empowerment, and arts education. As the founder of FOLONA (For the Love of Nature), I lead a registered community-based organization that focuses on permaculture projects and women’s reproductive health, including making and distributing reusable sanitary pads.
Morag Gamble is an international permaculture ambassador and educator. As founder of the Permaculture Education Institute, she teaches educators and designers on six continents, has led programs in centres such as Schumacher College, lectured in food politics, established a national community garden network and through her registered charity, the Ethos Foundation, helped create a regional refugee-led permayouth education program.
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