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Four Seasons Permaculture Design Course - Summer

OFFERED NEXT - date change! Now August 12-13, 2006 (was July 29 & 30)
LOCATION - Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California

The Program
The curriculum and the hands-on aspect of the course will be integrated into the seasons and provide participants the experiences of winter pruning, spring planting, summer and fall harvesting, food preservation and other activities that relate to the seasons.

During this year-long course, you will learn how to observe and use the same principles that make ecological systems self-sustaining, and apply them to your designs for integrated homes and gardens, energy systems and water supplies, healthy communities, meaningful and fulfilling work, ecological economies and global political movements for change.

Topics covered in the training include:

  • Permaculture Principles & Ethics
  • Reading the Landscape
  • Pattern & Pattern Application
  • Water Harvesting
  • Swale building
  • Zone & Sector Analysis
  • Climate and Micro Climate
  • Earth Energy
  • Mapping
  • Urban Permaculture
  • Community Land Trusts
  • Plant Guilds
  • The Design Process, principles, strategies and techniques
  • Bird Language, Nature Awareness and Tracking
  • Soil Building & Sheet Mulching
  • Ponds
  • Earthworks and Natural Building
  • Grey water systems
  • Bioremediation
  • Renewable energy systems
  • Forestry
  • Watershed Management

Hands-on exercises can include a variety of activities such as outdoor observation, construction, planting, plastering, site tours, cheese making, sheet mulching, mapping, and others.

The course will also weave together the principles and practices of permaculture with wilderness awareness - learning bird language, tracking and participate in activities that deepen your awareness and intimacy with the rest of the natural world. The program will be founded upon the reality that we are nature and have an amazing role in our watershed ecosystems.

Students also form teams to work on a specific site design together.
Graduates of the course receive the Permaculture Design Certificate.

The 4 seasons program will take place at the Permaculture Institute's home on a 17-acre farm on the ocean in Bolinas. The farm is being transformed into a permaculture model of human beings living in harmony with the earth. Nestled into its own quiet valley, the site features a pond, grey water system, windmill, green house, seasonal stream, springs, ranch house and a heritage orchard and rose collection.

Instructors
Penny Livingston-Stark
 James Stark
Erik Ohlsen
Michael Presley
Jon Young
and other guest lecturers

The program will begin with a two day weekend starting Aug 12 & 13, 2006 and take place one Saturday each month until July, 2007.

Course meeting dates are as follows:

2006 Dates
 2007 Dates
Aug. 12 & 13 Jan. 20
Sept. 16 Feb. 10
Oct. 14 March 17
Nov. 18 April 21
Dec. 16
 May 19
  June 16
  July 14

 

Course Fees

  • $975 early bird paid in FULL by June 30 (was June 15th, 2006)
  • $1200 paid July 1st - August 1st (was June 16th – July 15th)
  • $100 non-refundable deposit due upon registration.

Final payment due August 1st. If payment is not received by August 1st, applicants may forfeit their deposit and position in course.
* No refunds after August 7th.

How To Register

Download Application Form (Microsoft Word format) and return with check made payable to the Permaculture Institute and self addressed stamped envelope to:

Permaculture Institute of Northern California
P.O. Box 923
Bolinas, CA 94924
Please send a stamped self-addressed envelope!

After we receive your registration form and deposit, an information packet will be mailed to you, including details on what to bring, directions to the land, and any other info you may need.

For questions or additional information, contact:
(415) 868 9681