Courses

Join Nick Ritar (Milkwood Permaculture) and special guests including Adam Grubb (VEG urban permaculture design) for an amazing two weeks of permaculture theory, practical workshops, site visits and intensive design exercises exploring permaculture in the middle of Sydney. Our PDC graduates leave our courses ready to design and implement permaculture principles into a wide range of scenarios; from urban permaculture systems to small farms and overseas aid projects.
The class size for this course is limited to ensure quality learning outcomes for everyone, and students emerge as accredited Permaculture Designers. Permaculture is set of principles that result in sustainable and productive systems. Systems for living, architecture, food production, land management and community. No chemicals and no excuses. Just good, thoughtful, innovative and effective design for the needs of our species.
This PDC will be taught in combination within both a classroom and a community garden environment, with site visits to amazing Sydney permaculture systems. During this PDC, examples of designing for energy conservation, food production systems, nutrient cycling and more will all be addressed with a combination of rural and urban examples. All workshops during the course will focus on Permaculture in practice within city and suburban areas.
"I have done several permaculture courses now and I would say that Nick Ritar of Milkwood is definitely the best and most dynamic permaculture teacher I've experienced. His extensive knowledge and experience has activated me towards becoming a permaculture designer. Thanks again, Milkwood." - Paul Jordan, Project Officer + budding Permaculture Designer
Our PDC is based on the curriculum set out by the Permaculture Institute, and uses Bill Mollison's "Permaculture: A Designers Manual" as its central text. We also blend into this curriculum new material from a range of other world-leading thinkers and activators on subjects like transition, food security, regenerative agriculture, urban water harvesting and many more.

So if you're passionately curious about how to start making a difference in your city or town, please join us!

This course is FarmReady approved. Farmers, primary producers, land managers and their families may be eligible for a full reimbursement of the costs for this workshop, including travel and accommodation. Go to our FarmReady page to see if you're eligible. The FarmReady course number for this course is: FRTC0409

Sessions will include the following:

•    
Permaculture principles and ethics
•    Permaculture design for urban and rural situations
•    Creating a balanced soil food web
•    Pattern Understanding
•    Designing water into landscape (or streetscape)
•    Passive water harvesting and drought-proofing
•    Intensive food and animal systems
•    Orchard and food forest design
•    System planning + intergration
•    Design for different biospheres: tropics / drylands / cool climates
•    Appropriate technologies for future communities
•    Trees, water and energy cycling
•    Strategies for building healthy, resilient communities
•    Site visits to wonderful Permaculture gardens and amazing community initiatives

Some resources to get you thinking:

• Some of our student's previous urban permaculture designs
  
• David Holmgren's Permaculture Principles
• All our articles on Permaculture

About the teachers:

Nick Ritar is a permaculture designer, consultant and educator who works extensively across a wide range of bioregions, farms, watersheds and city environments. He is recognized nationally as a leading advocate on how permaculture principles can contribute to food security through good design and regenerative farming and living.

Nick divides his time between extensive permaculture teaching, permaculture consultancy, writing and farming in central western NSW. Nick's full profile.

Adam Grubb is a urban permaculture designer, writer and educator who is not afraid of the big questions. He founded the global energy news clearinghouse Energy Bulletin which became the most popular website about Peak Oil on the web, wrote the famous Peak Oil Primer, has given innumerable workshops on energy related topics, and is a co-founder of the Permablitz movement.

These days, Adam is a director of VegryEdibleGardens with Dan Palmer, and now focuses his energies on urban permaculture design as the best way to create regenerative communities.

Alexia Martinez is a French/Australian permaculture designer and teacher based in Sydney. She knows all about the challenges of both strata-title apartment permaculture, as well as inter-generational family farming.

Alexia was attracted to Permaculture originally by the holistic and systemic approach to empowering individuals being drivers of change, and is now a fulltime urban permaculture designer and teacher.

Included in your course fee:

The course text Permaculture: A Designers Manual (RRP $120) is included in your course fee. We also make available our extensive library of Permaculture and associated texts.

Your course fee also includes extensive take-home resources on all subjects covered in this course, as well as our ongoing advice and assistance in questions that might arise beyond the course completion.

Your course fee includes tea + coffee + organic fruit during the day. For lunches, we usually put in a joint order to a great little organic cafe around the corner, LoveGrub - or feel free to bring your own.

Mates rates: we know that you're more likely to succeed in changing the world with a like-minded crew. To enable this, we arrange a 20% discount off full price for group bookings of 2 or more. Please get in touch for details.

As part of our Fair Share policy, we provide pensioner and unwaged discounts where needed. Please get in touch for more information.