ONLINE PERMACULTURE
DESIGN COURSE
A community-based Online Permaculture Design Course that empowers
you to enact change in your life and communities.
What is this course?
In this 10-week Online Permaculture Design Course (PDC), Quail Springs offers you the tools to create meaningful change in yourself and your communities through permaculture design, a system of design for sustainable human settlement based on observation of the natural world and land-based ways of knowing. Guided by the three core permaculture ethics - people care, earth care, and fair share (redistribution of surplus) - this course empowers us to design our lives to create the lasting change that our world needs.
Why this course?
Constant exposure to stories of environmental and social crises can leave us feeling immobilized and unsure of how we can effect positive change in our world. Many of us are left feeling as if our actions towards positive change aren’t enough under the weight of these ongoing crises. This course focuses on providing you with the scalable tools to mobilize for change - whether it’s in your home garden, your neighborhood, or your region.
This online Online Permaculture Design Course takes students through an integrated curriculum that is self-aware, actionable, and community-based. This course is a 72-hour curriculum that culminates in a Permaculture Design Certificate upon completion of the course and design project.
Why Quail Springs?
Quail Springs has been teaching in-person Permaculture Design Courses for over a decade. More than 1,000 students have gained their Permaculture Design Certification with us and have gone on to do change-making work in their communities and in their own lives.
Our teaching staff are farmers, activists, builders, and thinkers who not only teach, but also advocate at a regional level for policy change from agriculture to building codes. Quail Springs’ teaching staff includes both instructors who are residents at Quail Springs’ site, and instructors who live elsewhere and have contributed their expertise to this Online Permaculture Design Course.
Together. Online.
Preview the course curriculum
Introduction to Permaculture
- Why Permaculture
- Permaculture Worldview
- Ethics & Principles
- Patterns in Nature
- Pattern Application in Design
- Permaculture Processes in Design
- Design Methods
- The Permaculture Design Process and Project
- Permaculture & Science
Climate and Climate Characteristics
- Introduction to Climate and Climate Characteristics
Water
- Water in the Landscape
- Water Ethics (Regenerative Groundwater Management and Advocacy)
- Rainwater Harvesting for Home and Growing Systems
Earthworks
- Earthworks for Rainwater Harvesting and Resilience
- Earthworks in the Field
Soils
- Living Soils
- Compost
Trees and Forests
- Energy Transactions of Trees & Forests
Cultivated Ecologies
- Gardening 101
- Urban Agriculture
- Rooftop Farming
- Seeds and Seed Saving
- In the Quail Springs Garden: How-To’s Bundle
- Food Forest
- Food Forest Design
- Food Forests in the Field
- Introduction to Fungi for Food, Medicine, and Ecological Services
Animals
- Integrated Animal Systems
- Introduction to Quail Springs Animal Systems
- Introduction to Beekeeping
Broadscale Landscape Design
- Introduction to Broadscale Landscape Design
- Agroforestry
What About Waste?
- Waste & Bioremediation
- Greywater Systems
Appropriate Technology
- Introduction to Appropriate Technology
- Appropriate Technology at Quail Springs
The Built Environment
- Natural Building Methods and Materials
- The Built Environment
- Fire Resilience
- Housing Advocacy and Building Code
- Design for Catastrophe
- Naturally Built Structures at Quail Springs
- Natural Building Practicum
Conscious Social Design
- Community Design
- Regenerative Economics
- Permaculture Network & Projects to Watch
Design Projects and Design Submission
+ bonus footage of permaculture site visits!
