Online Permaculture
Design Course
What is this course?
This 24-week course offers you the tools to create meaningful change in yourself and your communities through permaculture: a system of sustainable design, based on observation of the natural world and land-based ways of learning.
Why learn with Quail Springs?
You will benefit from Quail Springs’ two decades of experience developing a sustainable off-grid human settlement and regenerating an ecosystem in the high desert.
Gain insight into our lived example of low-cost, community-based and small-scale solutions.
This course is a 72-hour curriculum that culminates in a Permaculture Design Certification upon completion of the course and design project.
Your participation directly supports our changemaking work in research, advocacy, and grassroots community outreach work in the underserved Cuyama Valley.
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.
Together, and Online.
Quail Springs is committed to community-building as a core value of this course, even when we are sharing space virtually. This learning package centers on connecting and uplifting the world's greatest resource: YOU.
You will have access to our online Slack platform to deeply connect with specific instructors and peers and follow up with questions that come up as you go through the curriculum. The live sessions will include group breakouts and time for questions and sharing.

Our instructors have combined decades of experience in working and practicing what they teach.
They transform conventional farms into regenerative ones
Implement integrated animal management systems
Teach and support regenerative land practices internationally
Lead bioregional water advocacy and educational efforts
Spearhead natural building and advocacy initiatives
Focus on cultivating community through social permaculture practices
and so much more!
Take action. Enact change.
“This PDC was educational, moving and full of heart. It's changed the way I see and interact with the world and enlivened my creativity. I'm inspired to further my studies in the fields of Permaculture"
Drylands now cover over 40% of the earth’s surface and will only continue to expand.

Features
6 months of instructor support
12+ live Zoom sessions
Companion text to all video lessons
List of resources and books
Preview of the course curriculum
WEEKS 1 – 7
Permaculture Foundations
- What is Permaculture?
- Permaculture Ethics and Principles
- Why Permaculture
- A Canopy View
- Patterns in Nature
- Pattern Application in Design
- Permaculture Processes in Design
- Design Methods
- Design Case Studies
- 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
- Rainwater Harvesting for Home and Growing Systems
Earthworks
- Earthworks for Rainwater Harvesting and Resilience
- Earthworks in the Field
WEEKS 8 – 15
Soils
- Living Soils
- Living Soils Slide Deck
- Compost
Cultivated Ecologies
- Gardening 101
- In the Quail Springs Garden: How-To’s Bundle
- Urban Agriculture
- Energy Transactions of Trees & Forests
- Food Forests
- In the QS Food Forests
- Pruning Trees
- Rooftop Farming
- Introduction to Broadscale Landscape Design
- Agroforestry
- Bonus: Seed Saving as Culture Keeping
- Bonus: Introduction to Fungi for Food, Medicine, and Ecological Services
Animals
- Integrated Animal Systems
- Introduction to Quail Springs Animal Systems
- Introduction to Beekeeping
What About Waste?
- Greywater Systems
- What about Human Waste?
- Waste & Bioremediation
WEEKS 16 – 24
The Built Environment
- Appropriate Technology at Quail Springs
- The Built Environment
- Passive Heating & Cooling Site Example
- Natural Building Methods and Materials
- Housing Advocacy and Building Code
- Designing for Catastrophe: Fire Resilience in Our Built Environment
- Building Adobes and Rocket Stove: Natural Building Practicum
- Naturally Built Structures at Quail Springs
Conscious Social Design
- Introduction to Conscious Social Design
- Elements of Community Design
- Regenerative Economics
- Permaculture Network & Projects to Watch
Final Live Sessions
Design Project Submission
Registration
Scholarships:
STANDARD TUITION
$750
PAY IT FORWARD
$1000
$600
Frequently Asked Questions
Meet Your Instructors

Abudu Nininger

Brad Lancaster

Brenton Kelly
