Permaculture is a holistic design system for sustainable living, creating systems for minimum effort and maximum effect. The word was coined in the 1970s but is based on indigenous practices for many generations, as well as modern tools and techniques – making the best of the new and the old to design and create sustainable systems in the present day.

The Permaculture Design Course is a 72 hour course which covers:

• the Permaculture Design Process: SADIMET, and the theory and practice of different design tools from mapping to implementation. This includes different opportunities to use the design tools and create an entire design in a small group.
• Permaculture ethics and principles and their application
• Themes of soil, water, plants & trees, growing your own food, the built environment, resource use, social systems and contexts. Each one explored in detail with a combination of student research and sharing from all participants
• Site visits to five different permaculture sites - each Saturday at a different location with different co-teachers. 

This course is a mix of online and in-person practical sessions. In person sessions will take place over six Saturdays 10am-5pm. Online sessions are a combination of set content (videos to watch or articles to read) and fully interactive Zoom (online teleconference) sessions on Tuesday evenings (6.30pm-8.30pm).

About the sliding scale

There is a sliding scale to enable people of different income streams to attend. If you cannot afford to pay all at once, then you can pay in instalments. 

There are 4 different price bands (or you can choose to pay an in-between amount). For each of these bands you can either pay all at once, or in instalments.

For the instalment plan, you pay a non-returnable deposit, and we will then agree a payment schedule with you, to be paid in full by the course start date of 29th March 2025. If there are fees outstanding after this date, there will be a further 10% fee added to the course cost, to cover the additional admin required. Instalments will be payable by bank transfer on receipt of an invoice from us.

There are a maximum of 2 unwaged places available. If someone is able to pay the 'Good wage' amount, then a further unwaged place will be made available. This is why it is also called pay it forward. 

About your tutors in Dumfries & Galloway:

See more info on the Propagate website for Dumfries and Galloway Permaculture Course. 

About Propagate (Scotland) CIC

Propagate is a worker-led collective specialising in local, community and sustainable food projects. We work collaboratively to co-create equitable, healthy and resilient food systems. Find out more about Propagate.

About the online elements

There are two parts to the online side of the course - 

1) The Permaculture Association's Community Hub. There you will be able to watch videos, do quizzes and read information (together with plenty of further reading) made by different permaculture teachers from different parts of the world who give you information about their specialism, whether that's about designing, or a different specialism such as dealing with droughts (with input from Mallorca!). 

2) On specific Tuesday evenings  there will be a t'eleconference call (using Zoom). This will be a way to discuss the content given in the Community Hub, do group work activities, present your own research topics or answer other questions . See the Propagate website for details: Dumfries & Galloway Permaculture Course

The Venues

The Hidden Mill, in Balmaclellan, is a Permaculture Association ScotLAND Centre which is a paradise of edges. It has pasture, woodland, waterways, ponds, forest gardens and orchards. It's a centre for education and experimentation in radical growing, green building and energy systems.

Auchencairn Link Park Forest Garden is a 10 year old edible forest garden aka food forest in the community park. There is a community allotment adjacent. 

Suie Fields is a Small family farm producing fresh and nutritious local food using natural and regenerative methods. 

Gatehouse of Fleet - we visit Lusi's  permaculture forest garden and the beautiful Cally Woods. 

The venue for the 5th and 6th modules is yet to be confirmed  - we are investigating different options to see where we can get involved in design projects that will most benefit the community. 

More info: Dumfries & Galloway Permaculture Course (propagate.org.uk)

We will start at 10am to increase the possibility to arrive by bus, and we will organise car sharing with other participants (it's one of the things we can do on the Zoom calls).