Congratulations to the people who completed the 2023 NWI PDC! This course was such a positive experience all around. We can't wait to see how the ripples spread into the future.
If you did not make it into this course, please contact us and let us know you'd like to hear about the next offering (Likely winter/spring 2024).
Check out online events leading up to this course
PDC Callout Meeting - video from January 25
Review our conversation! Christine Maloney and Rhonda Baird, Kathy Sipple and Rebecca Koetz talk permaculture! This online callout was hosted by Purdue Extension - Lake County.
Social Aspects of Permaculture - video from February 8
Kathy Sipple and Rhonda Baird teamed up for a conversation about social permaculture: utilizing the tools and understanding that will allow us to work together to meet our real needs in a dynamic society.
Ready to explore what a regenerative world can look like?
About the Permaculture Design Course
Permaculture Design is a way to integrate your life with the natural world.
It just makes so much sense to take a permaculture design course that can help you integrate your needs with the needs of the life around you. Permaculture design can help you make smart decisions about your garden, your farm, and your daily life. By working smarter (and sometimes a little harder) now you can increase support for the life around you while getting yields and building community.
It's a complex, beautiful world with difficult challenges to navigate.
We live in a world with complex, interconnected systems: ecosystems, homes and neighborhoods within communities, and cultural systems of education, belief, and practice which will leave a legacy to future generations. The world we share has a lot of positives to it, but also several challenges: climate change, pollution, poor soils, food systems, deforestation, energy distribution systems, problems in the built environment, social and economic challenges of all kinds.
Use your garden or farm as a steppingstone to a better future.
For decades, the permaculture design course has helped people to find the principles and practices which can guide key choices about how to live a better quality of life--a more resilient life. Those same choices can help to heal ecosystems and support future generations. We know we can do better, and it is more fun when we do it together.
What Motivates Us:
Connections and Design Solutions
If you aren’t sure about the permaculture design course, we understand. We wrote this blog to help. And, maybe it’s helpful to share some of why we are passionate about facilitating the permaculture design course. After working with hundreds of students of all ages, we’ve seen this course help people make the choices needed to have a rewarding, connected life. We love opening those doors.
This course does cover the 72-hour content including ecological, built, and social systems. We also include additional blocks on key skills we find critical in implementing permaculture into your life. Rather than an immersive two-week course, we prefer to work in weekend formats that allow participants to absorb and apply information in their lives as we go. This makes for a more transformative experience. Likewise, we encourage graduates to apply mentorship or apprenticeship after the course. Mentorship is an on-going relationship which develops mastery in key areas. Apprenticeship is a more formal program of training in an area that will could lead to a diploma which complements your career path.
Topics for the Course
- Soil building for ecological success and nutrition
- Water management, supply, and care
- Forest patterns, tree care, and plant communities
- Designing for food production throughout the year
- How to integrate animals into your system (and work with the ones already there)
- Permaculture in different climates — and adaptation to climate changes
- Natural patterns and emergent cultural patterns
- Skills which connect us with nature deeply
- Building structures and retrofits
- Small building projects that make a difference in the system
- Energy conservation and production systems
- Regional and urban permaculture
- Farm and rural permaculture
- Home and community economics that transform lives
- Decision-making and governance –with a special focus on sociocracy
- Village life and how your neighborhood is a village in the making
- Making a life with permaculture
- Support and networks after the PDC
- Connecting with a community of practice
Details for the 2023 In-Person Course
Format
In-person class: small group work, discussion, and reflection, and demonstration.
Locations: North-West Indiana and online as needed.
Homework materials may include: video, reading, and practice, This is a fun, dynamic, and participatory course.
Food: We will have snacks on hand throughout the course; but in order to keep costs down and food needs simple, we ask you to bring your own lunch.
Accommodation: If this is a requirement for you, you can reach Rebecca Koets up to 2 weeks before the course. Let us know in your registration. After registering, we can put you in contact with Rebecca.
Dates
Six weekends - (Each day we will meet from 8:30 am up to 6 pm)
March 24-26
April 15-16; 29-30
May 19-21
June 3,4; 23-24
Cost
$750-$1,150; sliding scale allows for self-scholarship. If more is needed please let us know. Payment plans are available. $250 deposit.
Your instructors for this course are Rhonda Baird and Christine Maloney along with guests (stay tuned).
Rhonda Baird has been teaching permaculture since 2005 with experience in a variety of environments throughout North America. She holds diplomas in Education and Site Design from the Permaculture Institute of North America.
Christine Maloney completed her PDC in Chicago in 2017 and immediately followed it up with an Advanced Permaculture Design course and Permaculture Teacher Training. She has been nurturing the Northwest Indiana Permaculture Meetup since her training began. She is passionate about food systems and brings her years in educational systems and organizing into the course.
This course is recognized by the Permaculture Institute of North America, with whom graduates may pursue a diploma. We are also happy to partner with Purdue Extension Services to provide locations for the course.
Please complete the registration for your course. We will invoice you for the deposit and complete an agreement for your course fee before invoicing you for that amount. Closer to the start date we will hold an online meeting and introduction and ship any texts to your address (or arrange pickup at the course).
Acknowledgements
This is an equal opportunity/equal access/affirmative action offering.
We also acknowledge the land on which this course convenes as traditionally tended by the peoples of the:
Begin your PDC course registration
If you have questions, please contact us.