August 28th (New Moon)-September10th (Full Moon) 2022

PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE COURSE

​

Instructors: Penny Livingston, Michael G. Smith, Blair Phillips and Special Guests to be Announced. 

Cost:  $2000 Includes 16 days camping, 14 days of organic meals, and a pocket full of skills. Early bird discount $1800 if registered before June 21st, 2022

While no two courses participate in exactly the same activities, each course includes classroom and/or hands-on activities in the following areas:

• Permaculture principles and ethics

• Reading the landscape

• Pattern and pattern application

• Water harvesting

• Swale building

• Zone and sector analysis

• Climate and micro climate strategies

• Mapping

• Urban permaculture

• Land access

• Community building

• Plant guilds

• Soil Carbon Sequestration and Biochar

​

• Food forests and agroforestry

• The design process, principles, strategies, and techniques

• Bird language and nature awareness

• Soil building and sheet mulching

• Pond management and ecology

• Earthworks and natural building

• Grey water systems

• Bioremediation

• Renewable energy systems

• Forest management

• Watershed management

• Economy and Equity

• Group work on a conceptual design project​

Three meals a day will be prepared on site, largely from local organic ingredients. Camping is also available on site. Access to the land is somewhat challenging due to our steep unpaved road. Participants will park nearby and be shuttled to the site. Guided morning yoga asana practice will be offered 2-3 times a week, with space available for your own practice the remaining mornings. 

Located 20 minutes from Willits in the heart of Mendocino County, Abuela Gardens is a working demonstration site dedicated to helping the growth and healing of all beings through a continued dialogue with nature, water, food, and medicine. This approach is accomplished by incorporating community, music, healing arts, and silence within a multidimensional design strategy. Our action plan is to communally care for the Earth by growing as much of our own food and medicine as possible, regenerating the forest and aquifer we depend on, building with earth and regeneratively harvested materials as well as developing habitat for a diverse interface of wild and domestic creatures including bees and hummingbirds. This workshop will enhance the invisible systems present at Abuela Gardens with hands on projects, group mind activities, and collective joy.