Study at Home Permaculture Systems
Learn to Design a Permaculture Garden
Become an expert in sustainable and productive landscape design.
" I have never found the staff at any other learning institution as supportive as the staff at ACS. This gives one a lot of peace of mind and confidence to go on - at every squeak from my side, you guys have always been there, immediately to sort me out. The feedback on my lessons has always been really good and meaningful and an important source of my learning. Thanks!..."- Student with ACS
Permaculture involves developing a garden or farm where the plants and animals are put together in such a way that they support each other's growth and development. The garden or farm may very well change over the years, but it always remains productive, requires little input once established, and is environmentally sound.
Learn to develop plans for permaculture systems (ie. a unique landscape where plants and animals live in a balanced and self sustaining ecosystem).This course develops the student's ability to prepare plans such plans.
This course was developed to encompass, but go beyond the curriculum of the Permaculture Design Certificate, as set down by the Permaculture Institute.
IF YOU PASS THIS COURSE TO A SATISFACTORY STANDARD, YOU WILL BE AWARDED THE PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE (PDC) (Requirements: complete all assignments to a level that satisfies your tutor; and sit and pass one exam)
“In this intensive and practical course you develop the fundamentals required to implement permaculture principles, and to produce a design for a large or small property.” - Adriana Fraser Cert.Hort., Cert.Child Care., Adv.Cert.App.Mgt., Cert 1V Assessment and Training., Adv.Dip.Hort. ACS Tutor
Duration - 100 HoursCourse Structure
There are eight lessons as follows:
2. Design principles
3. Zone & Sector Planning
4. Permaculture Techniques
5. Animals in Permaculture
6. Plants in Permaculture
7. Appropriate Technologies
8. Preparing a Plan
Several plans will be prepared by the student, including one major design.
Lesson Aims
Explain the principles of permaculture.
Explain the concepts of natural systems.
Explain permaculture techniques involving zones and sector planning.
Explain a range of permaculture techniques: (forest plantings, mandala gardens, ponds etc).
Explain the significance of different animals in a permaculture system.
Select plants appropriate for inclusion in a permaculture system, to supply a useful and sustained harvest; explain their husbandry.
Select appropriate technologies for use in permaculture systems.
Draw permaculture designs (plans) to scale
Scope of this Course
Differentiate between Permaculture and other sustainable systems.
Explain the procedures followed in practicing different techniques which are sympathetic to
Permaculture, including: No-dig gardening, Companion Planting, Biological control, and
Sustainable harvesting.
Explain the interactions that occur between living and non-living components in five different natural environments, including: Forest Systems, Aquatic Environments, Soil
Environments, and Arid Environments.
Evaluate different Permaculture designs against the nine Permaculture principles.
Distinguish between different garden zones in a Permaculture system.
Explain sector planning in a specific garden design.
Design a mandala garden for a specific site.
Determine the appropriate use of swales on a sloping site.
Investigate distinctly different Permaculture systems.
Explain three different cultural techniques used to minimise the maintenance requirement, in Permaculture systems you study.
Determine different animal breeds, which can provide a useful and sustained harvest from a permaculture system in your locality.
Describe the harvest, treatment and use of various products derived from different types of animals in a Permaculture system.
Explain the factors which can affect the success of different types of animals, in a Permaculture system, including: Poultry, Aquatic animals, Domestic farm animals, Insects, Earthworms.
Describe the husbandry of one specified type of animal, in a Permaculture system visited by you.
Determine different species of plants which can provide a useful, sustained harvest from a Permaculture system.
Describe the harvest, treatment and use of various products derived from twenty different plant genera in a Permaculture system.
Compile a resource file of fifty information sources for different plants which can be incorporated into Permaculture systems.
Explain the factors which can affect the survival of different types of plants, including those used for: Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, Fibres, Building materials, and Fuel.
Explain the husbandry of one specified type of plant, in a Permaculture system visited by you.
Explain the relevance of appropriate technology to Permaculture design.
Compare three different waste disposal techniques which may be used for kitchen scraps in a Permaculture system.
Compare three different waste disposal techniques which may be used for effluent in a Permaculture system.
Evaluate the suitability of different building techniques in a Permaculture system.
Explain the application of two different systems of alternative energy in a Permaculture system.
Compare differences in the impact on a Permaculture system, of three alternative technologies designed for the same purpose (e.g. three alternative sources of electricity).
Evaluate the use of technology in a house (you choose the house).
Determine more "appropriate" technologies to replace currently used technologies, in a house you evaluate.
Illustrate on a plan, twenty different components of a design, including: Plants, Buildings, and Landscape features.
Transpose a simple Permaculture plan to a different scale.
Represent an existing site, drawn to scale, on a plan.
Describe the stages involved in the process of producing a Permaculture design.
Prepare a concept plan for a Permaculture system surveyed by you, which is between five hundred and one thousand square metres in area.
Prepare a detailed design for a Permaculture system of between five hundred and one thousand square metres in size, including: Scale drawings, Materials specifications, Lists of plant and animal varieties.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a system of agriculture based on perennial, and self‑perpetuating, multi-use plants and animal species which are useful to man. In a broader context, permaculture is a philosophy which encompasses the establishment of environments which are highly productive, stable and harmonious and which provide food, shelter, energy etc., as well as supportive social and economic infrastructures.
Permaculture copies patterns from nature, it focuses on the way elements are placed in the landscape and in the way they inter-relate, rather then on the individual elements.
Other then food production, permaculture encompasses the use of appropriate technology eg. energy efficient buildings, recycling, waste water treatment, solar and wind energy and composting toilets.
In comparison to modern farming techniques practiced in Western Civilisation, the key elements of permaculture are low energy and high diversity inputs. The design of the landscape, whether on a suburban block or a large farm, is based on these elements.
Visit the ACS bookshop to view books on permaculture and a range of books in related fields on subjects such as sustainable agriculture, herbs, propagation, vegetable growing an many more.
Click here to enter the ACS bookstore
Following is an excerpt from the course:
Permaculture is an ethical approach to designing land use and community systems, to provide food, ecological habitats and other essentials needed for human survival.
"Care of the Earth" - this includes all living things and non living things which together comprise the environment (ie. animals, plants, land, water and air).
"Care of People" - permaculture systems should be developed to promote self reliance and community responsibility.
“Fair Share” - set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus - pass on anything surplus to an individual's needs (eg. labour, information or money) in an attempt to pursue the above aims.
“Implicit in the above is the 'Life Ethic': all living organisms are not only means, but ends. In addition to their instrumental value to humans and other living organisms, they have an intrinsic worth."PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
Permaculture copies patterns from nature, it focuses on the way elements are placed in the landscape and in the way they inter-relate, rather than on the individual elements.
In comparison to modern farming techniques practised in Western civilisations, the key elements of permaculture are low energy and high diversity inputs. The design of the landscape, whether on a suburban block or a large farm, is based on these elements.
This is an "intensive" foundation course. If you are only going to do "one" permaculture course do this! If you do this, do not do Permaculture I, II, III or IV as well (Permaculture Systems contains parts from the others).
Click here to view detailed course outline
This course is also available to be studied online... Click here to enrol in the online course
