Victoria Part Time PDC

Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Victoria Spring 2010

This urban environment course is the full length 72 hour PDC curriculum as laid out in "Permaculture A Designers Manual,"(Mollison 1983), and will arm you with the skills needed to design for sustainability in any situation and climate. Hosted and Facilitated by "Victory Gardens," the 72 hrs course schedule is divided into three 24hr modules. It is taught in this part time format to increase accessibility the time constrained urban dweller. Permaculture is not just a system of organic agriculture, it is a practical design approach that brings sustainable and positive solutions regardless of where we find ourselves...

Upon successfully completion of the PDC you will receive a certificate in Permaculture design. You MUST attend all class time and participate in the presentations of a completed design project exercise. As a successful student of the Permaculture Design Certificate, you will be propelled into action by new insights and strategies for turning the problems of today into the solutions of tomorrow. This course will fully prepare you to begin design and teaching permaculture in any situation or climate. The Permaculture Design Certificate is a the prerequisite for earning a Diploma in Permaculture through the Institute in Australia composting lesson

Your instructor will be Jesse Lemieux. Born on the west coast raised in western Canada, Jesse has been involved with Permaculture projects in British Columbia, Australia and the Middle East. The breadth of his experience covers small sub-urban backyard projects to large scale community development planning and everything in between. Jesse now functions as an permaculture educator and consultant full time. He brings a comprehensive understanding of Permaculture design to the classroom and sound understanding of design for the three major climate zones on the planet: Arid, Cool Humid, and Tropical/Subtropical.

Jesse's teaching style is a healthy mixture of theory and practice, which utilizes picture slides, schematic diagrams and hands on activities to demonstrate design concepts. Design exercises are used often to help students integrate theory, and the classroom setting is open and comfortable to encourage discussion and exploration of permaculture design strategies and concepts.

On Course Content:

It has been brought to our attention by some of our past students that they where not expecting such a heavy load of in classroom time. None of our students have ever been disappointed with the course content, just surprised. Most whom have raised this concern had imagined two weeks working with shovels out in the garden. While this activity is helpful we feel that this type of learning tends to limit the understanding of our students to one or two partiqular techniques, like sheet mulching or double dig. While these are good techniques, if applied in the wrong situation they can prove inappropriate. We prefer to give our students the tools that enable them to think outside the box so that they can deal with any situation and design their own techniques appropriate to the situation they find themselves in. Permaculture design is a holistic system of decision making that can be applied in the development of any human system. It is not a catalog of gardening and building techniques. It is information intensive, not labour intensive. Any real world design may included rain water catchment, organic gardening, soil biology, sustainable energy systems, solar passive house construction, renewable fuel production, waste water treatment systems, forestry, animal systems, transportation, SOCIAL SYSTEMS, LEGAL SYSTEMS, BUSINESS MODELS ect... It is likely that all of the mentioned field will be touched on and explored during a PDC. It is not possible for anyone person to be an expert in more than one or two of these fields. The role of a permaculture designer is to understand how, why, when, and where any of the above mentioned elements may fit together in an integrated and self managing system. Permaculture is the connections between things, not the things themselves. Once you have completed a PDC you will have a new way of framing the world around you. Rather than taking a design problem at the first glance you will now be compelled to think laterally, this is where positive solutions are waiting to be found. It is the responsibility of the student to seek meaningful practical experience after graduating from a PDC.

"I had been reading about and tinkering with permaculture for over 10 years before taking the PDC with Jesse. I expected most of the material to be familiar and the PDC to mainly be a good refresher. I couldn't have been more wrong - the PDC completely blew me away! It helped me to integrate everything I had been learning the last 10 years at a really deep level and gave me a great deal of confidence in applying the principles and practices of permaculture to every aspect of my life. Jesse is an inspiring and very approachable teacher who has a real passion for permaculture and really lives by it's ethics and principles."
- Nickolas Grabovac, Part Time PDC Graduate 2009

Part Time Format:

Three, week long, intensive modules. We feel that this format allows us to capture some of the intensity and momentum of a two week residential PDC, while catering to the busy urban lifestyle.
Each module runs from Saturday to Thursday, 9:00 am to 5:00pm Sat&Sun and 6:00pm to 9:00 pm Mon-Thur.

Week 1: February 27th to March 4th
Week 2: March 20th to March 25th
Week 3: April 10th to April 15th

Interested?

Sorry this course is now full!!!

Please contact Victory Gardens for details on course location and registration.

Any other inquires you may have about Pacific Permaculture, the work we do, or maybe you are interested to have a course in your area please contact us.