The Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute is now taking enrollments for the following two Permaculture Design Courses in the latter half of 2010:

Permaculture Design Course with Rahamim Ecological Learning Community in Bathurst - Commencing 25th June

Permaculture Design Course in the Blue Mountains (Katoomba/Blackheath) - Commencing 8th October

Both Courses will be taught by Rosemary Morrow and Lis Bastian as well as visiting teachers. The Permaculture Design Course is the prerequisite course for teaching, designing or further TAFE Studies.

To secure your place for the Bathurst Course contact Rahamim as soon as possible on 02 6332 9950 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To secure your place for the Blue Mountains Course contact Lis as soon as possible on 47877533 or via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Each course will run on a Friday evening from 5.30 - 9pm, followed by a full day on Saturday from 9am - 5pm (with an additional Sunday for the Blue Mountains Course)

Bathurst Dates:

25th & 26th June

2nd & 3rd July

9th & 10th July

16th & 17th July

23rd & 24th July

30th & 31st July

6th & 7th August

20th & 21st August

Cost: Course fee $600 + either live in or live out costs

Live in $530 (includes 8 nights B&B, dinner, lunch and M/A tea for 8 sessions)

Live out $250 (includes dinner, lunch and M/A tea for 8 sessions)

Live in total: $1,130

Live out total: $850

Blue Mountains Dates:

8th & 9th October

15th & 16th October

22nd & 23rd October

29th & 30th October

5th, 6th & 7th November

12th & 13th November

19th & 20th November

Cost: $600

(arrange own accommodation and meals)

Permaculture Design Course

The Permaculture Design Course teaches the highest standards of sustainability, self reliance and resilience. It involves visits to numerous permaculture properties throughout the Blue Mountains and Central West. By the end of the course students will have created a design for their own property, a group design for someone else's property, and will have spent half a day permablitzing someone's backyard.

Participants in the design course will learn how to build waterwise food-producing gardens, reduce waste and the price of living, retrofit houses to be more energy and water efficient, create water retentive landscapes and use more resilient agricultural techniques, and build healthy and resilient communities.

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE OUTLINE

UNIT ONE: INTRODUCTION

Meeting of learners and teacher. Why people have come. Why Permaculture. Course Outline. Timetable. Materials and references.

UNIT TWO: CHARACTERISTICS, PRINCIPLES, ETHICS.

Permaculture is built on ideas and there are many ways to use these ideas. It is concerned with clean air, water and soil. It aims to build sustainable human societies. How to get there is suggested by characteristics, principles and ethics.

THE CULTIVATED ECOLOGY

UNIT THREE: ECOLOGY

Other applied sciences and humanities are presciptive, and narrow. Permaculture is based on Ecology - Flow of energy - Cycles of Matter - Succession.

UNIT FOUR: METHODS OF DESIGN

There are several ways to design a landscape. Some of these are by observation, deduction, analysis, mapping and using zones and sectors.

UNIT FIVE: MAP READING

It is very useful to read maps. From them you can see the best place to collect water, to place a house, and to grow different crops.

UNIT SIX: CLIMATE

Climate variation is increasing, we need to be able to design landscapes to both avoid and/or take advantages of different types of climate. We want to reduce risk and energy use and select appropriate plants.

UNIT SEVEN: MICROCLIMATES

This is where we work most closely. You can learn to design microclimates, and to read different microclimates. A large landscape is made up of many different microclimates.

UNIT EIGHT: SOILS

Any soil can be improved quite quickly. Soil can tell you many things about plants and animals. Most soils are very damaged. There are

different types of damage and different types of repair. Traditional soil classifications.

UNIT NINE: WATER AND LANDSCAPE

Water is the basis of life. It is a precious mineral. Water is harvested and saved in many ways until needed by plants, animals and people. Water is the basis of rehabilitating soils.

UNIT TEN: EARTHWORKS

Moving earth to change climate, make dams, build houses, and roads can be done to increase productivity. Many mistakes can be made in earthworks and it costs a lot of money. There are some good guidelines for earthworks.

UNIT ELEVEN: PLANTS IN PERMACULTURE

Plants are used for many functions in a permaculture design. They are basic to every design. Many propagation methods are tried. Nurseries

and local species are very important.

UNIT TWELVE: FORESTS

Understanding forests and how they work is the basis of planting. A forest is an airconditioner, soil binder, mulcher, windbreak. From knowing how forests work, landscapes are designed which are productive. Windbreaks are designed from knowing about forests.

UNIT THIRTEEN: WINDBREAKS

Windbreaks are needed in almost every landscape. They filter the air of dust and disease. They slow down hot winds and cold winds. They

protect plants, animals and buildings. Each one must be separately designed for each site.

UNIT FOURTEEN: PATTERNS IN NATURE

Understanding the patterns of nature helps us to design highly productive integrated landscapes. Patterns are linear, circles, spirals, streamlines, songs, and sayings. They all interpret landscape and improve designs.

DESIGNING PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES

UNIT FIFTEEN: BROAD CLIMATIC BIOZONES

There are many climate zones in the world. Each one has a special type of sustainable landscape. When we try to make one landscape like

another, it usually fails. Soils, water use, nutrients and traditional methods have evolved over a long time and are usually sustainable.

UNIT SIXTEEN: SITING AND BUILDING HOMES

A low energy, non-polluting house can be comfortable and suit your lifestyle. A home should not be too hot or too cold and everyone can live well in it. There are principles for this.

UNIT SEVENTEEN: HOME FOOD GARDENS

Everyone, from people in the city with tin y gardens, to people with a lot of country land can grow much of their own food. This keeps soil

and water in good condition, uses household waste, stops moving food around the country, and chemicals are controlled.

UNIT EIGHTEEN: ORCHARDS - GROWING FRUIT

Good quality, chemically clean fruit is a security. An orchard is a food forest with many mixed species supplying fruit all year. Some non-food species are planted to provide protection and fertiliser - and later firewood.

UNIT NINETEEN: FOOD FORESTS AND SMALL ANIMALS

To prune, eat pests, provide fertiliser, and not do damage, chickens are best kept in an orchard. They can be used to prepare `tractor' an area, or to maintain it. Ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl and pigs can also be used.

UNIT TWENTY: CROPPING AND LARGE ANIMALS

There are two main methods of growing crops which build the soil and reduce pests. These are alley cropping and Fukuoka. Many crops can

be grown this way and these allow large animals like buffalo and oxen to be well fed.

UNIT TWENTY ONE: STRUCTURAL FORESTS

We all use a lot of wood in our lifetime. The structural forest is where we put it back and try to grow all our own foresty needs for bark, firewood,furniture, dyes, mulches, oils and so on. It can eventually give a very good income and improve the land.

UNIT TWENTY TWO: CONSERVATION FORESTS

These are the natural, indigenous forests of a region. They are working to keep the land in good condition. They are usually threatened. There are sometimes remnant forests which must be preserved, or people try to link up forests with corridors. There are some good ways to do this.

ADDING TO SUSTAINABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY

UNIT TWENTY THREE: WEED ECOLOGY

Weeds are usually classified by farmers - so most plants are weeds. Weed control often simply means just spraying. Weeds need only to be managed for the benefits they bring.

UNIT TWENTY FOUR: WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

People and wildlife are often in conflict. Wildlife is in great danger from people. In a well-designed landscape, people and wildlife can live together.

UNIT TWENTY FIVE: INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

Pests are to be appreciated, and managed, not eliminated. Understanding pest lifecycles, and how predators work, pests can be reduced and kept to an acceptable damage level.

UNIT TWENTY SIX: SITE ANALYSIS

This is looking carefully at a site to understand its good and bad points, both of which can be used in a design. There is information you get on site, and information you get off site. A site analysis is the basis from which you start, with all the information you can get about the land.

UNIT TWENTY SEVEN: DESIGN GRAPHICS

This is how to do a design, and how to show people what you can do to make their land more intensive, and more productive.

UNIT TWENTY EIGHT: CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

When doing a design for land, there are always problems. Sometimes you dont know how to solve them. There are some ways you can think about solving problems and arriving at good solutions.

UNIT TWENTY NINE: INCOMES FROM ACRES

Every piece of land should pay for itself. It should make a profit. This can be done without destroying the land's resources. There are many ways of making money.

UNIT THIRTY: AQUACULTURE

Water systems can be highly productive. This includes fish, prawns, crabs, tortoise, plants and water plants. The whole system is an integrated ecosystem. It can be planned to be very productive.

UNIT THIRTY ONE: DESIGN FOR DISASTER

From war to drought, there are many risks and dangers to human and agricultural systems. Some things can be done to make landscape stronger so it is less likely to be damaged, or so it can recover more quickly.

UNIT THIRTY TWO: BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biotechnology is difficult to see but it is changing the world and the plant and animal species. It is valuable to discuss it so people can decide what they think about it.

INVISIBLE STRUCTURES AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

UNIT THIRTY THREE: BIOREGIONS

A person cannot be self-sufficient. A region can be self-sufficient. By working to enrich and empower where we live we can make good and strong societies.

UNIT THIRTY FOUR: MONEY, ECONOMICS AND ETHICAL INVESTMENT

We can use money well or badly. We can set up our own schemes to meet our own needs.

UNIT THIRTY FIVE: LEGAL STRUCTURES

How we can protect ourselves by having good organisations.

UNIT THIRTY SIX: LAND ACCESS AND ETHICS

How can poor people, indigenous and other people get land? There are many ways. Land is a resource and not a commodity. It is there to be cared for and to meet our needs.

UNIT THIRTY SEVEN: LAND OWNERSHIP

Every person has the right to land for shelter and for meeting their food needs. There are some ways of owning land which can also protect it.

UNIT THIRTY EIGHT: COMMUNITIES

People live in communities and these can work well or fall apart. This section gives reasons why they succeed or fail.

UNIT THIRTY NINE: URBAN PERMACULTURE

There are some good Permaculture models for towns. Towns are major consumers of resources as well as being major polluters. They can become good places to grow many of the population's needs.

UNIT FORTY: SUBURBAN PERMACULTURE

Suburban areas until recently produced almost nothing, despite good resources in space and time. This can be turned around.