Heathercombe Permaculture Design Course
31st October to 14th November 2020
Residential, with non-residential option
High Heathercombe Centre, Devon
Can't make these dates?
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Why do a PDC?
If you are looking to make significant positive changes in your life, then the permaculture design course will almost certainly help you. This practical course provides you with a broad introduction to the applications of permaculture in a number of different situations, from food production to community structures, and alternative currencies to eco-housing. The course culminates in the main design activity that helps to consolidate all of the learning and empower you to take permaculture back into your home, life and community. We will be using practical, experiential and theoretical teaching methods to create a fun, lively and inclusive experience. In addition to traditional lecture-style teaching, we use group work, discussions, observation exercises, guided walks, practical activities, videos, and slide shows as learning methods. These are supportive of different learning styles and for people with learning difficulties. We also visit projects where permaculture theory is being put into action. As a group we will benefit from collaborative learning and from spending time together. We don't expect any previous knowledge and recognise that everyone has their own unique skills, knowledge and areas of interest to bring to the course.
This course is for anyone who believes that we need to find ways to better care for ourselves, for each other and for the Earth.
For more details about course content contact Aranya. -
What you will learn
- Why permaculture is particularly relevant today
- What nature can teach us about meeting our all needs more effectively and sustainably
- The ethics and principles that underpin permaculture and inspire harmonious designs that work with nature
- Simple techniques for caring for soil, water, trees and animals
- How to improve your own food security, including permaculture gardening and farming methods
- How permaculture can make cities healthier and more productive places to live
- Techniques for building eco-friendly, low impact homes and how to design them into the landscape, minimising both pollution and unnecessary work
- What really constitutes ‘appropriate’ technology
- Some effective, low-tech surveying tools to analyse and map the landscape
- How to make the best use of space and slope in land-based permaculture designs
- How to apply permaculture thinking to social structures, including alternative economies
- How to achieve bountiful yields with a minimum of effort and create win-win situations rather than trade offs
- How to start using permaculture in your own life and community, to create a more sustainable lifestyle
- And much, much more!
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Site visits
During the course we'll also be visiting other projects where permaculture thinking is being put into action. Planned visits include Martin Crawford's flagship cool temperate forest garden, Huxham's Cross biodynamic farm, Landmatters off-grid community and Proper Job community recycling project. -
Venue and themes
The High Heathercombe Centre is situated 1250 feet (380 metres) high in the Dartmoor National Park, backing onto the open moor and adjoining Heathercombe woodlands. The Centre looks out over the valley towards Easdon Tor, providing a beautiful, tranquil setting for a variety of activities and courses throughout the year. The High Heathercombe Centre has hosted two residential permaculture design courses each year since 2009 and also runs a wide programme of other courses and events, including Creative Family Weeks, Retreats, Arts and Crafts Courses and Volunteer Weeks. The developing vision incorporates permaculture principles, sustainability, arts and crafts, forest school and an embryonic organic vegetable garden. The Centre is run on a charitable basis by the High Heathercombe Trust. For those who are especially interested, the High Heathercombe Centre offers an extra emphasis on social permaculture and on designing food systems for challenging environments. For more details about the venue and catering contact Mel at the High Heathercombe Centre -
Dates and Times
The Autumn 2020 course will run from 5.00pm (please arrive by 4.00pm for a prompt start) on Saturday 31st October to 6.00pm on Saturday 14th November.
There will be a day off mid-course on Saturday 7th and a half day off each week, usually Tuesday afternoon in the first week and Wednesday morning in the second.
Sessions start each day at 9.00am and continue on until the evening meal around 6.30pm. We also have a light session most evenings of slides or a video to reinforce the day's learning. We have an hour and a quarter for lunch and evening meals, plus tea breaks during the mornings and afternoons. -
Course accreditation
On successful completion of the course, all participants will be awarded the Permaculture Association (Britain)'s internationally recognised Certificate in Permaculture Design.
Attendance of most sessions, plus participation in the design activity is necessary for accreditation.
Teachers
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Aranya
Completing his Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design in 2003, Aranya started teaching the following year. He discovered this made his heart sing, so he made it his main focus. Since 2004 he has taught over 90 two-week design courses, something he has no intention of stopping. He feels that it's a privilege to have the opportunity to teach "something that can make a real difference in all our lives".Aranya is also excited about new ways in which permaculture thinking can help us, developing new courses on using its principles to help us design for optimising our health and creating ethical livelihoods.In the spring of 2012 Permanent Publications published his first book 'Permaculture Design - a Step-by-Step Guide', which evolved from a set of design course worksheets. He also writes occasionally for magazines and from time to time shares interesting items on his blog. Aranya is currently writing a second book, about a subject he’s especially fascinated by, the application of systems thinking and patterns in permaculture design.‘I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been under the tutoring and guidance of such an inspiring and knowledgeable teacher as Aranya’ -Mel Chambers (Permaculture Design Certificate Graduate) -
Klaudia van Gool
Klaudia has had an interest in growing things as long as she can remember and has incorporated Permaculture ideas for the last twenty, since accidentally picking up Bill Mollison's book in the library.In 2006 she completed the Sustainable Land Use and Permaculture Design Certificate at Ragmans Lane Farm with Patrick Whitefield followed by her Diploma in Permaculture Design in January 2009. Klaudia also has a degree in Environmental Science from University of Plymouth and has worked as an Environmental Business Services Adviser for the Groundwork Trust for eleven years.Klaudia has taught 31 PDCs to date. She has been increasingly drawn to the People Care ethic of permaculture, using the design framework, ethics and principles for personal and social designs. When Looby MacNamara published her book People & Permaculture, she was privileged to teach the first People Care PDC (permaculture design course) with Looby and Stefan Geyer in 2012. Followed in 2013 by a week’s People Care Design immersion with Looby and Peter Cow.One of the original members of Thriving Ways, a collective of facilitators and designers dedicated to working with natural principles to create sustainable organisations, livelihoods and projects Klaudia has a wealth of experience to give.
