Permaculture Classes Schedule
Updated June 2009
Note: Within modules, instructors and topics are often moved between days to accommodate instructor availability issues.
Course Outlines
Likely Guild Instructors: JB= Joe Blanton; MB=Mark Bowen; LC=Lewis Coleman; DC=David Crossley; GE=Gary Edmondson; KF: Kirby Fry; BHa=Bill Hancock; BHe=Brian Herod; DL=Diana Liga; PM= Patricia Michael; SM=Shawn McFarland; JO=Jim Ohmart; BR=Bob Randall; RS=Ray Sher; MCS=MC Swearingen; MT=Maisha Tianuru; KT=Kevin Topek; AT= Amanda Tullos; JW=Jennifer Walker; CV=Cas Van Woerden; GV=Gita Van Woerden. VGI=Various Guild Instructors (classes taught by many possible instructors)
Offered Before FALL, WINTER, & SPRING Modules
Day 1 Introduction to Permaculture
A weekday night 630-930pm 3 hr. .
Permaculture is a design system for creating a sustainable local quality of living while minimizing the need for materials and energy. It is the most advanced design concept for creating gardens, landscapes, farms and ecosystems. It also helps design sustainable buildings and societies that can prosper easily and efficiently for centuries while minimizing energy and materials use. In this orientation, learn a little about this perspective and FIVE modules over the next year that will help make your home and community more sustainable, and your yard, farm and community into a vibrant bird- and butterfly-filled space, resplendent with gourmet vegetables and fruits.
1 hr Intro [CV]
1 hr Outline of Modules [SM]
1 hr Mollison video
BASICS OF PERMACULTURE
This class examines permacultural concepts and principles that are broadly useful in designing sustainable landscapes, natural areas, structures and communities of the highest quality. Coursework includes the three ethical and 12 design principles of permaculture, methods of design using multiple connections, and the causes and importance of climate. It also includes zones (designs that reduce labor); sector (designs that incorporate wild energies such as wind and rain); pattern and edge (designs that increase biodiversity and direct sectors); and mapping (thoughtful placement of trees, animals, structures, gardens to use all these principles). THIS CLASS IS A REQUIRED PREREQUISITE FOR ALL OTHER PERMACULTURE CLASSES.
Sun (9-530) 7.5 hr
30 min check-in (students introduce themselves & talk about next class;)
1 hr PC Ethical and Design Principles [BH]
1 hr Principles and Methods of Design including function of connections [GV]
1 hr Lunch Break
1 hr Climate [BR]
1 hr Zones & sector, [MCS]
1 hr edge and pattern [BR/GE]
1 hr. Mapping and placement (LC, CV or GV)?
1 hr Designing with Permaculture Principles (GV)
Fall
Introduction to Permaculture (see {link to above description})
Basics of Permaculture (see {link to above description})
DESIGNING BOUNTIFUL GARDENS USING PERMACULTURE [BR]
(5 days on weekends totaling 29.5 hr with an additional optional half day and night) Designing Bountiful Gardens is one of five modules, and is open to anyone who has completed Module 1: The Basics of Permaculture. No knowledge of gardening is assumed. This course tours and explains urban and rural gardens designed using permaculture. It demonstrates some basic gardening skills, and surveys the permaculture of vegetables, fruits, and domestic animals. It also examines the placement of all these so that the whole is maximally productive. Water, pest management, soil, plants and their climate adaptations are also considered.
The first weekend Saturday Day 1 begins with afternoon guided tours of two permaculturally designed urban gardens full of food plants placed so as to achieve many purposes. Sunday Day 2 follows the next day at Urban Harvest and considers pests and the ecology of pest management, the permaculture of vegetables, ecosystems and plants from around the world, placing plants to benefit each other, and organizing communities to produce and consume the highest quality food.
Sunday Day 3 is on a second weekend at Urban Harvest. It covers domestic animals, climate and seasons in gardening, fertile soil, fruit trees, how to learn gardening, and designing a garden.
Day 4 and Day 5 happen on later Sundays about 90 minutes west of Houston at Animal Farm Permaculture Center. Please carpool with fellow students or teachers. Both days will feature excellent mid-day lunches. Go here to see directions to Animal Farm.
On Sunday Day 4, there will be hands-on demos of planting seeds and transplants, sheet mulching, irrigation, fruit tree pruning, tree planting, and how to change earth patterns to affect rainwater movement. This is not enough time to learn these tasks well, but enough to learn what is involved and where to learn more.
On Sunday Day 5, we will use all of what we have learned to create a garden on site. We will make observations, create a design, and implement it as a group. Those of you who can are strongly encouraged to come to Animal Farm the day before (Saturday) and camp out over night. You will need to help make dinner and breakfast and pay for food costs additionally, but you will benefit greatly from meeting less formally and viewing hard to find permaculture videos.
Day 1 Urban Garden Tour
Sat 1:00pm-5:00pm 4 hr [BR, RS] (Be sure to get directions for these tours from Urban Harvest.)
Day 2 BASIC GARDENING CONCEPTS 1
Sun 11:00am-5:00pm 6 hr
1 hr 15 min Pests, beneficial critters, and eco pest management [DL]
1 hr permaculture & veggies [DL]
30 min Lunch (Either eat before you come or bring brown bag)
1 hr Guilds [MCS]
1 hr. 45min World Ecosystems and garden plants [BR] 30 min Bioregional Organizing for Sustainable Food: Farmers’ Markets, Co-ops, Community Gardening, Slow Cooking [BR]
Day 3 BASIC GARDENING CONCEPTS 2
Sun 930am-5pm 6.5hr
1 hr Animals in urban settings; the nitrogen cycle [KT]
30 min Cation exchange and soil chemistry [JB]
30 min Organics, the soil food web and the foundation of life [BR]
1 hr lunch
30 min Learning Gardening [RS]
1 hr 30 min Permaculture of fruit trees [RS]
45 min Plants, seasons, climate & microclimate [GE]
1 hr. Breakout sessions: Designing a garden [LC & other instructors that day]
DAY 4 GARDENING SKILLS [VGI]
Sun 930am-5pm (at Animal Farm) 6.5 hr
1 ½ hr earthworks and the garden [CV]
1 ½ hr Breakout on swales/slope [BR], irrigation [CV], planting a tree [MCS] ,
1 hr prepared lunch
3 hr Sheet mulching (VGI); transplants & seeds (GV), pruning a tree (MCS/BR/RS)
DAY 5a Highly Recommended Optional Permaculture Videos & Community
Saturday before Day 5 Campout at Animal Farm Permaculture Center 4pm-930am
1 hr Setup Camp
2 hr Meal preparation & consumption
3 hr Permaculture videos and stories
DAY 5b GARDEN DESIGN & BUILDING
Sun 930am-5pm at Animal Farm 6.5 hr
3 hr Looking at potential garden sites—3 breakout groups [GV]
1 hr Prepared Lunch
1 hr 30 min Design work, presentations & choosing a site [GV]
2 hr Construction of a New Garden
Winter Introduction to Permaculture (see {link to above description})
Basics of Permaculture (see {link to above description})
DESIGNING OUR GREEN HOMES & COMMUNITIES [SM]
(5 days on weekends totaling 30 hr) In a world of peak oil, rapidly rising energy and materials prices, and increasing climate protection measures, it is essential that our homes and communities change as quickly as possible. This course helps us get there. Designing Our Green Homes and Communities is one of five modules in the permaculture design certificate course, and is open to anyone who has completed Module 1: The Basics of Permaculture. No city planning, engineering or architectural knowledge is assumed.
This course includes an informative guided tour of two homes. One is an affordable new house and the other is retrofitted to reduce fossil energy use. In class at Urban Harvest, we look at various features of the urban ecohouse. We discuss climate control, building new ecohouses, and retrofitting old ones. We also look at organizations that promote them worldwide and in Texas, and then finish the day working on small group design of sustainable housing.
For our third session, at Urban Harvest, we look at a number of important support features particularly valuable for rural structures. These include water supply and purification, renewable energy, using local resources for building, disaster prevention, and ways to avoid expenses.
Our fourth session is at a location about 90 minutes west of Houston at Animal Farm Permaculture Center (see www.trcat.com/animalfarm/gallery.htm ) Carpooling will be encouraged strongly. There will be an excellent mid-day lunch. For directions, see www.urbanharvest.org/permaculture/directions.html . The day starts with an inspiring talk on building community, and then spends the bulk of the day installing a solar energy set-up hands on and natural building.
Our last class in this module is in Houston and will focus on Ecovillages, Cohousing and Sustainable Communities. In these, sustainable communities prosper, transit emphasizes energy conservation, and people get more out of less. Much of the day will be devoted to learning to design such communities.
Day 1 The Urban Ecohouse
Sat 9:30am-5:00pm 6.5 hr
1.5 hr Land Development, Smart Growth & Alternative Transit [DC]
30 min. Bioregional Organizations for sustainable communities [BR]
1 hr lunch
15 min Student introductions
1.0 hr Climate and The Ecohouse [SM]
1.5 hr Eco Architecture [SM]
30 min Integral Urban Home Concept [SM]
1 hr Hands on designing the eco-house in small groups [SM]
Day 2 Urban Ecohouse Tour (affordable new & retrofit)
Sun 1:00pm-5:00pm 4 hr [SM]
Day 3 Skills and Concepts for Renewal
Sun 9:30am-5:00pm 6.5 hr
1 hr Alternative Economics [BR]
1 hr Placing the house and Designing for Disaster [BR]
1 hr Water supply and natural purification [CV]
2 hr Renewable Energy [CV]
1 ½ hr Using local resources for Natural building [GV]
Day 4 Hands On Renewable Energy
Sun 930am-5pm at Animal Farm 6.5 hr
1.5 hr Building community neighborhood-by-neighborhood [PM]
1 hr lunch
5 hr Hands on Renewable Energy [CV]
Day 5 Tomorrow’s Ecovillages and Sustaintable Communities
Sun 9:30am-5:00pm 6.5 hr at UHI & EcoVillage
1 hr Water supply [JW]
1 ½ hr Intro to Sustainable Communities & Ecovillages [SM]
2 hr Lunch and tour of Ecovillage site
3 hr Urban Ecovillage design practicum (is there a better word for this class??) in small groups [SM & JO]
Spring
Introduction to Permaculture (see {link to above description})
Basics of Permaculture (see {link to above description})
Restoring Nature Using Permaculture Design [RS]
(3 days on weekends totaling 19.5 hr)
This module is open to anyone who has completed Module 1: The Basics of Permaculture. No ecological or nature training is assumed.
Our first session at Urban Harvest focuses on the various components of nature: trees and forests, prairies and wetlands, Texas ecosystems, and the local bioregional organizations that work to support them.
Our second session is at a natural area. It examines some of the threats to our world and local ecosystems, goes over the basic ideas of ecology, and then spends the bulk of the day learning how to observe nature using the permaculture perspective.
Our last session will be at a local natural area and will be devoted to restoring a habitat feature
Day 1 Ecosystems
Sat 9:30am-5:00pm 6.5 hr
2 hr Trees, Forests and Energy [MCS BR]
30 min Local Bioregional Organizing to Rebuild Nature [RS]
1 hr lunch
2.5 hr Texas Ecosystems [KF]
1 ½ hr Prairies & Wetlands [MB]
Day 2 Ecology & Nature
Sunday 10am-5pm—(take out dashes) 6 hr at TBA
4 hr Observations and nature [JB, RS]
1 hr lunch
2 hr Ecology and Deeper Ecology [BR]
Day 3 Restoring Nature
Sun 9:30am-5:00pm 6.5 hr at a nature site TBA
2 hrs Designing a Restoration [BHe, JO, JB]
4.5 hr Hands on Restoration [BHe, JO, JB, VGI]
Offered May-June and As Needed
Graduation Tutorial [RS]
In this class, students who have completed all of the other modules are invited to design an 8-hour project by consulting with a Guild teacher and then presenting to the group of students and teachers at a graduation party. Taking this module helps the student to see if they have learned everything the teachers think needs to be addressed in the design the student selects. It also provides an opportunity to see what fellow students have designed so it provides significant additional education at a higher level.
Tutorial Explanation [RS & Guild] (2 hr) One or more alternative dates are set each year to accommodate students and instructors) Graduation 10:00am-4:00pm
Information Useful for Taking the Courses
Text Support
By far the best book on permaculture is Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual. This book is expensive ($109 from www.permacultureactivist.net ) and not always easy to purchase so we don’t make it a required text. We do strongly encourage you to purchase it if you can, and read it. Much of our permaculture (PC) courses correspond to parts of this book.
Guild Teachers
The instructors in this course are not all trained teachers, though many of them have substantial background in the topics they teach. Permaculturists think that whatever one’s regular job might be, that everyone with adequate training needs to teach permaculture. No member of our Guild is a full time permaculture instructor. We do our best, but depend on you for helpful suggestions as to how to better.
Logistics
You will need maps and directions for classes that aren’t at Urban Harvest. For the first Bountiful Gardens class, you will need to get an email or fax from Urban Harvest. Otherwise, the class immediately before a non-Urban Harvest session will discuss the logistics. Let us know well ahead if you will miss that class and need special arrangements or directions. For Animal Farm, get them from the web. Directions to Animal Farm are here. We strongly suggest that you carpool with other students or teachers to Animal Farm.
Field Trip Weather Issues
There is no practical way to reschedule classes that cannot be offered because of bad weather. So in such cases, we offer a raincheck for free the following year provided it is offered. Because of this, cancellations will be very rare. We therefore try to wait as long as possible before cancelling. If we do cancel a class, we will know three hours before the class is scheduled to start and you can call the class facilitator’s cell number to find out. For Houston classes, weather and traffic are fairly easy to learn about. However, Animal Farm, being further west, is much, much drier and often 5-10˚ cooler than Houston. So if you can get there, a class is probably feasible. In any case, bring rain gear, sun gear or cold gear if there is any chance you might need it!
