Course is flexible for needs of the group. Suitable for people at least one year after the PDC. Includes reviewing of priorities, financial updates, goal setting. Great for reviewing project planning. Open to cover ground where attendees are looking for support to build their future plans.

Join us at Blue Paradise Farms in Jamaica for an Advanced Permaculture Earthworks course that will immerse you in the theory and application of Regenerative Earthworks and Passive Water Harvesting and Management. In this hands-on course, we will explore the interconnection between watersheds, soil, climate and seasonality, agro-forestry, agriculture and permaculture design as it pertains to earthworks.

Book online

We will learn to link these concepts into a comprehensive regenerative strategy for the development of a permaculture site. Apply this knowledge in the development of an earthworks plan for the Blue Paradise Farms Permaculture site, of which we will layout key portions and begin to construct on site structures such as swales and a pond working with hand tools up to large machines.

This is an advanced Permaculture course that will allow you to further develop your theoretical understanding of the diverse field of Permaculture as well as offer you an opportunity to gain hands on experience.

Topics that we will cover in this course include:

• Earthwork Strategies and Designs
• Swales, Ponds, Key Line Design
• Agro-Forestry / Ally Cropping / Food Forests
• Water Harvesting & Drought Proofing
• Broadscale Passive Harvesting
• Path and Road design
• Raingardens
• Active Water Harvesting
• Tanks, Ferro-cement & Conveyance
• Earthwork Layout and Construction
• Aquaculture, Ponds and Natural Pools

What is it?
This day course will be an excellent opportunity to refresh your permaculture knowledge and practice applying it to any of the work and projects you are involved in. You will have a chance to work on your own designs and get feedback on them, and we will explore permaculture theory and practice deeper in a supportive group.

Who is it for?
This course is suitable for anyone who has attended a PDC. It will be useful to you if you are doing your permaculture diploma, thinking about doing the diploma, or if you simply want to improve the way you do things in your world-changing activities, however big or small they are.

This training has been developed to assist participants in understanding how to take the basic principles of permaculture design and apply them on a land-based project. While a few days is insufficient time to fully observe a site and come up with a design that optimises energy use there, a lot can still be learned. Hence this training takes participants through an albeit brief hands-on land-based design process on a real site, bringing permaculture theory to life. It is useful for anyone stewarding land, from gardeners to smallholders and farmers. For more details see website.

PROJECT: 7m diameter StarDome with wattle and daub stem wall framed with recycled wood

ADVANTAGES: beautiful aesthetics, no previous building skills, quick construction, monolithic lightweight structure, open floor plan, low cost

TECHNOLOGIES:
Star Dome – 3V 3D Mandala
Wattle & Daub: Combination of geological and biological material for convex stem wall
French Drain: water removal and drainage
Nylon Cement: mechanically superior, light weight weather proofing
Sacred Geometry: bioResonance between the human body and pentagramal convex shapes.

EXPERIENCE:
This 6 days workshop will be facilitated by Christopher Gardner, a skilled sustainable builder based in Costa Rica who completed his Earth building practicum with Cal Earth Institute in California.
He has been building and facilitating workshops for the last 7 years, both in the United States and Central America and has a strong background experience in Permaculture and Appropriate Technologies

This is your opportunity to join a design team led by experienced permaculture designers for a weekend at Greave House Farm near Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Suitable for both skilled designers and beginners alike,this will be "hands on" design work with a real client in a "live" situation.Particular attention will be given to those designers who are building their design portfolios for a diploma, with plenty of opportunity to discuss other designs and project work with experienced practitioners.

See the Northern School website (link below) for more details, e-mail contact and on-line booking form.

A weekend of a "walk through" of the design process creating the preliminary design for the iconic cottage in Constables paining the Haywain. The garden is owned by the National trust and run by the FSC. This is a FSC course run by the Apricot centre as a affiliated tutors. The design will be implemented.

Permaculture theory and its application
Work and feedback on individual design projects
If you have taken a PDC before and want to refresh your skills, and if you want to learn more about permaculture in its many forms from and with others, then this course is for you.
Group design work
How to document and present your designs
Introduction to the permaculture diploma

RegenAg Learning Group is organising this training to improve Keyline knowledge and implementation skills amongst the group. Teacher for the day is Esbjorn Aneer, PDC.

Reasons for attending this day
By learning the basics of Keyline design we get a clearer picture of and connection with the land we farm and the landscape that it is connected to. By applying Keyline design we make the greatest possible use of all the water that lands on our farm, while making sure that all the water that leaves the farm is as clean as possible. We build topsoil and harmonise all our activities with the landscape and the specific farmscape we are working with, and at the same time find the best locations for tree crops, increase stocking capacity, reduce or eliminate erosion, and sequester carbon. If we are working farms that are sufficiently large we can turn seasonal streams into ones that are continuous and make springs start flowing where they have not been before or been dry for years.

Topics and Learning Outcomes
Topics include:
History
Purpose
Elements/Aspects
Scale of permanence
Geography (Main ridge, primary valley & ridge)
Keypoint/line, contour lines
Behaviour of water
Ploughing
Tree belts & fences
Zones in Keyline (different from permaculture zones)
Designing Keyline on your farm

We will then go out on the land to look at contours and work out how Keyline can be implemented on the farm we are on.

The course is for people that want to develop these skills for their own property or for advising farmers and landowners. We are keen that the skills learned will be used.

Price include a simple lunch and refreshments (please inform us of any allergy when you book).

Esbjorn would like to make it clear that he has not yet taken part in implementing Keyline on a property nor does he drive a tractor. He has, however, advised farmers with holdings from 10 to 180 acres on the implementation of Keyline.

We live at a special historical moment, to use Joanna Macy’s words, a Great Turning. But exactly what is this turning of the age whose imminence we feel? How does it practically translate into political, technological, and social change? How can we participate in it considering the grave situation our planet faces? Join Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Community in an Age of Transition, for a challenging and inspiring exploration of the dynamics of the present transition.

Our planet, our bodies, our very lives have come to us as a gift. Having “earned” none of these things, our natural tendency is toward gratitude and the desire to give in turn, to serve something greater than ourselves. But we all have habits and beliefs that interfere with fully living in the gift. In this gathering, we will clear those blockages so that we can be more effective as change agents. Through dialog and experiential processes, we will discover keys to living in a state of flow, to giving and receiving more fully, and creating things beyond our understanding of cause and effect.