2026 Winter/Spring PDC at Hundred Fruit Farm

Come join us for our 11th annual permaculture design course at Hundred Fruit Farm! The permaculture design course, or PDC, is an intensive 72-hour internationally recognized permaculture certification. It's designed to give participants the inspiration and knowledge they need to make a positive change in the world, needed now more than ever. It will give you the skills necessary to design your home/yard/landscape into an ecologically-resilient edible system, and for some, it could be the first stepping stone to a permaculture career in design, education, consulting, or regenerative farming. 

This course will be offered as a weekend course designed for local residents who don't have time to take an intensive (and expensive) two-week PDC. This course will be mostly classroom-based but will also include hands-on components. It will go through the basics of permaculture design relating to different climates, energy, natural building, the global climate, social systems, and more. The course curriculum includes:

• how permaculture started and what it means

• the ethics of permaculture and how it informs what we do in designs

• permaculture design principles and how to apply them

• design process: a detailed run-though of the design process used in permaculture, including methods of design and how to apply design strategies

• how to mimic natural systems to create better design

• climatic factors and strategies, covering all major climates

• trees, forests, and forest gardening

• no-spray knowledge: learn which fruit trees and berries grow well here and which do not; how to grow a wide range of easy to care for and disease-resistant fruits

• water: conserving, collecting, reusing in your design

• soil: learn the basics of soil chemistry and biology and how to work with the soil food web to build new soils and repair degraded land

• earthworks: shaping the land to manage water in the landscape

• ecological sanitation systems: turning waste into a valuable resource

• aquaculture and aquaponics

• animal systems: the importance of animals in food systems and the symbiotic relationship between plants and animals; how to design silvopasture systems and other regenerative integrated animal systems

• natural building: learn different methods of how to build beautiful, inexpensive, resilient structures using available natural resources

• appropriate technology: home-scale biogas, solar cookers, rocket stoves, etc.

• alternative systems: alternative economic systems, food sovereignty, community living

The final part of the course will focus on co-creating a viable real-world design for a site that could include gardens, fruit trees, greywater systems, rainwater catchment, food forests, natural building projects, and more. Participants will have the opportunity to have their site designed by other students in the class.