Why learn Permaculture? 

Permaculture is a positive, healthy and exciting discipline. It can help us make the most of life and create positive opportunities for ourselves, others and the natural world. Even if there weren’t big challenges, permaculture would still be a great thing to learn about!


Sadly though, we do face enormous challenges, with the climate crisis being one of the determining challenges of our generation.

The science is clear - with the cost of living crisis, environmental health concerns, food shortages, resource depletion, devastating storms, topsoil loss, dangerous floods, melting glaciers, rising seas and extinction, it’s more urgent than ever that we change our thinking and begin working on solutions together. There are things that all of us can do to help change this.

Sustainability is not enough, we can be regenerative in our designs and active in our personal contribution to positive change. 

But where can one start with regenerative thinking and doing? Permaculture education packages regenerative tools and techniques into a simple-to-follow learning experience that is optimistic, practical and can be transformative. 

How to learn permaculture? 

 


Permaculture is immersive - it opens up the door onto a whole new world of fascinating study and solutions.


“I was hooked for life: permaculture has been a major influence guiding my life and work ever since.” Malika 


There are lots of ways to begin and continue your learning: 

 

Joining the Permaculture Association, from just £3 a month, offers you support as a permaculture learner and connects you to the permaculture network in the UK. Your membership supports us to support permaculture across the UK and contribute to the growth of the worldwide movement. 

Key permaculture courses  

There are a variety of permaculture courses which meet various needs, levels of skill and timescales.


Courses can be taught residentially, or non-residentially as shorter courses over weekends, evenings or online. 

Introduction to permaculture course 


This course is usually run over a weekend or two day period, but they are often flexible and can be one day or over evenings. An introduction to permaculture gives you the opportunity to find out about the history of permaculture. You will also explore permaculture ethics and principles, design tools and case studies.

 

Usually, this course includes practical sessions to create an interactive learning experience and you will be given a taste of how permaculture design can be applied in your everyday life, through a short design exercise. You will get the opportunity to work as part of a group - it’s a very sociable and enjoyable experience.


At the end of this course you will understand the relevance and application of permaculture, inspiring and empowering you to start thinking and practicing permaculture in your daily life. 


Teaching the introduction course

  

Wenderlynn and Iain


“Teaching the Introduction to Permaculture enables us to make sure we are delivering the most important parts of the permaculture design process. The intro stage is an important point on people's journeys, as it is where the students' seedling curiosity in permaculture can really begin to flourish. 


The standard two-day ‘Intro’ inspired us to take permaculture beyond the garden. We added a third day which focuses on social permaculture and the basics of how it can be used, covering the same methods and processes as the basic introductory course, and reinforcing the design process.


We run North Devon Permaculture social enterprise, incorporating Wishtree, our off grid, LAND Learner project in Devon. We deliver permaculture education through courses, workshops, our design consultancy and working with our local community. We use Wishtree to demonstrate ways that can help people to live a regenerative, resilient way of life whilst working with nature, using agroforestry & forest gardening. Living off grid helps us to develop our skills as designers and educators, learning more about resilience, both personally and with the land.


The Introduction To Permaculture is an affordable way for people to explore permaculture and enables them to learn about it before committing to a PDC. It gives the student the basic knowledge of permaculture but also starts the flow of a creative process to help them change the way they see the world and to reframe and broaden their thinking. It gives them an insight into the fundamentals of permaculture and its underpinning whilst discovering new techniques they can use in all areas of their lives. It inspires them to confidently start to put into practice the theory they have learned.”


Permaculture explained

Permaculture is a global movement that uses shared ethics, lessons from nature and a flexible design approach to create healthy and regenerative places and communities.


Permaculture solves problems by: 

1. Understanding how nature works - using principles which embrace observation and help us to work with nature, rather than against it.

2. Re-thinking and managing systems using the sciences, technology & new economic approaches 

 

Permaculture ethics: 

Earth Care - caring for and regenerating the Earth so that it can continue to sustain life.

People Care - meeting our own needs, and for our families and communities

Fair Shares - without exploiting others or nature

 

Find out more: If you are looking for some basic information about what permaculture is and over 180 practical solutions, you can find that here.

Online Courses  

Online courses offer the greatest accessibility to learners, but some may compromise on the community or immersive aspect of permaculture. The thinking behind this has changed significantly since the beginning of the pandemic and the move to working and learning online. Many of our teachers have been learning the best ways to deliver education online, as have the team at the Permaculture Association who with the support of our certified teachers brought you the Foundations Of Permaculture course. 

Furthering Your Study 

 

There are many ways to further your learning.

 

To search our course directory you can visit: www.permaculture.org.uk/courses


LAND - Learning And Network Demonstration network

Some of the best places to see permaculture in practice and to study the Introduction to Permaculture are the demonstration projects that are part of the LAND network. The LAND network has also taken root in other countries.

The network includes suburban gardens, smallholdings, rural farms, city farms, forest gardens, and amazing allotments. They are all set up to show permaculture in practice to visitors and volunteers in a safe, accessible and inspiring way.

 

You may be able to visit a LAND centre as part of a course, or study your whole course at a LAND centre. Discover more about LAND: www.permaculture.org.uk/land

Certified courses and teachers

The Introduction to Permaculture is not a ‘certified’ course, meaning it isn't quality monitored by our Education Working Group (EWG) and our education team, like the PDC is. 

But it is taught by certified teachers. And many of our teachers do use our curriculum, which was built with the EWG and peer reviewed by lead certified educators. 

We do offer a completion certificate to those who use the official UK curriculum for the Introduction. But the certificate doesn’t hold the same weight as our certified PDC curriculum. You can read our Intro curriculum here, this is the same curriculum that the Foundations in Permaculture is built from. 

Our Foundations of Permaculture course is an Introduction to Permacultrue course that goes beyond the core curriculum with some added bonuses. This course was built with the support of many certified and highly qualified educators. To learn more about the Foundations Course watch this video below or visit this page. 

PROMO VIDEO OF FOUNDATION  

 Why study with a certified teacher ?

 

  • You can have confidence that the course will be run by an experienced, qualified educator. 

  • You will have quality assurance, meaning that educators are following our agreed Introduction curriculum.

  • The Permaculture Association issues Introduction certificates.

 

To search through all of our courses and read about our educators, please visit: www.permaculture.org.uk/courses. You can search by Introduction to Permaculture, or visit our online courses page where you will find more Introduction courses. 

 

Find more information about who can offer our certificates and learn about the Certifying Teachers Register: www.permaculture.org.uk/education/who-can-award-our-pdc-certificates

To view the profiles and learn more about our certified teachers, read their profiles here: www.permaculture.org.uk/education/members/certified

Did you know you can search for specific teachers on our course listings page? www.permaculture.org.uk/courses. 


For instance Nim Robins, a certified teacher, who is teaching the January Foundation in Permaculture Course has her profile here.  


Alternatively go to this page for our full list of Certified Educators: 

www.permaculture.org.uk/education/who-can-award-our-pdc-certificates


Sign up to an Introduction to Permaculture for 2023 


CERTIFIED TEACHERS

 

11/03/2023 to 12/03/2023 Introduction to Permaculture, Stroud Introduction to Permaculture 

EmilyHowgate United Kingdom Stroud 


05/10/2023 to 08/10/2023Introduction to Permaculture Design Introduction to Permaculture  Aranya


United Kingdom East Meon 05/10/2023 to 08/10/2023 Introduction to Permaculture Design with Aranya Introduction to Permaculture Aranya


Non Certified Teachers: 


25/02/2023 to 26/02/2023 Introduction to Permaculture in LondonIntroduction to Permaculture 

United Kingdom London 11/03/2023 to 12/03/2023Tread Well on Earth - A 2-Day Introduction to Permaculture Introduction to Permaculture United Kingdom London 


18/03/2023, 20/05/2023 Introduction to Permaculture Introduction to Permaculture 

United Kingdom Hailsham


06/05/2023 to 07/05/2023 Introduction to Permaculture in London Introduction to Permaculture United Kingdom London 


18/03/2023, 20/05/2023Introduction to PermacultureIntroduction to Permaculture 

United Kingdom Hailsham 


Or study online 

Introduction To Permaculture 06/09/2022 to 08/11/2022, 17/01/2023to 21/03/2023 Wenderlynn. 


Introduction to Permaculture for Artists and Creatives 19/01/2023 to 09/02/2023 Liz Postlethwaite


Designing for Resilience: The foundations of permaculture

Self-study/ start anytime - Teacher led with Nim Robins

On this course, you will:

  • Learn about permaculture through videos and case studies of people applying permaculture to their lives and their gardens, allotments or community land

  • Apply permaculture design in your life with the help of lots of tools and exercises

  • Cover 6 modules including a nature-based approach, permaculture principles, how to apply permaculture, design frameworks, design methods and your next steps

  • Connect with fellow learners globally and feedback on each other's design work

  • Gain an Introduction to Permaculture certificate

This course goes further than standard introductory courses as you get to develop your first design and share it with your peer group.

What's included?

  • 6 hours of teacher time over four evening sessions starting 16th Jan from 6pm-7.30pm

  • 10 hours of online material to do in your own time, with lots of written resources, videos and activities

  • Small learning group with private chat

  • Learn how to connect with people and projects in your community 

Price: £190 non-members / £142.50 members

Discounted Christmas and New Year Price for 2 weeks only 

£130 non members / £100 members / £70 means tested* 

 

  • Including membership for 1 year for non Permaculture Association members

  • 25% discount for Permaculture Association members 

  • To access a link to the discounted course, go to the member area of the Permaculture Association website and when logged in, go to the 'Discounts' page on the right side bar)

 *Contact the [email protected] team for the means tested price 

Sign up to the course (non-members)

Discounted link for members can be found in the ‘Members Area’ under ‘Discounts’

Or give this course as a gift to a loved one this year. 

 

If buying a course as a gift, use the form on the gifting page to make your purchase.

Your gift will give 100% of its profits to our charitable education work. 

  1. Please select your chosen course
  2. Enter your own email address
  3. Enter the name and email of the gift recipient.
  4. We will then manually email you a direct course signup link at our first opportunity to send to your recipient.