PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE (PDC)

Join the worldwide network of permaculture designers, educators, entrepreneurs and activists who are creating a new environmental and social vision for the world. 

All that is just the beginning…

The Fundamentals of Ecological Design

Permaculture is a conscious, integrated design system based on ecological principles. Providing a framework for creating landscapes that mimic the patterns found in nature, which delivers diversity, stability, and resilience, Permaculture creates an abundance of shelter, water, energy, and food, to address local needs in efficient, cost-effective and productive human environments; while reducing our 'footprints' on Earth.  

Los fundamentos del diseño ecológico
La permacultura es un sistema de diseño integrado y consciente basado en principios ecológicos. Al proporcionar un marco para crear paisajes que imitan los patrones que se encuentran en la naturaleza, que brinda diversidad, estabilidad y resiliencia, la permacultura crea una abundancia de refugio, agua, energía y alimentos para abordar las necesidades locales de manera eficiente, rentable y productiva. ambientes; mientras reducimos nuestras 'huellas' en la Tierra.

Course Description

Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute ( CRMPI ) & Wild Island Botanicals offers the international standard curriculum of 72-hour permaculture certificate course. With the completion of the course, CRMPI will issue a Permaculture Design Certificate.

The course covers the fundamentals of ecological design with a particular emphasis on perennial woody polyculture food systems or food forests. This course goes beyond the theoretical and focuses on real-world situations in this young tropical food forest.  Strong emphasis on hands-on application and practical skills, offering the experience of learning in an immersive setting from systems with which students have daily interactions. The methods and techniques will transfer directly to any climate.  

This course will have a strong emphasis on medicinal herbs cultivation and use. 

The accommodation is BYO tenting, the food is from our farm and other local organic farmers. While the information serves as a general education in permaculture, this course offers an in-depth examination of the function of the homestead and farm and is designed to inform students who will gain the skills and design thinking to implement and manage a system. This is a very hands-on course. Mornings are usually devoted to practical applications and afternoons are dedicated to course lectures. 

We will talk about the principles and practices of creating lush, sustainable living systems in climates and bioregions ranging from coastal to arid. We talk about how you can apply these principles in designing and building your garden and home, creating and using renewable energy systems, and co-creating social and economic systems that are healthy for both the planet and its human and nonhuman beings. Additionally we look at ways in which you can create a sustainable livelihood based on these principles.

You will be learning the essential concepts and practices of permaculture from a world renowned team of master teachers who imbue their work with rich depths of life wisdom.

You will be gaining the concepts and tools to design and engineer sustainable systems; Forest gardens, renewable energy systems, water conservation systems,  natural building techniques, and other eco-technologies.

And you will be putting your learning to use... hands-on!

You will not only be learning the theories…you will be learning the skills needed to implement them…and seeing the fertility and abundance.

When you participate in this year’s Permaculture Design Certification program – CRMPI's 35th annual PDC! – you gain the tools, the hands-on experience, and the long-range vision to make that potential a reality. Whether you’re doing it here in our vigorous and healthy poly-culture systems on the tropical island of Puerto Rico, or at 7200′ elevation in the Rocky Mountains, or the Midwestern plains, the coastal flats, or in desert environments... this course will help you in your goals to lead a more sustainable and self sufficient life.

Course Topics

Practical Permaculture Skills

Mornings are dedicated to the hands-on application of useful skills.

• Blade and knife sharpening.

• Land clearing with scythe or machete.

• Plant identification.

• Food forest fundamentals.

• Clearing and planting new disturbance in agroforestry systems.

• Techniques in small-scale vegetable gardening.

• Tree planting fundamentals, support species, and broad-scale fertility management.

• Plant propagation fundamentals, including propagation and planting of seeds, rhizomes, cuttings as well as various forms of grafting.

• The construction of thermal compost and its use in hot water heating.

• Nursery management including making an in-house potting soil.

• Leveling for application of swales, hedgerows, and techniques for preventing erosion. 

• Food processing skills including lactoferments of vegetables, natural ginger sodas and herbal beers.

Off Site Visits

• Animal Systems at Finca Brutal in Rincon, PR.
• Traditional Puerto Rican Farming with Abel del Rios in Quebrada, PR
  
• Interactive jungle tours with Machetero David Perez
• Cave Explorations
• Waterfall Expeditions

Camping Accommodations

This course is offered on our farm, best described as a varied landscape with a mixture of dense forest, shaded open flat areas, and shadeless flat and open spaces.  Located at 1000' (300m) altitude, we are about 15 minutes from the ocean.  It is moderately humid; During most days there is adequate sun to dry clothes and camping gear, but during the nights it is often humid everywhere and things get wet.  A sleeping bag is nice as the humidity can make the nights and early mornings feel cold.  There are few mosquitos due to the abundance of the Karst rock formations allowing large cave systems and bat populations, however a bug screen is suggested.  It can be sunny or rainy for days, so prepare to create for yourself a comfortable sleeping setup which can allow restful nights to invite the best experience for learning and exploring this amazing landscape.

We will provide a comfortable space for you as best as we can, including:

Outdoor showers

- Supplied with fresh spring water, filtered through a quartz-crystal mountain.

Composting Toilets

- Thank you for your donation.

Flat spaces for you to setup your own Tent

Adequate trees for you to set up your own Hammock

- Anything with a bug screen and large rain fly will work well.

INSTRUCTOR BIOS

JEROME OSENTOWSKI

 Jerome Osentowski Founder and Director of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in Basalt Colorado.  A forager and permaculturist with roots in rural Nebraska, Jerome lives in a passive solar home he built at 7200 feet above Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley. A permaculture designer for thirty years, he has built five greenhouses for himself and scores of others for private clients and public schools in the Rockies and beyond. He makes his living from an intensively cultivated one acre of indoor and outdoor forest garden and plant nursery, which he uses as a backdrop for intensive permaculture and greenhouse design courses.

Among his accomplishments is hosting the longest-running Permaculture Design Course in the world, now at thirty four years running. Jerome has also been instrumental in identifying, conserving, and propagating heritage fruit trees that have survived and borne crops for over a century in the harsh environment of the Roaring Fork Valley. Jerome’s explorations of sustainable systems and his travels for development projects have taken him to Baja, Nicaragua, Patagonia, Finland, Australia, and the Caribbean.

STEPHANIE SYSON