About

A fermentation class at the Sowing Solutions Community Permaculture Hub in Shelburne Falls

Retreat Center Lounge Area for Overnight Guests

✨ABOUT THIS PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE (PDC):
The permaculture certification course is a training for people of all ages who are interested in designing their own home and community landscapes so that they are abundant, healthy, diverse, while contributing to a beneficial legacy for the future. During this course we share extensive resources about design to support ecological landscapes and habitats that grow food, medicine, building products, etc, while also sequestering carbon back to our soil from the atmosphere and into our living earth systems where carbon belongs.
Our teaching staff is a team of leading professional designers and educators from the northeastern USA. The students who attend our program are typically between the ages of 17 and 80+, forming a learning group of diverse perspectives and skills during our course weekends, and beyond. This permaculture course is an educational event full of information sharing, skill-sharing, hands-on learning, and empowerment. These skills of permaculture are one effective way that we can all act on behalf of this ecosystem and home that we call Earth.

✨ WEEKEND SERIES FORMAT:
The Permaculture Design Certification Course is offered seasonally as a weekend series program with Sowing Solutions Permaculture Design & Education in Western MA, USA. Choose either the spring/ early summer program, or the late summer/ autumn option.

✨ Our AUTUMN 2024 COURSE DATES :
September 20-23, October 12-14, and November 8-11 (Three Weekends in Total)
Attend all days to complete your certification. It is possible to miss one day and still graduate, or make up classes if you miss additional sessions.

✨ DESIGN PRACTICE & TRAINING:
This Permaculture Design Course is a unique opportunity to practice design for a local site in the Village of Shelburne Falls. You will be guided by a team of professional designers to conduct a design from initial site visit to final presentation. All that we practice in the class for the design project can be mimicked at your home landscape.

✨ DESIGN CERTIFICATION:
This internationally recognized Permaculture Design Certificate signifies that one has completed a 72 hour design course, a study of the ethics, principles, and design practice of Permaculture. Each graduate will hold applied permaculture experience and will carry a profound toolbox of permaculture techniques, strategies, solutions, resources, and skills. Our permaculture program offers 100 hours of study and guided practice.

✨ LEARN FROM VISITS TO REGIONAL DEMONSTRATION SITES:
Studying permaculture homes, land associations, homesteads, a world-renowned ecovillage, and local farm sites offers you a chance to witness existing and proven permaculture strategies and techniques. You'll learn first hand about: four-season greenhouses, naturally built homes, forest gardens, annual & perennial raised bed vegetable gardens, community decision making, conflict resolution practices, food storage, renewable energy systems, soil improvement, compost strategies, waste recycling, and more! Our permaculture course offers you an opportunity to visit, observe, & evaluate numerous well-established permaculture systems, and learn from them.

✨ OUR COURSE LOCATION:
We are thrilled to be offering our course at the following local and inspiring location:

The Permaculture Place at The Mill in downtown Shelburne Falls is a new resource center and spacious community meeting space along the river! The Mill is a historic site that has been renovated for dozens of artisans and makers spaces. This is the location of Sowing Solutions Permaculture Design Certification Courses, and will be the design studio where students conduct their work for clients during the guided permaculture design process. Shelburne Falls is famous for the Bridge of Flowers and is home to many avid gardeners, artists, farmers, and craftspeople. There are a number of community and residential sites where our PDC students will have an opportunity to design and install permaculture projects!

✨ LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:
We offer extensive design time and practice, as well as skill shares, with an emphasis on ‘learning by doing’. In this course you may be: mapping, working with solar light reading tools, sheet mulching, preserving and fermenting food, mixing earth plaster, designing a forest garden guild, making oxygenated compost tea, preparing herbal medicine, tending to a masonry stove or cob oven, etc. During class time we will integrate the methods of storytelling, slide shows, films, discussions, hands-on design activities, etc.

✨ COLLEGE CREDIT IS AVAILABLE:
Our course qualifies for 3 or 4 college credits from UMASS Amherst, available to all students who are enrolled in the 5 College Consortium.

✨ TUITION:
Our Program will be offered at a sliding scale of $1250-$1450. If you are able to pay a higher tuition fee, the surplus funds will support another student in the course. BIPOC Scholarships, Work Trade Discounts, and Fundraising Support is available when needed.

✨ ACCOMMODATIONS:
We have reserved a local retreat house that is spacious, safely distanced (with options for private rooms or a shared room) for students who wish to stay in the area for the long weekends. Commuting is also an option. Send us an email to request an information packet for accommodation detail. We often host evenings events and garden tours at this house during the program.

✨ MEALS:
Local organic lunches and dinners are prepared for our participants who sign up.

✨Watch this introductory video about our course This brief video was made at one of our old locations years ago ~ and it was made by Emmett Brennan, one of our course graduates. We are proud to say that Emmett is one of the filmmakers and creators of the film 'Inhabit, A Permaculture Perspective’!