Join us for one or all of these inspiring events!
2025 Permaculture Design Certification Course Registration ~ Deposit towards Tuition!
Secure your seat at the upcoming Weekend Series Permaculture Design Certification Course!
Choose:
Spring Program: April - June (Three Weekends Total)
OR
Summer Program: July - August (Two Longer Weekends Total)
At The Permaculture Place, The Mill in Shelburne Falls, MA
Sunday April 6th, Tour Big River Chestnuts Farm!
Sunday Afternoon April 6th, 2:00-5:00
Big River Chestnut Farm, Sunderland MA
- ~ This is where Jono Neiger, co-founder of Regenerative Design Group and author of the book 'The Permaculture Promise' is developing a commercial agroforestry system based on chestnuts, small fruit, and small livestock. There are ample hands-on learning opportunities at this farm that you can also pursue!
~ Please contact us if you would like to register at a different sliding scale amount :)
Saturday March 15th: Structural Tree Pruning Workshop! 1:00-4:00
Learn from Walker Korby, expert arborist, tracker, & naturalist, all about pruning trees for tree health, harvest, and safety.
1:00-4:00
Suggested as a $35 Workshop or you can simply contact us to request a sliding scale amount :)
Saturday Afternoon May 3rd, Site Tour to Humble Abode Nursery in Ashfield MA
May 3rd, 2:00-4:00
in Ashfield, MA
Tour a new perennial nursery and learn about plant propagation!
From the Humble Abode Website: "Our nursery grows perennial food plants. We’re located in Ashfield, MA, zone 5a. We sell plants to home gardeners who want to grow their own food. Our plants will help you move your grocery store to right outside your kitchen door.We grow our plants without the use of poisons. We ship and offer local pick up of bare root plants twice per year, in the spring and the fall. We encourage you to propagate our plants. We want you to reap a bounty, so we share as much information about how to grow, propagate, and eat our plants as we can."
Where We Live: A Sense of Place Story & Writing Workshop, FREE with Erica Wheeler
WHAT: Where We Live: A Sense of Place Story and Writing Workshop with Erica Wheeler
WHEN: APRIL 17, Thursday 6:30-8 pm (Pre-registration required)
DESCRIPTION: This 90-minute workshop invites writers of all levels to craft vivid, sensory-rich stories, poems, or songs inspired by personal experiences with place. Through guided prompts and conversation, you’ll uncover fresh perspectives and creative sparks to enrich your writing and deepen your connection to yourself and where you live.
Co-sponsored by PVMA and Montague Public Libraries’ NEA Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, and The Permaculture Place, Inc.
Workshop participants will be invited to share their writings at a culminating concert with Erica Wheeler and writer’s showcase event celebrating local voices and stories on April 27, from 3-5 pm at the Great Falls Discovery Center.
WHERE: The Permaculture Place, at The Mill, 49 Conway Street, Shelburne Falls, MA (www.ThePermaculturePlace.org)
COST: Free!
REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/where-we-live-a-sense-of-place-story-writing-workshop-with-erica-wheeler-tickets-1270822667809
Permaculture Design Certification Course:
Choose: SPRING PROGRAM starting April 4th
OR
SUMMER PROGRAM starting July 10th
Offsite Tour: Visit a Straw Bale House
Tour the home of a family of 5 in Shelburne Falls, where they constructed their natural home out of straw bales, and heat their home with a masonry stove.
Offsite Tour: Visit a Permaculture Homestead and Demonstration Forest Garden
Tour a home landscape created by Jono Neiger of Regenerative Design Group and witness efficient energy systems, fruit production, water catchment, nutrient cycling systems.
Farming for Biodiversity
Designing Pollination Systems to Sustain Native Wildlife
A Presentation by Evan Abramson, Pollination Systems Designer at Landscape Interactions
Local Textiles, Bringing Regenerative, Non-Toxic, and Ethical Textile Production Back to New England
Nur Tiven, founding member of Western Mass Fibershed, tells the story of producing the first local and sustainable wool apparel fabric to come out of Massachusetts in decades, and discusses the need for and inspiring possibilities of rebuilding regional fiber systems and textile economies.
Mushroom Cultivation Demystified! Low Tech and No Waste Methods of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Fungi
Various strategies to bring valuable mushrooms close to home. We will learn the mushroom life cycle, how they are produced, and how you can grow these delicious treats without waste or a big investment.
Teaming Up with Soil Life, Intro to Soil Biology & Chemistry (in relation to the plants we want to grow!)
Kaat Vander Straeten is a certified permaculture designer and a graduate of Elaine Ingham's Life in the Soil classes. Learn all about the soil food web, bacterial versus fungal soils, how to cook up some good compost and compost tea, what earthworms like to eat, and the real definition of a weed.
Movie Night! A Viewing of: ‘Inhabit, A Permaculture Perspective’ See the best film about the permaculture movement,
created by our very own permaculture design course graduate!
Introduction to Healing with the Five Elements Join us for a guided movement meditation and an informative talk with Tom Matherly of Fox Tracks Healing.
Introduction to Plant Spirit Medicine Join us for a talk with Clare Pearson of Wilder Brook Botanicals, healer and educator, who will guide us in a meditation and share about the healing power of plants. “Plants have Spirit. And Spirit is the strongest medicine.” ~Eliot Cowan
Mushroom Cultivation in Permaculture Systems with The Mushroom Forager!
Learn to create a landscape that produces a bounty of gourmet mushrooms while nourishing soil fertility and boosting vegetable yields.
An Introduction to Orcharding and Grafting Fruit Trees with a Biodynamic Practitioner Alan Surprenant of Brook Farm Orchard