The Design Course gives you what you can’t get from books: the experience of permaculture design. It centres on a series of practical exercises in which you develop a design for an actual piece of land, either a domestic garden or a smallholding according to your choice, with guidance from your tutor throughout. There’s no better way of learning than by doing, and by the end of the course you will be ready to go home and design your own place for real.
In addition there are shorter desk-top exercises, slide shows, talks and discussions. As well as focusing on permaculture as a design system we also explore it as a guide towards more sustainable living in this time of great change.
For more details on the course contents, including a sample timetable, click here.
The main tutors are Patrick and Cathy Whitefield, with guest tutors: Sarah Pugh, urban and community permaculturist, Matt Dunwell, permaculture pioneer and the farmer of Ragmans Lane, Steve Pickup, expert in living willow structures, Jonathan Hines, ecological architect, and Mark Moodie, water & biodynamic expert.
The venue, Ragmans Lane Farm, set in the glorious countryside of the Wye Valley, Gloucestershire, has long been noted as a leading permaculture site. We also make two visits: to Architype, a firm of ecological architects; and to Oaklands Park, a Camphill Community.
