[Ccpg] Fwd: 15th Annual Permaculture Design Course Online Begins in January (+ annual newsletter)

[Dan Hemenway]

Please forward, post and/or announce.

 
ElfinPermaculture Announces 
15th Annual Permaculture Design Course Online
 
After a one-yearsabbatical, Elfin Permaculture's Annual Permaculture Design Course Onlineresumes, beginning Jan. 9, 2012. The course benefits from experience gleanedduring a decade and a half of Elfin Permaculture online courses, and about 30years of permaculture teaching by the lead instructor, Dan Hemenway. 
 
The certificatecourse runs six months and includes the following learning approaches:
 
• Extensivereading in books, papers, both in print and on the course CD-ROM;
• 21 modules ofat least one week, mainly presented on the CD, representing the formalpresentations of course instructors;
•  At least four reports from eachstudent, including a full permaculture design report[1];
•  Class discussion, via email, ofreadings and reports, as well as questions and issues raised by students orinstructors;
•  The opportunity to participate instudent study groups where interested students can pursue any agreed-upon topicfor as long as they wish (independently of the course schedule); 
• Support forstudents by three instructors: Dan Hemenway, course designer leader; CynthiaHemenway CNM, designer and discussion leader for a special week on Design forHealth, and Robert Waldrop, founder of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative and leaderof several online discussion groups, our course moderator and discussionleader. You may read further background of our instructors on our web site.  In practice, Robert will lead mostdiscussion groups and review early design work and Dan will review morecomplete design drafts and provide deep backup throughout, as needed.  Cynthia focuses mainly on the Designfor Health module and serves as further deep back up for Dan.
 
The online courseconsists of three consecutive sections, plus work on a permaculture designwhich students undertake throughout the cycle in which they are registered.Samples of student design work are included in the course CD. We offerseveral registration options to accommodate people in varied circumstancesincluding a non-certificate track, certificate training in one six-month cycle,and a two year ‘deliberate track’ that enables a student to participate in twoconsecutive course cycles and take ample time to prepare the design report forcertification. 
 
Registration islimited because of the time required to review and critique individual designs.(See below for registration limits.) Because students may enroll in a fasttrack or deliberate track, each with different design report deadlines, we canaccommodate more students.
 
Content of thecourse sections follow[2]:
 
    Section 1:  Introduction andBasic Principles
          a) World ecological problems andinterrelationships.
          b)  Basics.Principles of natural design.Sustainability and appropriate scale as concepts and principles inpermaculture.
          c)  Permaculture design concepts.
          d)  Classical landscapes.
          e)  Patterning, edges, edge effects.
          f)  The Permaculture Design Report.
           g)  Principles of transformation (Unique to Elfin Permaculturecourses). Succession, logarithmic change, exponential change, chaos,modulation, etc.
 
    Section 2: Appropriate Technologies in Permaculture Design
          a)  Energy--solar, wind, hydro, biomass,etc.
          b)  Nutrient cycles (3 modules)--soil,microclimates, gardening methods, perennials, tree crops, food parks, compostingtoilets, livestock, "pest" management, food storage, seed saving,cultivated systems, forests,  etc.
          c)   Water--impoundments, aquaculture,conservation, etc.
          d)   Shelter/buildings and access.
          e)   Design for Health.
 
    Section 3:  Socialpermaculture.  Design Report.
          a)  Design for catastrophe.
          b)  Urban permaculture.
          c)  Bioregionalism.
          d)  Alternative economics.
          e)  Village development.
          f)   Final design reports andcritiques.
          g)  Final evaluation.
 
Online courseparticipants have come from every inhabited continent and a number of islandcountries, from latitudes spanning the equatorial tropics to sub-arctic, and acomparable range of elevations, climates, etc. The course is suited tobeginning permaculture design students, people seeking deep support inproducing a permaculture design for their own homes, and, by specialarrangement, people with some permaculture training and experience who wish toundertake advanced work[3].Successful students receive certification as entry-level permaculturists.Advanced students pay no extra, but are expected to serve as additionalresources to the beginning students.
 
To reviewinformation about the course methodology, content, certification requirements,tuition & fees, registration process, scholarship policies, reading list& cost, and assignment schedule, download the free course preregistrationpackage from our web site, www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org
 
To download onlythe package without visiting our site, go to http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/preregistration.pdf
 
Enrollment
 
Because we putmany hours into reviewing drafts of each student design report, we limitenrollment of certificate students to five who report in the current year andfive who report in the next course cycle. Up to ten additional students notsubmitting design reports may enroll. 
 
Enrollment hasbegun for Cycle 15. Late enrollments areaccepted, but the late-enrolling student may have trouble keeping up.  To get the most from the course,register early, obtain the course reading package, and begin reading theassignments in advance.
 
Scholarships
 
We award scholarships mainlyto students working in countries lacking reasonable access to US funds.  Scholarship students should show astrong potential and disposition to become organizers or teachers ofpermaculture in their home region. They must be truly unable to pay tuition.Full scholarship details may be downloaded from our website.  The course protocol includes basicscholarship information.  
 
We accept scholarshipapplications for one month only each year.  Previously this has been August.  Because we are moving the course calendar to begin aroundMarch or April, starting in Cycle 16, January[4]will be the only month when we accept scholarship applications. Applicationssent at other times will not be considered, and will prejudice subsequentapplications sent at the designated time, except in remarkable andextraordinary circumstances (which occurred once in 15 years.) 
 
Because of the workload addedby each student, we almost invariably limit scholarships to one per cycle.  The scholarship for Cycle 15 has beenawarded.
 
Monitors
 
Anyone can monitor the course(receive most course posts). Monitor tuition is free if s/he registers in the same envelope used to send theorder for the course CD. (One can also monitor for a fee.) We also sometimesallow potential scholarship candidates to monitor using slightly a slightlyolder CD that has been returned by a student seeking an update or upgrade.  Monitors receive a special Self-Studyversion of the CD in any case. Inquire. 
 
Course CD & ReadingList
 
During our sabbatical, weconducted a comprehensive review of the course CD, with about 2-dozen majorchanges or new items, and hundreds (at least) updates, refinements, rewrites,etc. The course CD (all versions) nevertheless has remained at the same pricefor several years.   
 
The reading list and readingassignments (see Preregistration Package) have been revised reflect changes inavailability of documents, newly published materials, etc.

 

 
ANNUAL LETTER– Barking Frogs Permaculture Center
 
All of the projects describedin our 2010-2011 letter http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/2011letter.htm continueat Barking Frogs Permaculture Center. Therefore we will tack changes to thecourse announcement, and avoid sending this to you separately.
 
About the only change in ourprograms has been an increase in emphasis on our green manure trials, which wehave not previously mentioned in our annual newsletters. We have a number oflegumes (Sesbania, crimson clover,cowpea, etc.) now established as encouraged nitrogen-fixing weeds in one orboth of the main chinampas.  We areblessed with remarkably poor soil, which gives us an exceptional opportunity toprove-out various green manure plants, for which we have established trialareas and additional gardens. Crimson clover, cowpeas, and Mucuna (which does not self-sow in our climate) have proventhemselves in the infertile-soil trial areas, and, after a slow start, we arehaving success this year with Crotolaria, planted this spring.  Non-legumegreen manures of value have in previous years included daikon radish and wheat,which grow best here in the coolest months, and castor bean for the warmseasons[5].  This year we began tests of promisingwarm season non-legume species: sorghum, Tithonia diversifolia, and T. rotundifolia, all fairly drought tolerant, very heat tolerant, andthe latter also nutrient accumulators. (Tithonia spp. bring deep nutrients to the soil surface layers wheremost other plants have their feeder roots.  This is particularly helpful here, as several decades agocanals where dug across this area and infertile sand and marl spread over therich, black, mucky marsh soils.) Next year we plant to combine sorghum withcowpeas, following this year’s Tithonia planting.
 
We will report these resultsin detail in a future edition of our Florida version of our Basic GardeningData CD, which we released this year. (A Yankee Permaculture publication[6].)The basic CD includes databases and tables showing plant nutrient content ofabut 400 materials commonly recovered or scrounged, tables of plant symptoms ofsoil nutrient deficiency, fertility and pH requirements of hundred ofcultivated crops, etc.  The Floridaedition also includes planting tables and other items of specific pertinence toFlorida climate and soils.

 

 
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[1] Designs for certification in this course should befor a single-unit residence on no more than 2 acres of land.  We strongly caution against designingfor groups, businesses, etc. (e.g., a family CSA) in this entry-level course.

[2] Student design work can begins in Section I andcontinues throughout, with regularly scheduled design review and discussionmodules.

[3] Advanced work should be negotiated with theinstructor before registering.

[4] Beginning in Jan. 2013.

[5] While a minor contributor to warm season greenmanure, it is an important inhibitor of root knot nematodes.

[6] You may download the Yankee Permaculture publicationslist/order form at http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/orderform.pdf

Dan Hemenway
permacltur at aol.com

www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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