About Midwest Permaculture’s PDC Courses
(PDC = The Internationally Recognized 72-Hour Permaculture Design Certificate Course)
We deliver our PDC courses around the U.S. and here in Illinois, at Midwest Permaculture.  

What is included in our PDC trainings? The full 72-Hour PDC Curriculum ‘Foundations of Permaculture’ Webinar Series (required pre-training) Classroom Instruction  Hands-on Experiences Permaculture Design Exercises A Registered, PDC Certificate upon Completion  Post-Training Study Resources for Continued Learning Healthy Meals and Camping (see individual trainings) Regardless of where we host one of our courses, the content is essentailly the same and usually delivered in one of three ways: As an 8-day On-site Immersion (some hands-on experience) As an 11-day On-site Immersion (with lots of hands-on experience) As a 3-Stage Process (break it up over time)   “Bill and Becky, this was a deeply informative and inspiring training for me.  Thank you!”  Carol C. (Age 76) – Elderly Care Facilities Manager

Kate (18) Learning about Plants and Grafting at her PDC

Midwest Permaculture PDC Course - Edgewood College, Madison, WI

Our goal is for students to come away with a solid foundation in permaculture thinking and design with the confidence  and inspiration to ramp up their ability to put permaculture into practice in their own lives and communities.

Father and Son at PDC Course

Benefits of Earning a PDC Certificate
Students who complete one of our trainings receive a signed and dated “PDC Certificate of Completion” from Midwest Permaculture.  Each certificate is numbered and registered with us for future verification should a student ever need it.

In the permaculture tradition established by Bill Mollison, a person who has earned their PDC Certificate may use the word “permaculture” in the promotion of their work, craft or knowledge base and may now consider themselves a permaculturist.

One may provide permaculture design services such as consulting or actual design plans for a fee.

Graduates may also offer workshops or seminars in the areas they feel competent in teaching.  PDC graduates who wish to eventually offer their own PDC courses, taking an Advanced Training in Teaching Permaculture has been the accepted practice.

But probably the greatest benefit to earning a PDC certificate is the knowledge, insight and confidence one gains from the deeper understanding of how natural and human systems can work together to create abundance, security and community.

Click here for more on Certification

The Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) training created by Bill Mollison (the founder of permaculture along with David Holmgren) requires a minimum of a 72-hour curriculum. Because of this, many PDC courses run over a 12-14 day period or longer.    With our Foundations of Permaculture pre- training webinar series that includes: 15 hours of recorded webinars A 150-question study guide The Textbook – Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture And dozens of handouts… …we are able to deliver the balance of the essential classroom material, the design course exercises, and some extra hands-on experiences in just 8-full days.   This means that our students are able to receive a full PDC training in one week away from home instead of two.

Earn Your PDC in 1 Week instead of 2
The Foundations of Permaculture Webinar Series makes the Course More Feasible for Many
Traditionally, the 72-hour PDC certificate training is offered over 13 days (approx. 6-7 hours/day).  Since finding a two week period to take a training is a challenge for many we have introduced a pre-training that allows a student to do much of the ‘text-book’ type learning and reading before the on-sight portion of our trainings.  

Our 8-Day On-site Portion of the Training
Students then can complete the bulk of the PDC training over an 8-day period of time (one week) instead of 13.  We have some kind of learn experience going on  morning, afternoon and evening for a total of about 9 hours each day.  This is broken up with exercises, hands-on experiences, discussions and classroom lecture.   These are long days but most students are energized by the diversity of learning experiences and the simple brilliance of the material covered.

Our Lead/Certifying Instructor
Each of our PDC courses is lead by Bill Wilson who is always backed up by the Midwest Permaculture’s teaching team and one or more guest instructors. Our students tell us that they really appreciate the diversity of our permaculture teachers.
More on our Teachers
Student Comments about Instructors and Training

Who Could Benefit from a Permaculture Design Certificate Course?
Since permaculture is about creating beneficial relationships in the total environment, we have students come to our design courses from a wide spectrum of experience and knowledge.  

For the Beginner and the Experienced
Many, if not most, of our students come to our courses without a ‘professional’ background.  They are everyday folk who come with is a strong desire and willingness to learn and who have a passion to create something lasting, beautiful, and beneficial for themselves and for others.

Our PDC courses are designed to accommodate as many different people as possible without holding anyone back or pushing anyone too hard. What makes this possible are the self-study features of our trainings, the on-site flexibility of our teaching, and the wealth of resources that we connect students to so that the learning does not stop upon completion of the training.  Earning one’s PDC is the beginning of a new level of understanding and possibilities on how to approach living more authentically in the world.

What Subjects are Covered in a
Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course?
There is a lot of ground to cover in a PDC.  Permaculture is about looking at ways to integrate many different elements into a sustainable way of living.  So, even-though we might not go into minute detail in each area (we would need three months) we do delve into many subjects and look for those ways that they interrelate to each other.  Our goal is to design systems that care for us, our communities and our planet. 

Topics Covered:

Click Here for our PDC Course Curriculum Outline

Observations and Patterns Principles and Ethics of Permaculture Designing for Different Climatic Zones Soils, Plants, and Trees Guilds and Polycultures Water and Earthworks Utilizing Micro-climates Designing with Succession in Mind Eco-Building Zone and Sector Analysis Aquaculture Planning the Homestead Bio-Fuels Economics Urban and Suburban Permaculture Garden Management Small-Farm Strategies Large-Farm Possibilities International Implications Starting your own Permaculture Business More….

Basic Permaculture Design Principles

Regardless of the subject area being explored, these fundamental permaculture design principles will be revisited regularly:

• Each function is supported by multiple elements.
• Catch, store & recycle energy and materials.
• Use biological and renewable resources.
• We can turn problems into solutions.
• Mistakes are tools for learning.
• Abundance is unlimited.
• Observe & connect.
• Accelerate succession.
• Use small scale, intensive systems.
• Use the edge effect to maximize yield.
• Each element performs multiple functions.
• Make the least change for the greatest effect.

A Focus on the Fundamentals
What is important to understand about a full-design-certification course is that all the basic principles and ideas behind a permaculture approach or design must be covered to meet Mollison’s requirements for a certificate of completion.  So, it doesn’t really matter if you take a design course in Illinois, California, Arizona, Hawaii or Australia.  You should be exposed to all the fundamentals which will allow you to begin to create a permaculture design for just about any piece of property or location on the planet.  The fundamentals and the principles don’t change.

Other Features of a Midwest Permaculture PDC Course

Course Text For the beginning or modestly experienced permaculturist, the course text Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow is the perfect introductory and design detail book.  For the experienced permaculture student this text is a great step-by-step review of the design process.

150 Permaculture Questions – A Self-Study Guide
Have you grasped a good understanding of the fundamentals laid out in the text?
Each student receives a self-study guidance tool of 150 permaculture questions created by Midwest Permaculture.  As one goes through the chapters and webinars, these 150 questions will help guide the student toward the most important things one should know and remember about permaculture.  If you can answer these 150 questions to your own satisfaction, you can be confident that you have the foundational understanding that comes with a PDC certification training.  Your answers are not turned into our instructors.  This is a self-study guide for your own use.

Classroom and Hands-on Learning
As compelling as the PDC Course curriculum is, we know that most of us don’t retain most of what we learn from just sitting in a classroom.  Therefore, the on-site portions of our PDC trainings include many hands-on activities and exercises.

Actual Permaculture Design Experience Because we will have covered so much ground before the on-site portion of a course with the webinars and the guided self-study, we have time for students to engage in various permaculture design exercises.  The best way to learn permaculture design is to do it.  Personal Design Projects All students will be involved in a group design project (or projects) as part of the training, but we also give students a bit of time to work on a personal design project.  Students are invited to bring any diagrams, sketches, plant lists or photographs of what they are working on.  We would like students to return home with an initial design for their own purposes.

Different Design-Course Features
Our courses will naturally vary somewhat by location but the high quality of the teaching will remain the same. The courses differ by:

Already A Permaculture Design Course Graduate?
We do offer a 33% discount to students who have graduated from any other recognized PDC course (from anywhere in the world) who wish to take a Midwest Permaculture course as a refresher.  The discount only applies if there are open slots in the intended course.  Please email for details.

Purchase Foundations of Permaculture Webinar Series Separately $195 Price Applies Fully Towards a Future Design Certificate Course!   If one is seriously interested in learning about permaculture but cannot commit at this time to a certification course, the webinars and self-study features of our design courses can be enjoyed now.  Students will gain a solid foundation in permaculture from their own home.  It includes the text book, the 150-Study Questions and links to over 3-dozen selected handouts.  And the full $195 for this webinar series applies toward any of our design certificate courses for a period of up to three years. Click Here to Learn More "I've LOVED these webinars. Thank you so much for offering the webinar-only option.  I plan to take a certification class within the next couple of years, but these webinars allowed me to really bring together the self-study and in-the-dirt projects I've been working on.  THANKS!" Leigh W. (Arkansas) http://ozarksalive.org/larrapin/