Our Instructors
Bill Wilson – Certifying Instructor
Cofounder of Midwest Permaculture
Bill holds 2 PDC Certificates and 2 Advanced Training Certificates, one in permaculture design and the other in teaching.
He took his Permaculture Teacher’s Training with Jude Hobbs of the Permaculture Institute, USA, in 2010. Jude is a Bill Mollison trained teacher and designer.
Having hosted and co-taught at over 30 PDC Certificate Courses, he teaches widely on many permaculture subjects. Midwest Permaculture is Bill’s full-time calling consisting of managing, teaching, speaking, writing, and providing permaculture design services on occasional projects.
| “Bill, this has been a wonderful educational experience, worth every penny and minute of my time.” Lucille – Tenured University Professor |
Having lived for over 3 decades in the sustainably oriented community of Stelle, IL, he is intimately involved in many aspects of the community. Bill, and his wife/partner Rebecca, are creating a permaculture oasis surrounding their traditional suburban home, pictures of which may be found here.
For more on Bill and Becky and their thoughts on permaculture, click here.
| “Bill, Thanks so much for coming to Purdue and inspiring us. In my opinion, your overview of permaculture was one of the best presentations we’ve had at Purdue in many years.“
Brent Ladd, Center for the Environment |
Bill has been interviewed on National Public Radio (“Worldview” with Jerome McDonnell and “Here on Earth” with Jean Faraka), Peak Moment Television and other programs. He speaks widely, welcoming requests with the goal of helping others understand the simple genius behind permaculture concepts and design.
View a 28-Minute Interview with Bill
from Peak Moment Television (Over 8,500 views)
“The Heart of Permaculture”
| Janaia Donaldson is the host of Peak Moment. – Comments she received from this interview – “This man just summed up the entirety of life in this short interview. Bravo!!!! I thank you both for this interview, keep up the continued efforts!!!!”Cate F. – Australia “Wonderful – one of the best! I love Bill and his philosophies. I took the online part of the Midwest Permaculture PDC last spring. Even if I never get out there for the hands-on week, the online webinar was well worth the time and money. “Janaia, one of the BEST Peak Moment interviews. Thank you very much, and greetings from Germany.” This interview was #157. There are many more great interviews here at Peak Moment.
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Becky Wilson – Instructor
Co-founder of Midwest Permaculture
Rosemary Morrow
Becky - A Good Peach Year
Becky earned her Permaculture Design Certificate in 2007 and her Permaculture Teaching Certificate in 2011, the latter from Rosemary Morrow.
Rosemary is a respected scientist, agriculturalist and elder in the permaculture world. She is also well noted for her popular text, The Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, which is the book we use for all of our PDC courses.
Besides being active in family and community life, Becky has served as the Stelle Community Association Manager for 18 years and served as the Community Association Board President for 8 years. 
From these experiences she has developed a strong understanding of community process and development.
Milton Dixon – Instructor
Urban Permaculturist, Wild-Edibles Forager, Internet-Technology Guru
Chicagoland Permaculture Meetup Coordinator
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Milton has been assisting with Midwest Permaculture’s webinars and trainings for several years now. As an urban dweller, he has taken many creative steps toward a more permaculture lifestyle including foraging for fruit in parks and alleyways, planting gardens, making wine and growing mushrooms…to name a few.
He is accomplished at identifying edible-wild plants and took his Advance Permaculture Teacher’s Training with David Jacke (author of Edible Forest Gardens) in 2010. Milton brings a spontaneity and youthfulness that is contagious and very complementary to Bill and Becky’s style of teaching. Students continue to tell us that Bill, Becky and Milton make an excellent teaching team. Pictured below: Milton Leading a Wild Edibles Walk |
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| “I was honored by the sharing and passion of Bill and Milton. This training exceeded my expectations. And the access to additional resources you gave us, are impressive. ” |
Vicki & Ron Nowicki – Guest Instructors
Permaculture Landscape Designers & Contractors
Ron is a Midwest Permaculture PDC Graduate
Vicki and Ron have made their living creating beautiful, functional and useful landscapes for clients all over Chicagoland. With 30 years of experience, they are together, an unequaled team when it comes to permaculture design in the urban and suburban landscape.
Vicki and Ron Nowicki of Liberty Gardens, Downers Grove, IL
A link to their gardening website – Liberty Gardens
A link to their Ecological Landscaping Business – The Land Office
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For more pictures of their home and yard
Click on above link and scroll down to pictures #15-29.
Ron is a Landscape Architect with an ecological conscience and has been designing sustainable environments for over three decades. He has a steadfast determination to help others conserve our clearly limited natural resources, restore the biodiversity of increasingly depleted and polluted landscapes and use non-polluting current sunlight and limited ancient sunlight as creatively as possible.
Vicki, is a life long gardener and educator and teaches frequently at the Morton Arboretum (she has a Masters in Environmental Education).
Together they designed and built their passive solar home/office and have nurtured an organic edible landscape for over 30 years. They see the land community in which we all live as the community it is and not a commodity to exploit to exhaustion. They see that instead of being caught in the web of life they are a powerful part of that web and have used their power [knowledge] to evolve a balanced and healthy living environment through cooperation with and respect for the natural world. This showcase for sustainable living yields not only safe, affordable organic food but also yields dramatic energy savings and a richness of experience not attainable with conventional design strategies. Ron’s primary motivation through his designs and teaching efforts is to leave for generations to come a legacy of health, abundance and beauty on our land through ecologically intelligent choices. This legacy can indeed become a reality through careful Permaculture Design.
For a paradigm-shifting experience that could change the way you view gardening forever, Ron and Vicki offer afternoon tours of their ‘Gardenfarm’ home at the end of each month.
For more information go to: WWW.LIBERTYGARDENS.COM
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Bryce Ruddock – Guest Instructor
A Walking ‘Plant Encyclopedia’ – Gardener Extraordinaire – Plant Forager
Midwest Permaculture PDC Graduate
| Bryce holds a Permaculture Design Course Certificate (with Midwest Permaculture) and received his Permaculture Teachers Training Certificate with Jude Hobbs of the Permaculture Research Institute U.S. He has been practicing permaculture techniques at his suburban property in South Milwaukee since 1984 with his wife Debby. They are currently redesigning their 1/4 acre home site to allow for year-round food and forest products harvest.
Because of his vast plant knowledge, Bryce has been designated as Midwest Permaculture’s official ‘Plant-Guy.’ As such, he and Debbie host the “Plant Guild” public forum on our networking site. |
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Click Here for a picture narrative of Bryce’s rice growing experiment.