Full, 72-Hr. Permaculture Design Certification Course
March 25 – 31, 2012

At the National Arbor Day Farm & Lied Lodge
Nebraska City, NE 

Full Week Course at Lied Lodge + Pre-Course Studies  =  Permaculture Design Certificate

Permaculture - Long Term Sustainable Design for any Landscape, Business, Community or Home 
Training Designed For:
     - Green Business Owners Seeking to Implement Integrated-Whole-Systems Perspectives
     - Tree City Administrators and Community Planners
     - Landscape Designers, Architects & Managers 
     - Master Gardeners ready to Ramp Up Their Gardening and Designing Skills 
     - Learning to Design Sustainable Abundance into our Personal Lives and Communities  

  Quick Links:        Course Fee & Registration        Webinar Resource Page  (Viewable byRegistered Students Only) 

What is Permaculture? Permaculture is a whole-systems approach to designing low-impact, high-quality ways of living, based on the ethics of caring for the planet and people. It is guided by foundational principles that are rooted in common sense, historical precedents, and nature. With these principles we add the gifts and brilliance of appropriate technology to design landscapes, buildings, agricultural systems, community services, business, industry and entire communities that can actually leave the planet in better condition through successive generations. Permaculture is founded on the principle that it is possible for humans to have a positive impact in the natural world – that a place is better because people lived there. Humans are not pre-destined to be only destructive or overly consumptive.  (More…)  What is Taught in this Training? Participants will learn to think as permaculture designers.    There will be interesting and valuable success stories of people and communities who are implementing refreshing, optimistic and doable solutions to mounting financial, ecological and cultural challenges.    Students will learn how to apply basic permaculture concepts to their professional and personal lives whether it be socially, economically or environmentally based.   Many students also report that they come away from this training with a new outlook on life and are more confident than before regarding what they need to do next in their lives, and as importantly, how to approach it.   This Training Brings Clarity!

Lacy Brittingham (on left) is a Green Architect based out of Maryland. Norah is a County Transportation Manager.  Both hold Midwest Permaculture Training Certificates.        Click Here for a 4-page Overview of the PDC Course Curriculum.

In the permaculture design system, there are 7 domains for creating a healthy and permanent culture (a perma-culture). While exploring these we will be looking at: Ethics and Principles of Permaculture Observations and Patterns A New Economy Transition Towns Jobs of the future Starting one’s own Business Eco-Buildings Bio-Fuels  Urban and Suburban Permaculture Designing for Different Climatic Zones Water and Earthworks Soils, Plants, and Trees Guilds and Polycultures Utilizing Micro-climates Designing with Succession in Mind Aquaculture Garden Management Small-Farm Strategies Large-Farm Possibilities International Considerations More….

About Lied Lodge – An Environmental Leader

Lied Lodge & Conference Center was designed to serve as a resource for the Arbor Day Foundation members, other conservation-related organizations (that’s us), teachers, and forestry professionals wishing to use a centrally located, high quality, and reasonably priced conference center.  

With its Adirondack styling of timbers and stone,  Lied Lodge has won the American Hotel & Motel Association’s prestigious Enviro-Management Award for “developing a culture of integrating environmental management practices that improve everyday operations and the bottom line, while maintaining quality service and meeting guest expectations”. 

Our key interests at Lied Lodge:

• Their commitment to sourcing food for the restaurant and food service from local and sustainably oriented farmers
• Efficiently (and cleanly) heating and cooling the lodge with wood chips (current sunlight) from the local waste stream in their fuel-wood energy plant
• The Hazelnut research, breeding and promotion project
• Ecological consciousness and care of the Lied Lodge Arboretum… and more.

Lied Lodge is one of the very few educational complexes of its kind in the nation.  Delivering a Permaculture Course at such a great demonstration site should greatly enhance the educational experience for the student.

Teachers

Lead Teachers for this Training
As co-founders of Midwest Permaculture, and in their 6th year of offering educational trainings, Bill and Becky have hosted and taught dozens of courses. 

Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson… holds two Permaculture Design Certificates and two Advanced Permaculture Certificates, one in Design and the other in Teaching. He has a gift for explaining permaculture in a clear and understandable manner as attested to by many of his students.    More on Bill & Becky… Becky Wilson… earned her Permaculture Teaching Certificate in 2011 from Rosemary Morrow, the author of the popular text, The Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture. Having served as the Stelle Community manager for 18 years and its President for 8 years, Becky carries a strong background in community development and business management.

Becky and Her Peach Tree

 Click on the photo  to view more of Bill & Becky’s Permaculture Yard Transformation including Rain Gardens, Berms and Rain Tank. 

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Guest Teachers Vicki & Ron Nowicki
Permaculture Landscape Designers & Contractors
Will be joining us live over the internet, or possibly in person. 

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

For more pictures of their home and yard
(scroll down to pictures #15-29 in the above link)

Vicki, is a life long gardener and educator and teaches frequently at the Morton Arboretum (she has a Masters in Environmental Education).  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.

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.  Their home, a showcase for sustainable living, yields not only safe, affordable organic food but also 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
A Walking ‘Plant Encyclopedia’ – Gardener Extraordinaire – Plant Forager
Will be joining us live over the internet. 

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. Below: Bryce harvesting wild rice from one of his ponds in his backyard.

Click Here for a picture narrative of Bryce’s rice growing experiment.

About This Training – Start Now with Home Study Series

This will be a full Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course.  As such, students will receive the full curriculum.  It all begins when a student registers and receives our “Foundations of Permaculture Webinar Series.”  These 16 hours of webinars are viewed from one’s own computer and/or listened to on a portable MP3 player in the weeks leading up to the on-site portion of the training. 

The home study series also includes the course text, study guide and multiple handouts.

As explained elsewhere on our website, the full training consists of a 72-hour curriculum.  The only way to cover the bulk of this over a 1-week period is for students to prepare ahead of time by taking the webinar series. The webinars and textbook reading are required study in order to receive one’s certificate at the conclusion of the training. 

Daily Schedule
The basic daily schedule runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with 90 minutes off for lunch and 2 hours off for dinner.  

First and Last Day  The training begins on Sunday, March 25, at 1:00 p.m. with registration followed by class at 1:30. We will take a long break before dinner this first day so that students can get checked into their rooms.  Check-in time is 4 p.m. The training wraps up at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 31st.  We will take a morning break on this day so that folks can get checked out of their rooms on time.   Earn Your Permaculture Certificate Earning a PDC certificate allows one to use the copyrighted word “permaculture” in the promotion of their work and to offer design and teaching services for fee.   See here for more details on the Permaculture Certificate. This training will be a very rich and rewarding learning experience with lots of fun, but these are pretty-long days. Because we break our presentations up with exercises, discussions, videos, and hands-on experiences, most students do really well with this schedule.   If however you are interested in a more relaxed training that earns you partial credit towards a permaculture certificate, consider one of our 6-day Hands-on trainings. You can then earn your certificate over time if that really interests you.

Midwest Permaculture PDC Students

Course Fee & Registration

The base price for this course is $1,495  (includes a wonderful lunch and dinner each day but not lodging ) 
This price also includes the ‘Foundations of Permaculture’ webinar series, full certification training, loads of permaculture related resources, and our permaculture networking site for PDC graduates.

Bring your spouse or a loved one, share a room, and they can enjoy the lodge while you are in class for a fraction of the price.  Please call Becky for rates (815-256-2215, message or text us at 815-782-2216).

Group Registrations - Save Another $100 per Person
2 or more may register to take the full training as a ‘group’ and each person receives a $100 discount. We’ve had friends, family members, or couples register together and in the weeks before the course, bring in several more friends, everyone saving $100 each.

Call Becky for either more information or to set up a group (815-256-2215, message or text us at 815-782-2216).

Lodging Options at Beautiful Lied Lodge
Students living in the area (Omaha – Lincoln) my choose to commute.  Your lunch and dinner are covered in your registration fee.
  Your Own Room             Single Occupancy (includes breakfast, all taxes)            =  $575  (6 nights)
  Share a Room with Another  Double Occupancy (breakfast, all taxes)              =  $395 each (6 nights)

	Option 1 Register online. We take MasterCard, Visa and Discover. Option 2 Call Becky to register over the phone at 815-256-2215, message or text us at 815-782-2216.

Down-Payment / Course Reservation
Our simple e-commerce page is not set-up to handle partial or down-payments.  If making a partial payment is an important factor to your ability to participate, please call Becky at 815-256-2215, message or text us at 815-782-2216 to work out these arrangements.

Low Risk Cancellation and Refund Policy 
If a student cancels their registration 30-days before the on-site portion a course begins they receive a full refund less $305.  The student retains full access to all of the webinars, keeps the course handouts and text book, and receives a $195 credit towards any future Midwest Permaculture design certification course, good for up to 3-years.

If a student cancels their registration in the 30-days before the course there will be a full refund less $405 and the student still receives a $195 credit towards our design courses in the future.  The credit is good for up to three years.

There are no refunds for cancellations or for withdrawals once the course begins.  However, in certain circumstances, we may extend partial credit towards a future design course.

Already A Permaculture Design Course Graduate?
We offer a 33% discount to students who have already graduated from another recognized course (from anywhere in the world) who wish to take a Midwest Permaculture course as a refresher. Please email for details.

Still Have Questions?
You are welcome to email us or call Becky at 815-256-2215, message or text us at 815-782-2216.