Sivananda Yoga Farm Permaculture Trainings Midwest Permaculture

Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) Course
Grass Valley, CA
PDC Course at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm (Nov.4-11, 2012)
Followed by Hands-on Training (Nov. 12-16, 2012)
See Ashram Website for Registration and further Information.

Graduates from a Sivananda Yoga Farm PDC Course

What Is Permaculture – How Does it Relate to Yoga?

Permaculture is a concept of design which develops sustainable, abundant, and integrated ways of living that work with nature, harvesting its natural abundance in only very sustainable ways. Permaculture honors the earth as it does people. And as in yoga, it is a spiritual approach to living consciously, harmoniously and healthfully on the planet.
Subsequently, it is possible for humans to not only live abundantly well without hurting or polluting our surroundings, but we can actually leave the planet in better condition then when we arrived on it. We can heal this planet. We can live lightly and we can live well. We can each make a difference… a big difference.
TOPICS Covered in Training:
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, Eco-Building, Zone and Sector Analysis, Aquaculture, Planning the Homestead, Bio-Fuels, Economics, Urban and Suburban Permaculture, Community Building Possibilities, Garden Management, Large-Farm Possibilities, Small-Farm Strategies, International Implications, Starting your own Permaculture Business, and more.

Printable Handout of Curriculum (.pdf)

Earn Your Permaculture Design Certificate…
In the Tranquility of the Sivananda Yoga Community

PDC Training Consists of Pre-course Study + 8 Very Full Days on Site
The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm has invited us to host another one of our design certification courses at their beautiful California location. This course will not only deliver the foundational educational experience for understanding permaculture design, but all involved will have the unique opportunity to experience it within the context of a practicing yoga community.

Understanding Yoga in Relationship to Place
Part of creating an integrated permaculture design includes learning to honor place. Sampling the yoga tradition at this site will help students better appreciate the connection between spirit and the natural elements that surrounds us at all times.

“I learned more than I thought possible. The site visits were amazing. I loved our overall group. Great vibe and life changing teachers. Thank you.”
Nate A. – Ann Arbor, MI – Non-Profit Administrator & Musician (33)

“I appreciated working on projects, all the information, the videos, the site visits with such variation, all of it. I was never bored.”
Lorna P. – Joliet, IL – Retired (63)

“Showed how permaculture is more than just gardening
but a moral, ethical, spiritual lifestyle.”
Steve K. – Los Angeles, CA – Contractor & Tai Chi Master (40)

Earn a PDC Certificate
Students who complete this design course receive the world recognized Permaculture Design Course ‘Certificate of Completion’. Taking this training shows that you are a person who has invested in yourself and that you have been exposed to the challenges we are facing as a culture along with the kind of problem-solving thinking that can counter these challenges.

“..they gave me a job as soon as they looked at my resume with that
“Permaculture Design Course Certificate” right at the top!”

Amy – Loveland, CO

Income Generating Possibilities
In the permaculture tradition, having this certificate allows one to use the word ‘permaculture’ in the promotion of their work or business. Graduates may also teach in areas they feel competent in, offering workshops, lectures and seminars, and eventually, their own PDC Courses. Click here for more on certification.

Description of our Full, Permaculture-Design-Certification Courses
If you landed on this page and happened to have missed the full course description, you might still be wondering what is actually covered in a certification course.

Click Here for more information about the PDC training.
Click Here for the PDC Course Curriculum Outline.

Additional Details About the Course

Begin The Training Now with Pre-Course Studies
This permaculture course actually begins with registration when the student receives a welcome email that contains:

access to our Foundations of Permaculture webinar series,
links to over 3-dozen selected handouts
and the 150-Question Study Guide.

Students register with the Yoga Farm and we send out the welcome email. Within a week or so, students also receive a DVD of the webinars via US Mail along with the course textbook.

Course Textbook
Included with the price of Registration
'Earth User's Guide to Permaculture'
by Rosemary Morrow

This gem of a text, shipped to students upon registration, is written by Rosemary Morrow, an Australian, that has taught permaculture around the world for decades.

The book is straightforward and loaded with illustrations and substance. It covers theory and also focuses on the practical aspects of how to create and implement a permaculture design.

This book is a must read for the serious permaculturist and is a requirement for students of our design certification courses.

150-Question Study Guide
To complement the text we have created a study guide with 150-questions that will assist the student in anchoring the information contained in the book. If a student can answer these questions to themselves, they can be assured that they have grasped the foundations of the permaculture design certification course.

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://larrapin.us/

Design Course Instructors

Bill Wilson
Co-Founder of Midwest Permaculture with his wife Rebecca, Bill has hosted and taught at over 30 permaculture design courses, holds two PDC Certifications and has completed Advanced Permaculture Design Training and Permaculture Teacher Training.

Bill has resided for 34 years in the sustainably oriented Community of Stelle, IL, where he has developed his deep interest in how people create permanent-cultures and authentic community.

Bill has hosted and taught at over 30 PDC Courses.

More on Bill

Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture

Mike Kluk
Mike took the first PDC course at Sivananda and has since fully embraced the training into his own life. He and his wife Susan are immediate neighbors and friends of the Yoga Farm. Mike is a retire Public Defense Attorney and has chosen to create a permaculture life with Susan, starting from scratch.

Mike has been a contributing teacher for the last three years and will lead several visits to his evolving permaculture homestead, sharing with students much of what he has learned.

Mike Kluk

From Mike: “We grow almost all of our own vegetables and much of our own fruit now as well. My goal is to be as food independent as possible with a minimum of preserving- so we use low tunnels and a greenhouse in the winter, shade cloth in the summer and eat in season. If you are careful with seeding and rotating beds on time, you can have an unbroken production of vegetables year round in most parts of the US. Of course, the more you can rely on perennials, the less you need to do of that. But most perennials produce in the summer and fall so you still need a healthy crop of annuals in my experience. It could be that varieties I am not aware of would help fill in the gaps.

There is always something new to discover. We are lacto-ovo vegetarians and have not yet reached the point of raising all of our own protein. We are growing dried beans and have chickens for eggs. We are going slowly, adding one piece at a time, learning a lot and enjoying each day. I learned a great deal of useful information from my training with Bill. But as important, I learned the benefits of patience and how to appreciate the way natural processes unfold. I look forward to meeting all who join us at this training and sharing our home and permaculture progress with you.”

Mike Kluk's Permaculture Season Extender Hoop Houses

Chicken House Permaculture

Register Anytime
Please join us if this training and this location speak to you. And feel free to register whenever you wish to begin your permaculture education with the pre-training studies.

Do Consider the 4-day Hands-on Training as an option as well.
It Immediately follows this PDC Course.
Take it as a great ’stand-alone’ Introductory Permaculture Training
Or as an ‘add-on’ to the PDC Course.

These trainings are unbelievably wonderful when hosted in a location such as the Sivananda Yoga Farm. See pictures below.

Click Here for Information and Registration
Will take you to the Yoga Farm Website
Information links are in the upper right hand corner of the page when it opens.

“This was unequivocally the best educational experience of my life. You made permaculture completely understandable and I am so inspired to implement this work. This training has tied it all together for me. Thank You.”
Kate M. – College Student

“Thanks so much for all your work!! I was so inspired by the course. I’ve already integrated permaculture into a community project I’m working on. After 25yrs of landscaping, I needed this boost of BLISS!”
Catherine R. – Professional Landscape Architect

Pictures from Previous PDC Courses on the Yoga Farm

Lovely and Large Classroom Space

Permaculture Project Outside

Exploring the Natural Flora and Fauna of the Farm

Outdoor Classroom Space at Mike and Susan Kluk’s Homestead

Season Extenders – Cold Frames

New Friends – Some Great Food

Hugelkulture Bed
Picture Summary of a hugelkultur bed our students dug at the Sivananda Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, CA during our 2010 PDC Course.

Burying wood scraps under ones garden beds is a great way to utilize excess biomass that will soak up water and add long-term fertility.

We removed about 15 inches of topsoil from a garden bed being careful to keep the subsoil separate from the prime topsoil. These are our permaculture students and a few of the weekend-yoga students at about an 8-inch depth. 7 more inches of digging to go!

Then odd pieces of firewood and left over bark from the log splitting area were wheelbarrowed over and put into the 15-inch hole. The subsoil was sprinkled in as the wood was added to fill in the gaps between pieces. We also ran the garden hose from time to time to begin the soaking process and to help the soil sift down between the chunks of wood. We stopped adding wood when we got to about 2 inches of the top of the hole (wood pieces are filling about 13 inches of space).

During the process we also added two thin layers of slimy kitchen scraps that were saved up so that we could add some readily available nitrogen to the bed. When the wood starts to soak up water and break down, it could rob the bed of nitrogen for a little while, possibly the first year, so we wanted to add extra nitrogen now. Animal manure would work well too.What’s Happening?
As the wood begins to break down it acts as a sponge providing extra, long-term moisture in the bed, valuable organic matter, and extra nutrients to plant roots for years to come.