The Foundations of Permaculture
Webinar Series
The Pre-Training Material required for All Our PDC Courses
Receive the Full $195 as Credit Toward Your Future PDC Course
YOU CAN BEGIN YOUR TRAINING NOW
This 12+ Hour Webinar Package Includes:
- Session #1 of our Full PDC Course
- Our Classic 9 Pre-recorded Video Webinars
- Audio .mp3 files for each for mobile listening
- 8 Different Teachers with Varied Real-world Experience
- PDC Course Support Text – Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow
- Accompanying 150-Question Study Guide (Not required, but may be helpful!)
- The 3-hour ‘Site Data & Digital Design Tutorial’ - See here
- All Updates to the Webinars…Indefinitely!
Learn more about each webinar’s content below.
Are you interested?
If you have already purchased, you can access the webinars by clicking here.
How This Works
We have taken some of the foundational concepts of permaculture and put them into several webinar presentations. Also included are 4 interviews with multiple stewards of permaculture who share firsthand how they have applied permaculture thinking and actions to their own projects and lives.
These are not canned, polished, or edited interviews; you receive the recorded sessions just as they unfolded live.
Although much time has passed since recording these webinars, we feel that the value of the content has not diminished. We truly think that this webinar series at its core gives a well-rounded introduction to the concept and application of permaculture, and is a necessary preface to our full Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Courses
Online Connection to Webinars
Shortly after a person purchases these webinars or registers for one of our PDC courses, they receive a welcome email that grants them immediate access to the full FOP webinar series for download and/or online viewing.
Support Text is Mailed Out
The Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow is the recently released second edition of her book "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture". We switched over to this book to use in our curriculum as it has been much expanded and elaborates on the actual practice of many ideas from the first version.
We will ship this book to you via USPS shortly after registering, and it should arrive within a week.
Rosemary has been working internationally for over 40 years and is considered a treasure in our permaculture world. One of her many accolades is her receiving the International Achievement Award from the University of Sydney for her permaculture work in remote, vulnerable villages and refugee camps. She is one of the principals and an active volunteer for the organization Permaculture for Refugees. Thank you, Rosemary, for your continued work and inspiration!
Computer Requirements
For these webinars, just a bare-bones computer capable of playing/displaying standard computer files (.mp3, .mp4, .doc, .pdf) is necessary.
Technical Assistance
Midwest Permaculture’s technical support person, Will Wilson (), is available via email or phone (815-216-4124) to assist any webinar student with any hiccups. It’s pretty easy once you get started. Don’t let the technology part of this keep you away from these very useful and inspiring webinars if you are truly interested. We will assist you.
What is in These Webinars?
Session #1
of Our Full 72 hour Online PDC Course
Sample the Course!
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Webinars
#1
The Case for Permaculture
#2
Story of “The One-Straw Revolution” (Masanobu Fukuoka's book) with Larry Korn
#3
Ethics, Principles and Patterns in Nature
#4
Backyard Farming with Donna and Robyn
#5
Methods of Design
#6
Uncommon Ground: First Certified-Organic Farm on a Chicago Rooftop
#7
Climate, Weather and the Hydrological Cycles
#8
Holding Water on the Urban Landscape with Marcus de la Fleur
#9
Suburban/Urban Permaculture
#10 & #11
New:
How to Gather Online Site Data
& Create Digital Designs Workshop
Hi Bill, I just wanted to thank you for putting together the webinar series. I’ve been listening to them again and again, this time in the greenhouse while planting onions. They are still as enlightening as ever and it makes thinking about spring that much more enjoyable.
About the Presenters and each Webinar
Webinar #1
Bill Wilson
The Case for Permaculture
This is the foundational material from Bill’s 3-hour “Introduction to Permaculture” seminar.
Listen to this First Webinar for Free
We have posted this webinar to YouTube so that anyone may listen to it. It will give the listener/viewer some great foundational information along with many practical examples of applied permaculture design and thinking.
“Listening to Bill was like a breath of fresh air. I knew that there had to be a way out of the energy and societal challenges before us, and now I see it. Very inspiring and hopeful…!”
Webinar Student
Webinar #2
Larry Korn
The One-Straw Revolution and Masanobu Fukuoka
Larry was a soil biologist, an ecological landscaper, and is the translator/editor of one of the most influential books to touch the lives of scores of natural farmers and permaculturists, The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. We say ‘was’ because Larry passed in 2019. We are very grateful for his friendship & guidance and for this recording of a session he did during one of our PDC courses.
As a young man, Larry spent five years in Japan, two of those with the author Masanobu Fukuoka on his farm in southern Japan. He lived in one of the mud-walled huts in Mr. Fukuoka’s orchard and performed farm chores with the other workers and students, learning all he could about Masanobu’s unique form of farming.
Pictured: Larry in a barley field with Masanobu Fukuoka
When Larry returned to the states he promised Masanobu Fukuoka that he would do all he could to see that his book, The One-Straw Revolution, was translated from Japanese into English and then published. This is a fascinating story that Larry shares during this intimate webinar with many slides and much detail. We end up hearing stories about Robert Rodale, Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Bill Mollison, Gary Snyder and more.
Webinar #3 #5 & #7
Becky Wilson, Bill Wilson & Milton Dixon
#3 Ethics, Principles and Patterns in Nature
#5 Methods of Permaculture Design
#7 Climate, Weather and Hydrological Cycles
These three webinars include much of the meat at the heart of permaculture design and thinking. Our goal in these webinars was to keep it simple, clear and practical. You can listen to these webinars repeatedly and still uncover something new each time.
Becky, Bill and Milton make up the lead teaching team for these three webinars. Each of them hold advanced permaculture training certificates in teaching permaculture and have been practicing permaculture for almost 2-decades.
“Honest, insightful, knowledgeable and inspiring” is how students have described the combined teaching styles of these three. Click here to learn more about each…
Webinar #4
Robyn Streeter and Donna Smith
Your Backyard Farmers
Portland, Oregon
Learn many of the details about how these two farmers (who had little money and no land) were able to set up 53 “mini-farms” and earn a good income. Donna and Robyn are the first we heard of who run their farming operation from other people’s back yards. And they don’t rent people’s back yards, they charge the homeowners yearly to have much of their family’s own food grown for them right in their own backyards. Robyn and Donna visit each home (mini-farm) once a week attending to all that is necessary in the vegetable garden, leaving a full basket of produce on the resident’s doorstep when their plot starts producing. How is this permaculture? Learn how they turn wastes into resources, minimize work, increase yields, and improve the environment.
Webinar #6
Helen Cameron
Urban Rooftop: First Certified-Organic Farm
Uncommon Ground Restaurant – Chicago
Helen and her husband Michael had been restaurateurs for almost 2 decades. In 2007 they decided to open a second location for their successful restaurant and chose a building on the far North Side of Chicago because of the large-flat roof. Helen wanted to grow at least some of the food and herbs that they serve to their customers. At some point they decided to become organically certified and in the process, became the first certified organic rooftop ‘farm’ in the United States. A very inspiring and instructional story.
Webinar #8
Marcus de la Fleur
Holding Water on the Urban Landscape
Marcus de la fleur and Cathy Haibach didn’t stop with just rain barrels to capture the bountiful rainwater falling on the suburban home they were renting. They also incorporate: bioswales… porous pavements… rain gardens… a green roof… a cistern… and gravel grass. Marcus de la fleur is a Registered Landscape Architect in Chicago, IL. He received his degree from the School of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, and obtained his Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, also in the UK.
Webinar #9
Bill Wilson
Suburban/Urban Permaculture
Over 60-Creative Ideas
Only 15% of our students have a large enough piece of land where swales, ponds, or other large earthworks will be useful, so this webinar is for all of us who have a small lot or even no plot of ground at all. You can certainly practice permaculture with no land to work on. Permaculture is a way of being, living, and making choices that affect everything–no land is required. This 2-hour webinar is loaded with ideas of how to creatively incorporate permaculture design into smaller spaces. To our PDC students living in the city or suburbs… YOU WILL WANT TO VIEW THIS WEBINAR AT LEAST TWICE. Like we said… it is loaded…!!!
Gathering Site Data & Creating Digital Designs Workshop
Bill Wilson, Megan Christian
The First Steps of Permaculture Design
When we started offering design services we spent countless hours looking for helpful site data. We had to hunt for physical county maps, weather reports, and soil surveys. These days, all of this information is freely available online if you know where to look.
After finding site data and developing a design, we also had to find a way to present our findings to our clients in a way that was clear, professional, and visually pleasing.
With years of trial and error, we learned how to use the basic features of PowerPoint (or Google Slides, its free online alternative) to create very professional-looking permaculture designs with simplicity. We don’t use large, complicated programs, and our designs can have as much or as little detail as we like.
This 3-hour workshop gives clear, step-by-step instructions on how to do it.
Begin Now
Shortly after registering, you will receive a welcome email from Becky of Midwest Permaculture with instructions on how to access the webinars. Within a week or so, the support text, The Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, will arrive via US Mail. Get started on your permaculture education by accessing all of the 30+ articles and resources that accompany the webinars as you wait for your book to arrive.
In Addition, Continue to Receive Updated and New Webinars – Indefinitely!
Whenever and however the webinars are updated in the future, you will always have access to the latest version of the webinar series. It’s sort of like a “lifetime membership”. By participating in these webinars, you have become part of our Midwest Permaculture family and we want you to have access to continued permaculture resources to the extent that you are interested.
Price: $195.00
- Session #1 of our Full Online PDC Course
- 9 Pre-recorded Video Webinars
- Plus the 3-hr ‘Site Data & Digital Design Tutorial’ - See here
- Audio .mp3 files for each for mobile listening
- 8 Different Teachers with Varied Real-world Experience
- PDC Course Support Text – Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow
- Accompanying 150-Question Study Guide
- All Updates to the Webinars…Indefinitely!
If you previously accessed the webinars using a password-protected page, click here.
Group Discounts
-
6-16 Students $175/ea.
(Includes a 90-min. live webinar with Bill Wilson of MWP)
-
17-48 Students $150/ea.
(Includes two 90-min. Live Webinars with Bill Wilson of MWP)
-
49+ Students $140/ea.
(Includes four webinars or a half-day training with Bill Wilson at your location)
