Midwest Permaculture

72-Hr. Design Certification Course
8-Day Training (And Pre-course Webinars & Self Study)
July 31 -Aug. 7, 2010 - Madison, WI
Focus: Suburban/Urban Permaculture

Training is Complete
Click Here for Upcoming Training Sechedules

Training Includes: - Pre-course Self-Study & Webinars - Class Instruction - Design Work - Site Tours & - Hands-on Project What is learned in this Permaculture Design Certificate Course, with it focus on the Suburban and urban environment, will be universally useful to most urban residents. PIctured: Students from 2009 Madison Permaculture Design Course digging a swale.

The emphasis of this course:
   1. Transforming hard cityscapes into beautiful food production.
      2. Designing for a healthy & authentic community to emerge.
         3. Transforming our back yards, city lots, roof tops and                                      commons areas into social, ecological,
                                                        and economical power houses.
              4. Working smarter and reducing fossil fuel requirements.
                 5. Creating long term security for ourselves,
                                                                      and our communities.

Basic Logistics

College Credits - Professional Studies

How to Receive College Credit for taking this PDC
Through the Department of Biology at Edgewood, those students who are willing to pay additional tuition fees to the college and write a term paper following the course, 2 college credit hours are available. Students can connect with Dr. Jim Lorman (PhD) at Edgewood College who is also a PDC graduate from last years Midwest Permaculture Design Certificate Course held in Madison.

Additional Graduate Studies through Edgewood Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program Year Long Program - 15 Credit Hours - Mostly Saturdays Begins with a week-long intensive course immediately following this PDC course and continues with Saturday courses during the academic year. Requirement: Undergraduate Degree in any field of study. If you are an adult professional and enthusiastic about becoming a change agent for sustainability, the Sustainability Leadership Program is ideal for you. This program is new to Edgewood College and is one of the first in the US. Applicants are required to complete an application form, submit a short essay, and participate in an admissions interview. Dr. Jim Lorman heads this program. Click Here for the Brochure

Site Tours

We will be taking students to several locations that are implementing different aspects of permaculture design. We know that seeing is often believing. Students will not only get a chance to see what these projects are but in most cases they will talk with the person or persons involved in the creation and work.

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Alicia and Bryan have been applying permaculture thinking and design to their home for years and were early participants of the 'poultry underground' that worked to legalize the raising of chickens in one's own backyard. A fun documentary called Mad City Chickens was produced that follows their legalization journey.

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Kate Heiber-Cobb's backyard includes this permaculture transformation of an herb spiral, mandala keyhole bed (pictured) and her rain-water catchment system. Her simply designed rain-water system harvests and sends rooftop rain from rain-barrels... to a small constructed wetland... to her growing beds. Kate is our host for this permaculture training and will have much more to share during the week. There is more information about Kate and her work below.

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Kate's friend Jody - Jody and her family have a traditional suburban home with many permaculture features. We'll take a good look at their winter hardy kiwi growing over the front porch (keeping it cool in the summer while providing fruit), their front yard herb and flower garden, and the grape vines growing along the side of the home. In her backyard she has a very cool drain system from her driveway to a VERY large and beautifully established rain garden.  She also has a home built Cob Oven and growing beds.  She's been working on her yard for 15 years.

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Troy Community Gardens is a unique development consisting of 31-acres of urban property that integrates mixed-income, green-built housing, community gardens, an organic farm, and restored prairie and woodlands.

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Kinkoona Farm - The BaaBaaShop.com
Suellen Thompson-Link (at right below) was a student in our last years permaculture training and took us for a tour of her small farming operation. She and her three children took over the dilapidated farming operation and turned it into a vibrant, diversified and cheerful farm. Kinkoona’ is Australian Aboriginal for ‘laughing’. Through hard work, perseverance and skill they now have a profitable farm selling wonderful lambs-wool products such as organic comforters and mattress toppers and offering summer educational programming for young people.

A look at last years permaculture course graduates. Suellen is standing in the middle with the red sleeveless top.

More About Edgewood College (Course Location) and the
Mycoremediation Permaculture Project on Campus

Please Note: Although this training is being hosted on a college campus, the course is open to everyone. Last year 25% of attendees were college students.

Professor Jim Lorman of Edgewood College (pictured) was also a student of last years permaculture course. Jim took us on a tour of the grounds to see their mycoremediation project (left).

The term mycoremediation was coined by Paul Stamets (author of Mycelium Running) and refers specifically to the use of fungal mycelia to clean up polluted soils.

Working with permaculturist Kate Heiber-Cobb (our course host...see below), the two of them designed a simple system that would take storm water runoff from the campus roads and hold it for a short time in a catchment area (pictured above) that was seeded with millions of mushroom mycelia spores. The goal is to convert the hydrocarbons that are picked up in the storm water from oil and gasoline drips and clean them up before the water enters Lake Wingra. This project is ongoing.

This may seem like a rather noble and responsible project for a small college to undertake but it's not for Edgewood. This college has always been in the forefront of social and environmental responsibility. Edgewood was the first college or university in Wisconsin to be accepted into Wisconsin’s Green Tier, administered by the Department of Natural Resources. The program encourages institutions and businesses to go beyond current rules and regulations to reduce their impact on the environment. Pictured: Last years course at the mycoremediation site

From Edgewood's Website:
"Sponsored by the Sinsinawa Dominicans, Edgewood College (1847) is a community of learners that affirms both its Catholic heritage and its respect for other religious traditions. The liberal arts are the foundation of all our curricular offerings in the humanities, arts, sciences, and professional programs.

"Through participation in Green Tier, the College has developed an Environmental Management System that is focused on waste minimization, energy use, recycling and water conservation.

"Dominican Hall (pictured), the newest residence hall on campus, has been awarded LEED® Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the USGBC’s rating system for designing and constructing the world’s greenest, most energy efficient, and high performing buildings."

The Course Instructors

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Wayne Weiseman brings his years of design and teaching experience to this certification course. Wayne is register by Bill Mollison's Permaculture Institute of Australia to teach the full permaculture design course and to grant certification.     Read more...

Wayne resides in Carbondale, Illinois

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Guest Instructor and Course Host - Kate Heiber-Cobb
Suburban/Urban Permaculture Designer, Educator, Community Organizer
Kate is doing the heavy lifting of organizing this training along with the assistance of Dr. Jim Lorman of Edgewood College and the Madison Area Permaculture Guild.

About Kate...   - Holds a Permaculture Design Course Certification                      (PDC) with Midwest Permaculture   - Holds an Advance PDC Certification                            (also with Midwest Permaculture)   - Founder of Madison Area Permaculture Guild   - Owner of Sustainability on Stilts LLC- her own             permaculture design and consulting service.

Kate also has years of experience in community organizing, group facilitation and small business development, management and administration.

In her permaculture business, Kate consults with individuals, businesses and organizations on how they might apply permaculture principles and design to their upcoming projects. In her personal life, she and her husband Tom are going about transforming their traditional suburban home into a beautiful and productive site.

As a teacher, Kate shares her real life experience from being a relative permaculture novice to becoming an active and accomplished permaculture designer with her own business. She helps make the broad and sometime overwhelming subject of permaculture understandable, practical and doable. As she tells her students, "Hey, if I can do this... so can you!"

Kate is available for consulting and public presentations through her business, Sustainability on Stilts LLC.

Kate and Tom reside in Madison, Wisconsin
Contact Kate via Email

Additional Details About the Course

Begin The Training Now with Pre-Course Studies
This 8-day permaculture course actually begins with registration when the student receives (within 24 hours) 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.

Within a week or so students receive the course textbook,via US Mail.

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.

Two Live Webinars:
Besides the Foundation of Permaculture recorded webinars, included with this course will be two-live webinars, both of which will be recorded for students who might need to miss one or both. Here are the dates and times:

Webinar 1: Tuesday July 6th - 6:30 - 8:30 Central Time Zone
A smorgasbord of suburban/urban permaculture applications with Bill Wilson.
Webinar 2: Tuesday July 27th - 6:30 - 8:30 Central Time Zone
A 2-hour Q&A session with Wayne Weiseman and Bill Wilson. Save up all of your questions while going through the pre-training materials for this session.

After registration, students receive full instructions on how to access the webinar classroom. Click here to learn more about how the webinars work.

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. (5-13-09) Arkansas http://ozarksalive.org/larrapin/

Group and Personal Design projects
For all PDC trainings, students work on one or more designs in small groups. This is a requirement of certification and the project selected will be determined by the instructors.

Personal Invitation:  If one of the reasons you as a student might be taking this training is to learn the skills necessary to create a permaculture design for your own home or property, we invite you to bring information about your site to the training.  For example, bring a sketch of your property in fairly accurate proportions and/or an aerial view photo or map, a plant list of what is on your property now (does not have to be exhaustive – what are the dominant species – place them on the sketch), note the sunny and shady parts of the property and what direction is south. You should also be as clear as you can be about what your current dreams or visions are for the property.  There will be some time in the latter part of the course where individual's projects can be explored.  

What to Pack & Other Details
About 4 weeks before the on-site training begins, students will receive more information concerning the webinars, what to pack, when and where to arrive and other details.

Certification
Students who complete this design course will receive a 'Certificate of Completion' which permits them to use the copyrighted word 'permaculture' in the promotion of their work or business. Graduates may offer workshops, lectures and design services. Click here for more on certification.

Course Fee & Registration:
The price for this course is $1200.00.  

Group Registrations - Save $100/person
2 or more may register as a group and receive a $100 discount each. We've had friends, family members or couples register together and in the weeks before the course, end up bringing in several more friends, everyone saving $100 each.

Call Becky for either more information or to set up a group (815-256-2215).

	Registration Process      Option 1 Click Here to Register on-line.  We take MasterCard, Visa and Discover.            Option 2 Call Becky to register over the phone at 815-256-2215 with credit card or to mail in a personal check.

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 to work out these arrangements. We are happy to do this if it is helpful to you.

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 $250. The student retains access to all of the webinars, keeps the course handouts and text book, and receives a full $195 credit toward 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 $350 and the student still receives a $195 credit towards our design courses. 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 received their PDC Certification from another recognized course (from anywhere in the world) who wish to take one of our courses as a refresher. Please email for details.

Still Have Questions?
You are welcome to email Becky or call 815-256-2215.