Advanced | 100% hands-on | Wakefield, Québec, Canada | July 8th – 13th, 2024 | 30h
Starting at $1250+tax | Save 250$ when you register for our PDC+Online Certification
Our permaculture design certification (PDC) is ideal for people who crave to be immersed in the permaculture worldview.
Begin the course online. Go at your own pace and establish the fundamental theories of permaculture.
Then join us at L'Alpakiade our partner permaculture farm for an intensive 1 weeks filled with hands-on workshops, and in the field exploration.
We want to make sure our students understand the essence of permaculture as a design philosophy and know how to apply it to regenerate gardens and farms, but also cities and human communities as a whole. If you have a project in mind and want help designing and implementing it after your course then check out our PDC extra option.
Course objectives
Discover & Learn on the land
Take advantage of our 14 years of teaching experience
Regenerate Degraded soil
Even the worst clays, sands can be regenerated.
Drought & Flood Prevention
Holistic solutions for water management.
Fight Climate Change
Discover Carbon Farming.
Create Wildlife Habitats
Watch as nature is reborn with your design touch.
Find solutions inspired by Nature
Use natures 4.9 Billion years of R & D
Edible Landscapes
Discover edible parks and alternative forestry
Natural Building
Techniques used in the oldest building on earth
Alternative Energy
Learn the basics options and alternative new discoveries
The Perks
Live the lessons and build memories
Immerse yourself in permaculture
Peruse the food forest, explore over 900m of swale.
Join in the daily tasks
Alpaca, chicken tractor, food forest, ancient tech & more
Build practical skills
Help with the food forest or the erosion management.
Swim with the fishes
Cool off in the pond filled with frogs, sunfish, birds and more
Tinker with lost tech
Explore the Hydraulic ram pump and trump aeration systems
Experience Life on the Alpaca farm
The routine, the simplicity, the beauty, the work
Grow your Community
Live and learn with a group of changemakers
Make new friendships
Connect with students and grow your network.
Is this for me?
5 Days | 5 Intensive trainings
100% Hands On
Meals & Accommodations included. See below for full course details.
Starting at $1250+tax | Save 250$ when you register for our PDC+Online Certification
Day 1:
Social Permaculture
- Conscious communication
- Active listening
- Reflecting
- Social Needs assessment
- Community living tools
Day 2:
Garden & Water Systems
- Passive irrigation
- Biofiltration
- Companion Design
- No dig systems
- Drought Prevention
- Flood Prevention
Day 3:
Forestry & Food Forests
- Food Forests
- Grafting
- Propagation
- Coppice & Pollard
- Ramial Wood Chips
- Planting
Day 4:
Earthworks & Erosion
- Swales
- Spillways
- Pond & Dams
- Erosion remediation
- Erosion prevention
- Keyline
Day 5:
Soils Compost; tea & extracts
- Static Compost
- Hot Compost
- Vermi compost
- Johnson su bioreactor
- Compost extracts
- Aerated Compost tea
Course Details
- 3 delicious daily meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) made from local spray free ingredients.
- Rustic camping accommodation for the entire time of the Course
-
workshops from our main teacher and guest teachers.
-
The student handbook to prepare for the course.
- An online platform to access share resources and ask additional questions.
- An opportunity to meet and practice with actors and actresses of the permaculture network in Quebec
Our APP is made to give students the opportunity to experience what it’s like to live on a real farm with existing permaculture designs.
Our hands on classes will be taught outside at the field and the forest and we’ll be sharing communal outdoor/indoor spaces during breakfast, lunch, dinners and rest time.
Students will be provided with a campsite but need to bring their own tent and camping equipment. Compost heated showers and toilets available on site.
During the 1 weeks intensive training we go over the following 5 sections:
- On Farm #Levelup (30 hours)
- Day 1: Social Permaculture & Conscious Communication (NVC)
- Day 2: Garden & Water Systems
- Day 3: Forestry & Food Forests
- Day 4: Earthworks & Erosion Management
- Day 5: Soils Compost; tea & extracts
- 5 Days of Breakfast, Lunch & Supper
- Camping Included & Beds available at extra cost
- Nightly Campfires
- Tinker and discover a plethora pf permaculture technologies and techniques
- Biogas, Lasagna Gardens, Compost tea, Food Forests, Rotational Grazing, Aquaculture, Mushroom Cultivation
Each day we spend 6 hours doing hands-on training in the field ,supported by a whiteboard and some online notes this is a practicum not a lecture.
If you are unable to afford your full tuition you can apply to be accepted as a worktrader where you will be asked to arrive onsite 1-2 weeks early to help with setup of the site for the PDC. Your acceptance is conditional to having skills we need and these change for each course offered, also we will have a video or in person meeting to assess your ease of integration into the organisational team.
Upon acceptance your trade is valued at 15$ per hour up to a maximum reduction of 50% of your tuition. The discount will be calculated up to 2 days prior to the PDC start and the remainder will need to be paid before the first day of class.
To apply, please send us your CV and motivation letter. Please specify in your motivation letter the reasons why you are applying for a worktrade and the skills you could share with the P3 Team.
Skills needed for PDC 2021
- Physical labour
- Construction
- Farm labour or tasks
- Food Forest maintenance
- Pond maintenance
- Photography and video
- General Maintenance
-Social Media marketing
Reconciliation & Equity in Action
We are committed to doing more than acknowledging that our courses are held on the unceded unsurrendered territories of the Kanienkehaka, or Anishinabewaki.
We also acknowledge that we are living today in a society that is structured to privilege white patriarchy. As such we are taking many steps to adapt and grow. In every course we offer 4 spots at 50% off for those individuals who live with systemic barriers in their daily lives (more specifically Indigenous people and people of Colour). Regardless of your identity, if you are a person in need of additional financial support we can discuss options to support your learning.
Contact us to for more information
We also donate 1% of our profits to Indigenous led Land defender Organizations.
About Our Teachers
Graham Calder Founder & Chief Designer P3 Permaculture
Graham has more than 13 years experiencing teaching permaculture and ecological design. In 2009, he finished his BA in Environmental and Ecology Studies at Concordia University, (Montreal, Qc). Dissatisfied with the traditional environmentalist approach and its ability to meet the challenges of our time, he turned to permaculture. In the same year he obtained his Permaculture Design Certificate, (PDC) from Jesse Lemieux at Pacific Permaculture. Afterwards, he became an apprentice of one of the great names in the field, Geoff Lawton, at the Permaculture Institute of Australia, (PRI).
He founded P3 Permaculture in October of 2019 and has ever since been teaching and consulting permaculture design and theory with the goal of making it accessible to everyone. To date, Graham has certified over 375 students in permaculture design and has offered design services in more than 9 countries around the world; from urban gardens in Montreal, to the deserts of Gansu in China, and the tropical rain forests of Costa Rice and Cameroon.
He is dedicated to creating new courses and projects that will inspire and facilitate the transition to regenerative solutions for our society.
Liza Charbel Co Founder Jardin sans Frontiers (TBC)
After 10 years in the corporate world in Dubai, Liza moved to Montreal where she pursued a Masters in Business Administration, (MBA). Soon after, driven by a new found passion for social innovation and a longing for personal growth, she co-founded the social enterprise Gardens without Borders in 2011 after completing her PDC with P3 Permaculture. Through Gardens without Borders, she has developed urban and rural community-food projects in a diversity of social contexts and climates; including locations in Montreal, Ecuador, Senegal and Lebanon.
She shares her experiences in social innovation and food sustainability through conferences and workshops related to permaculture. She also has training in geo-biology, and integrates art and spirituality into the projects she co-creates. As a mother of a 3 year old, she's an aspiring urban homesteader and is now exploring permaculture as a parenting and education tool.