|Online Course|
Dive Into Permaculture
Become a regenerative change maker with our
Live & On Demand Online permaculture design course (PDC)
Four Month Winter Course Begins January 2025
All levels |130 Hour Course| 72 hours On Demand |10 Live Sessions with recording | 43 hours Bonus content |Optional 1 week hands-on | Online Live Seasons: , January - April,
Starting at
$789
+tax Sign Me Up!
Live Design Classes
Wednesday Evenings 5:30-7pm EST
January 8th, 15th ,22nd ,29th February 5th March 5th, 19th April 2nd, 16th, 30th
All sessions are recorded for your benefit, participation is recommended
15 hours Live Online
10 Live sessions with Breakout rooms, group projects, and live Q n A sessions. Recorded and uploaded for on demand access
42 hours bitesize video sessions
short clips for your convenience! review specific tools and techniques without wading through 2 hour long recorded videos session
Earn your Certificate
Follow and complete an internationally recognised Permaculture Design Certificate curriculum
Learn Adaptive Design
So many techniques in permaculture are taught as a copy and paste solution however are rarely appropriate to simply do as has been done without being able to read the land and adapt the design.
Grassroots Guidance
Our Instructors are Experienced, Cultured, and Diverse in our on the ground experience and knowledge!
We are not Engineers, Bigshots, or Famous. We are real People doing real work on the ground
Earth Based
Learn how to observe the land, forest, animals and water and reconnect with the patterns and cycles. This basis to permaculture coupled with our grass roots team gives us a real world skills for transition
Reconciliation in Action
We offer 25% off minimum discount on all online courses for Indigenous Community Members or People who identify as BIPOC. Take the discount or pay it forward to build up to a full sponsorship for people in need.
All levels |130 Hour Course| 72 hours On Demand |10 Live Sessions with recording | 43 hours Bonus content |Optional 1 week hands-on | Online Live Seasons: , January - April,
Starting at
$789
+tax Sign Me Up!
Transformational Experience
More than just a permaculture course, connect with peers, practice your skills, and make your first design project come to life.
#Level Up on the Farm
Once the online course is done if you still want the hands-on #levelup then you have the option to join us for one week of practical, intensive, onsite workshops on the farm that not only connect you with your peers and the land, it builds your realtime skills.
Step by Step Design Tools
We took our years of experience and broke permaculture concepts into actionable step by step tools that simplify the design process
Wake-up and Grow
Learning about our world and the solutions to all the challenges is hard, and to think most of us feel alone in the journey when we are literally surrounded with like minded people. Join up in support groups and connect with others through the process.
Why Take a PDC?
Let our Participants tell you in their own words.
The Course
Earn your certification with a Geoff Lawton recommended instructor. Engage with like minded participants and develop your skills with multiple scales of group and individual projects
The P3 School
Our professional Learning Management systems makes it easy to follow, and organise all the different components of your certificate course. With options to #Levelup on other topics, like Advanced Earthworks, Food Forest Design, Mushroom Cultivation and more.
The Community
Our Discord Channel is growing a Non Facebook Community with groups for sharing projects, resources, and connecting with like minded people in your area.
Join P3's worldwide community of permaculture practitioners.
Our On-demand and Live online classes support a diverse community of permaculturists. We have been teaching environmental and permaculture courses since 2007 and have taught in 10 countries in 3 languages.
Our students come from all walks of life
● Homesteaders looking to increase nutrition and health
● Business Owners seeking more productivity and wellness un the workplace
● Aspiring Professionals pursuing a permaculture-related career
● Urban Homeowners and Renters transitioning to a more ecological future.
● People lost in the despair of the world seeking a Regenerative path to the issues of the world.
1. Sign up!
Choose your package below. Pay the fee, and follow the email prompt to complete your account setup.
2. Explore the Community
Gain immediate access to the discord community "The Good Swale". Connect with fellow students and share your story.
3. Tour the E-Learning platform
Watch the recorded content. Take a quiz. dive into the Rabbit hole of recommended resources.
4. Prepare to take the next step
Get ready to open your eyes to a new world full of options. with a new way to see challenges and a new way to design our future.
All levels |130 Hour Course| 72 hours On Demand |10 Live Sessions with recording | 43 hours Bonus content |Optional 1 week hands-on |
Online Live Seasons: January to April
Starting at
$789
+tax Sign Me Up!
Choose your PDC+ Package
Study On Demand, Live and at the farm
Essential
$789 .00
+ tax- Lifetime access
- PDC+ Online Course (15 modules)
- live support during 2 PDC sessions
- 72 hour Internationally recognized PDC
- 2 x PDC+ live sessions (10 classes each)
- 43 hours Bonus video content
- Online PDC community group
- 7 Step by Step Design Tools
- 14 Quizzes
- 4+ Design Projects
- 1 Final Design Project presented
- 1x PDC certificate
-
20% 0ff advanced hands on courses
- Lifetime access to online PDC resources, practice exercises, videos, quizzes and tools
Hands-on Bundle
$ 1549 .00
+ tax- Everything in Essential (789$ value)
-
APP Hands-on at the farm (1250$ Value)
- 1 on 1 Personal Mentorship 1 hour with recorded video (148$ value)
- Advanced Practicum On Farm
- 5 Day 30 hour training
- Day 1: Observation & Design Process
- Day 2: Market and Home Garden Design
- Day 3: Soils, Compost; tea & extracts,
- Day 4: Water & Erosion Management
- Day 5: Forestry & Food Forests
- 5 Days of Breakfast, Lunch & Supper
- Camping Included
- Nightly Campfires
- Discover and Tinker with Permaculture tech and techniques
Pro Bundle
$ 2947 .00
+ tax- Everything in Essential (789$ value)
- 1 Week Intensive #LevelUp at the farm (30 hours)
- Lifetime access to all our Online Courses
- 10 Hours Consultation (1700$ value)
- Courses Included: (1533$ Value)
- PDC+
- Permaculture Fundamentals
- Advanced Earthworks
- Mushroom Growing
- Urban Permaculture
- Permaculture Garden Design
- Climate positive solutions for your back yard
- Intro to Food Forests (Fall 24)
- Companion Planting (winter 24)
- Water Filtration (winter 24)
-
Over 4200$ value
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 online course we offer 25% and 4 spots with 25% off in our in person courses, 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.
Students certified
years experience
Countries served
PDC courses hosted
About Our Teachers
(More to come)
Graham Calder Founder & Chief Designer, P3 Permaculture
Graham has more than 13 years' experience in 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 2009 and has ever since been teaching and consulting with the goal of making permaculture 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 7000 Hectares in 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, Jardins sans Frontiers
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.
Our Sponsor
Oneka
All natural personal care products created out of a respect for our water sources and the many organisms that help clean and purify it along their way. From the Native North American tribe Mohawk; Ohne:ka means water. The name Oneka was chosen to reflect the importance of manufacturing natural personal care products while being very conscious of water. Oneka reaches beyond great looking hair, no compromise on quality, and courses ingredients known to be readily biodegradable.Live Online Seasons
(Live attendance is recommended however sessions are recorded and uploaded afterwards)
November - February
Feruary - May
- Lifetime access to our 130h online Course
- 72 hours internationally recognized PDC + 26 Hours Additional Course Content
- 30 Hours Bonus video and Documentary Content (more added every year)
- Access to our Discord Channel "The Good Swale"
- Classes and workshops from our main teacher and guest teachers.
- Short homework assignments after each class to consolidate your learning.
- The student handbook to prepare for the course.
- Teaching material presented during class.
- A lifetime online access to various suggested readings, videos, podcasts and other resources for each chapter of the course.
- An online platform to access and submit all your homework, share resources and ask additional questions.
- An opportunity to meet and practice with actors of the permaculture network around the world
The curriculum we follow at P3 is one that was developed by the late Bill Mollison in Australia in the 1970’s, and is today regarded as the standard in permaculture education, recognized and respected worldwide. During the Online PDC training we go over the following 6 sections:
- Part 1: Permaculture Fundamentals : The Ethics and Principles of Permaculture, Observation and Design Process, Identifying Patterns.
- Part 2: Understanding Ecosystems : Climates / Water Systems, Trees and their Energy Transactions, Soil Systems
- Part 3: Special Topics: Earthworks and Earth Resources, Aquaculture & Aquaponics
- Part 4: Specific Climates: Drylands / Cool Climates / Tropics
- Part 5: Global Strategies: Strategies for an Alternative Paradigm
- Part 6: Final Design Project
The course also goes into detail on the following topics
- Understanding the key parameters to build an ecological garden
- Managing and conserving water
- Creating and maintaining healthy soil
- Creating diversity and resilience in the garden
- Creating and using maps for your property
- Understanding the key parameters to build an ecological garden
- Conducting Active Observation
- Functional Analysis
- Defining the Root Cause of a Problem
- Defining the Permaculture Zones
- Conducting a Sector Analysis
- Conducting the Designer's Priority
- Applying a SWOT analysis
Bonus crash course content.
- We have packed this PDC with additional Crash course content to give you what you need to start hands-on permaculture projects right away. Here are some of the on demand bonus workshops:
- Compost (thermophilic, mesophilic, vermicompost and Johnson-Su Bioreactor)
- Herb spirals
- Lasagna Gardens
- Cold frames
- Water filtration
- Food Forest basics
- Pond maintenance
- Coppice forestry
- Erosion management
- And more
After many years we have determined that we need more Hands-on experiential practical learning then ever before. this reinforces the retention anc comprehension of the skills needed to move forward with your projects.
This one week intensive at the farm ill go into detail
- 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
- Nightly Campfires
- Tinker and discover a plethora of permaculture technologies and techniques
- Biogas, Lasagna Gardens, Compost tea, Food Forests, Rotational Grazing, Aquaculture, Mushroom Cultivation
- You’ll learn “whole-systems thinking”: Instead of trying to solve problems by addressing individual components which leads to creating new problems down the road that we often refer to as externalities, you’ll be able to analyze how the parts and pieces connect together and how to interact with those relationships to improve the whole system. Systems thinking is key to find solutions to the complex environmental, economic and social challenges we face today.
- Specifically you will learn how to observe a problem or situation, identify its strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats, with this you will be able to design solutions. Examples of some solutions we learn are drought prevention, flood control water management passive solar design, alternative architecture, alternative social systems and so much more.
- You’ll acquire a toolbox to create beyond sustainable designs: Although we do go deep in many subjects covered in the PDC (see course content presented above), you won’t become an expert in any of them. The goal of the PDC is to introduce you to all the disciplines required for permaculture design and to show you all the relationships and synergies that exist between them. At the end of the PDC, you’ll have acquired the toolbox that you need to design beyond sustainable systems. You’ll have learned how and when to use each tool and you’ll be able to go deeper into each of them depending on your needs and interests.
- You’ll find a community of people that care: In this course you will meet people that share your concerns and want to be part of the change as much as you do. You’ll be inspired by them and get the chance to form new friendships and collaborative relationships. Based on feedback from our alumnis, we’re confident to say that it’s very likely that this experience will be life changing for you.
Many participants find the PDC life-changing, they develop new world views, solidify action plans and enhance their social network. Thinking as a permaculturist helps you to make appropriate social and ecological interventions in any field you dedicate yourself to; it may, in fact, completely change your relationship to the areas you have been exploring for years. Taking a PDC allows you to develop new thinking patterns that allow you to create designs that tend to use fewer resources, work more efficiently, and are easier to maintain.
Many P3 alum choose to start their own business as permaculture designers, consultants, and implementers. Permaculture opens doors to all kinds of paths, including social entrepreneurship, natural building, food forestry, passive-solar building design, natural agriculture, community organizing, research & development, and many more.
Here is a non-exhaustive list demonstrating how you can benefit from a PDC (Toby Hemenway, 2019):
Homeowners, gardeners, and farmers learn to increase the value and productivity of their property and to create home and land environments that better support their own needs as well as nature’s.
Real estate, construction, and development professionals are able to better address the public’s growing concern for the environment and to reduce resource use and impacts.
Educators learn to integrate permaculture design into their curriculum in ways that have been proven to raise student performance.
Planners and public officials find holistic solutions to land-use and resource issues, and will identify and solve bottlenecks and impediments to implementing their programs.
Energy, water, and waste-systems workers will learn holistic management strategies for integrating their projects into the larger community.
Early Bird | Save 15% by registering and paying in full 2 months or more in advance. | Only 5 spots at this price | Discount code : EARLY15
If the tuition is too much to afford all at once, we accept payment plans for 3 equal instalments to be completed 1 month prior to the start of the course. To request a payment plan, please contact us at
info@p3permaculture.ca
after you have paid the 250$ PDC Registration deposit.
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
- Physical labour
- Construction
- Farm labour or tasks
- Food Forest maintenance
- Pond maintenance
- Photography and video
- General Maintenance
- Social Media marketing