Part-Time Weekend Permaculture Design Certification

Spring 2023

 

 All levels | In-person and online | Ottawa, Ontario | 100h | 5 weekends: April 1 to June 11th,  2023


Starting at $1490  +tax

 
 

Join us for our part-time PDC course this Spring 2023! This course is ideal for individuals with work or school commitments during the week.

This year, we're partnering with Ottawa's The Box of Life to deliver our part-time PDC. Check out their awesome vermicomposting work here!

Dates:

Online 30-hour Pre-PDC Course:

- Complete at your own pace by April 1st

Online Course Introduction 11AM-12PM:

- 26th March 

In-person PDC course 10AM-5:30PM:

- 1st & 2nd  April 

- 8th & 9th  April

- 13th & 14th May 

- 27th & 28th May 

- 10th & 11th June 

Location: 

 The Box of Life

15 Larch St., Little Italy, Ottawa, Ontario 




Is a PDC for me?

 Are you looking to gain the knowledge and skills to create a truly sustainable system? Are you eager to start regenerating your life, garden, or community? Do you want to connect with like-minded individuals who share your passion for protecting our planet?

If so, then our Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is the perfect opportunity for you. Our PDC will provide you with the tools and confidence you need to take action and make a positive, regenerative impact. Whether you already have a project in mind or you're looking to explore new solutions, our PDC will help you move forward on your journey

Course Objectives

Discover & Learn on the Land

Take advantage of our 14 years of teaching experience to learn how to...

Regenerate Degraded Soil 

Even the worst clays, sands can be regenerated. 

Prevent Droughts & Floods

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

Create Edible Landscapes 

Discover edible parks and alternative forestry

Start Natural Building

Techniques used in the oldest building on earth 

Use Alternative Energy

Learn the basics options and alternative new discoveries

The Perks   

Live the lessons and build memories

Immerse yourself in permaculture

Dive deep into permaculture in our hands-on workshops

Build practical skills

Try your hand at permaculture techniques, in an urban setting!

Design for a real client

Create a landscape design for a real-life client

Grow your Community

Learn alongside a passionate group of change-makers 

Make new friendships

Connect with students and grow your network.

Choose your PDC Package

PDC Basic

$ 1490 .00

+ tax
  • 72-hour Internationally recognized PDC
  • 28 Hours of additional Hands on content
  • 30+ hours Online Pre PDC Prep Course
  • Lifetime Access to Online PDC resources, practice exercises, videos, quizzes and tools

PDC Pro

$1590 .00

+ tax
  • Savings of 120$
  • 72-hour Internationally recognized PDC
  • 28 Hours of additional Hands on content
  • 30+ hours Online Pre PDC Prep course
  • Lifetime Access to Online PDC resources, practice exercises, videos, quizzes and tools
  • Online courses bundle
    - Ecological gardening
    - Mushroom cultivation
    - Urban permaculture
  • - 4 tickets to online Intro workshops of your choice for you or your friends
    (live or recorded)
  • Get 12 hours of updated PDC content every year with our Fair Share Program

To The Moon

$1926 .00

+ tax
  • Savings of 344$
  • 72-hour Internationally recognized PDC
  • 28 Hours of additional Hands on content
  • 30+ hours Online Pre PDC Prep course
  • Lifetime Access to Online PDC resources, practice exercises, videos, quizzes and tools
  • Online courses bundle  
    - Ecological gardening 
    - Mushroom cultivation 
    - Urban permaculture
  • - 4 tickets to online Intro workshops of your choice for you or your friends
    (live or recorded)
  • 4 hours of Video consultation (Recording Included)
  • 20% off the first 5 hours of onsite* project consultation
    * travel fees vary by location
  • Get 12 hours of updated PDC content every year with our Fair Share Program

Course Details

  • 30 hours Pre-PDC online training with lifetime access

  • 72 hours internationally recognized PDC

  • + 28 hours of extra hands-on content  

  • 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 in the permaculture network in the Ottawa and Outaouais region

This part-time PDC will be held held at The Box of Life. The Box of Life is a social enterprise which seeks to make sustainable vermicomposting more accessible. They have a gathering space in their office in the heart of Ottawa's Little Italy.

One weekend of the PDC will also be held in the field at a design client's land, likely outside of the city.

Please note that no accommodation is provided during the part-time PDC weekends.

The 30-hour online training that we ask students to complete prior to the start of the course allows us to make sure students have a shared understanding of the basics of permaculture at the start of the in-person training. This allows us to spend more time in the field and to go deeper on some course topics during our in-person time together. Here is a list of the topics covered in the online training:

  • 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

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 2 weeks intensive 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 

Each day we spend 5 hours exploring permaculture theory either in the field or in class and 2 hours doing some hands-on work related to the learnings of the day.

We have packed this PDC with 28 additional hours of hands-on workshops. Here are some of the topics we will cover:

  • Compost (thermophilic, mesophilic, vermi-compost and Johnson-Su Bioreactor)

  • Herb spirals

  • Lasagna Gardens

  • Cold frames

  • Water filtration

  • Food Forest basics

  • Pond maintenance

  • Coppice forestry

  • Erosion management

  • ...and more!

  • 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 finding 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 and regenerative 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 alumni, we’re confident to say 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 alumni 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, amongst 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.


Very Early Bird | Save 15% by registering and paying in full 4 months or more in advance. | Only 5 spots at this price | Discount code : VERYEARLY15

Early Bird | Save 10% by registering  3 months in advance.  | Only 5 spots at this price | Discount code : EARLY10

Friends with Benefits  | $50.00 each when 2 register together | $100.00 each when 3 register together | $150.00 each when 4 register together | To get the friends with benefit discount, buy 2 or more PDC Deposits and we will automatically apply this discount to your final invoice.

Note that discounts cannot be combined, and the deposit of $490 + TX is required to reserve your place. Make sure to enter the code of your desired discount when you buy your PDC spot. If the code has expired it means all the very early bird and/or early bird spot have already been taken.

Note that the registration deposit of 490$ +tx is paid first, and separately from the rest of the tuition fee.
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 490$ PDC Registration deposit.

If you are unable to afford your full tuition you can apply to be accepted as a work-trader to help with the setup of the PDC or other tasks helpful to P3 permaculture. Your acceptance is conditional to having skills we need and these vary in accordance to each course offered. This process will include a video or in-person meeting to assess your ease of integration into the organizational 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 work-trade and the skills you could share with the P3 Team.

Skills needed for PDC 2023

- Social media marketing 

- Photography and video

- General maintenance and logistics support


Refund requests will follow our regular refund policy: Students asking for a refund should do so at least one month prior to the start of the course, furthermore the  $490+tax registration fee is non-refundable.

In the event that we have to cancel the course due to government restrictions, all students will have the option of being fully refunded OR registering for our PDC2024. If applicable, the price difference between the PDC 2023 and the PDC 2024 will be waived for students who registered for the PDC2023.

Note that you must complete all the hours required to obtain your certificate, and that you must have a valid reason for missing a day or weekend of content (but that the missing hours can be made up at a subsequent time).


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 25% 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.

More guest teachers to be confirmed 

 

Permaculture Design Certification

5 weekends: April 1st to June 11th,  2023

All levels | In-person and online | Ottawa, Ontario | 100h | 

        Permaculture Ottawa, Permaculture Quebec, Permaculture course

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