Permaculture Design Certificate course 20 May 2012
Our largest course to date, we had the privilege of having 12 wonderful people stay and learn about Permaculture with us. Most arrived the Saturday afternoon prior to the course start, so they could set up camp and get acquainted with their surroundings and their temporary home for 2 weeks.
Even though the composting toilets may have been daunting for some, they all took it in their stride and helped emptying the toilets every few days. We gave them all the responsibility of tidying up their communal and teaching area and the bathrooms and toilets. Dishes were done by them as well, and they needed to light the fires to have hot water for their showers and for washing dishes.
Wood was chopped, composting toilets emptied, 18 day hot compost pile turned, an urban permaculture property visited, a farm tour on our property was included and examples of theoretical knowledge shown to students. On the last day we had a great time listening to and seeing other peoples talents, and we had some great comments from the students, including a wonderful poem (see student feedback page).
We did learn that we need a larger teaching space, which we are in the process of preparing now. We will have to approach our catering a bit different as well, which we are working on at the moment too. I am sure that our needs will keep changing as we go, so we need to stay flexible with our approach.
We very much enjoyed having such a great group of people staying and learning with us on the property, and we wish them all the best with their future permaculture endeavours. We are looking forward to our next PDC, which starts 19 August!
©2012 Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast – Permaculture Design Certificate, Permaculture Design Course