DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY PERMACULTURE COURSE
Permaculture is...
...a holistic design system for sustainable living, creating systems for minimum effort and maximum effect. The word was coined in the 1970s but is based on indigenous practices for many generations, as well as modern tools and techniques – making the best of the new and the old to design and create sustainable systems in the present day.
Course content:
The Permaculture Design Course is a 72 hour course which covers:
- The Permaculture Design Process (SADIMET), and the theory and practice of different design tools from mapping to implementation. This includes different opportunities to use the design tools and create an entire design in a small group.
- Permaculture ethics and principles and their application
- Learn in detail about each of the essential themes of soil, water, plants & trees, growing your own food, the built environment, resource use, and social systems and contexts. Each one is explored in detail with a combination of student research and sharing from all participants.
- Site visits to five different permaculture sites - each Saturday at a different location with different co-teachers. Learning through doing, seeing, experiencing and understanding different sites.
Course structure:
- This course is a mix of online and in-person practical sessions. In person sessions will take place over six Saturdays 10am-5pm. Online sessions are a combination of set content (videos to watch or articles to read) and fully interactive Zoom (online teleconference) sessions on Tuesday evenings.
- It is a 72 hour course. This is composed of 6 Saturdays (36 hours = half of the course), 8 x 2 hour live online (Zoom) sessions (one quarter of the course) and around 23 hours of pre-recorded content and activities on the Permaculture Association's Community Hub. Online sessions will be together with the Glasgow permaculture students.
- The Saturday sessions will be fully interactive with lots of practicals and tours of permaculture places. The Zoom sessions will be a fully interactive opportunity for participants to discuss, share their work/research, ask questions (including about the content on the Community Hub), and do group work. The pre-recorded content will need to be completed in advance of the Zoom/ in person sessions to enable a dynamic discussion of the content. A full timetable of what is to be done when will be on the Community Hub.
When and Where?
Saturdays 10am-5pm (tbc means to be confirmed)
| Module | Date (2025) | Venue | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29th March | The Hidden Mill, Balmaclellan | Introductions & Composting |
| 2 | 10th May | Whithorn | Tour, Observation practicals, mapping and measuring slope |
| 3 | tbc | Auchencairn - Link Park Food Forest and Suie Fields | Food forest, practicals, regenerative agriculture |
| 4 | 23rd August | Gatehouse of Fleet - Lusi's garden and Cally Woods | Principles review, forest garden practicals, the Work that Reconnects |
| 5 | 20th September | tbc | Designing in groups |
| 6 | 18th October tbc | tbc | Sharing your designs |
Tuesday evenings on Zoom - 6.30pm-8.30pm
| Number | Date (2025) | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8th april | Introductions, group discussions about permaculture ethics, definitions, and gardening |
| 2 | 29th April | Plant of the day, permaculture principles and design process |
| 3 | 20th May | Plant, skills audit, client interview, spirals of erosion and abundance |
| 4 | 10th June | Soil sessions |
| 5 | 22nd July | Plant of the day, analysis tools including random assembly and; the ethics of food choices |
| 6 | 5th August | Water sessions |
| 7 | 2nd September | Q&A and bike rack |
| 8 | 30th September | Design Group Work |
Self Study Content
Approximately 23 hours of self-study course content. This includes nearly 17 hours of videos to watch. High quality videos have been made by permaculture educators from around the world including Lusi Alderslowe, Lorraine Ishak (Galloway), Clive Brandon (Black Isle, Scotland), Mandy Merklein (Mallorca), Nim Robins (Wales), Morag Gamble (Australia), Joe Atkinson (England), Jemma Findley, Ian Solomon-Kawall, Chris Evans, Looby Macnamara, and more!
Course Fees
There is a sliding scale to enable people of different income streams to attend. If you cannot afford to pay all at once, it's possible to pay in instalments.
There are 4 different price bands:
- Unwaged is for students/unemployed (there are a limited number of these places). Please note funding available - see below
- Low waged is for people with a household income of up to £15k. Please note funding opportunity - see below.
- Waged is for people with a household income greater than £15k
- Full Price (pay it forward).This is for organisations (where an organisation is paying for your place) or those on a good waged (i.e. if you can afford it, this really helps us to have more people on unwaged band and to make the course viable).
For each of these bands you can either pay all at once, or in instalments.
For the instalment plan, you pay a non-returnable deposit, and we will then agree a payment schedule with you, to be paid in full by the course start date of 23rd March 2025. If there are fees outstanding after this date, there will be a further 10% fee added to the course cost, to cover the additional admin required. Instalments will be payable by bank transfer on receipt of an invoice from us.
| Course fee | Deposit | Course Fee if not paid in full by course start date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unwaged | £267 | £47 | £282 |
| Low waged | £477 | £87 | £522 |
| Waged | £687 | £127 | £762 |
| Full price | £807 | £147 | £882 |
Certification and Membership
This course is certified by the Permaculture Association
This course follows the 72 hour Permaculture Design Course curriculum accredited by the Permaculture Association, and Lusi Alderslowe is a Certified Educator.
On successful completion of the course participants will receive a certificate from the Permaculture Association. This certificate is a requirement of various aspects of permaculture, such as to study the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, to be a Centre in the Permaculture ScotLAND network, to attend an International Permaculture Convergence, and some paid or voluntary roles.
One year's membership of the Permaculture Association is also included. This gives you a whole year of support through connecting with other members, access to our membership map to find other people near year, regular members calls about relevant subjects, access to regional, national and online permaculture events, and much more..
Venues
01
The Hidden Mill
A Permaculture Association ScotLAND Centre which is a paradise of edges. It has pasture, woodland, waterways, ponds, forest gardens and orchards. It's a centre for education and experimentation in radical growing, green building and energy systems.
02
Whithorn
The South Machars Community Centre (SMCC) is a vibrant hub of the where we can see fantastic community resources such as the 'Living room' & the Community Fridge.
The Plant Farm is a sustainable growing space. We grow, sell and swap veg, plants, herbs and seeds at local markets, crop swap events, the farm gate, the community fridge, and donate to the community pop-up cafe.
03
Auchencairn
Link Park Forest Garden is an 11 year old edible forest garden aka food forest in the community park. There is a community allotment adjacent.
Suie Fields is a small family farm producing fresh and nutritious local food using natural and regenerative methods.
04
Gatehouse of Fleet
We visit Lusi's permaculture food forest garden which was planted in 2021-2 as a beautiful mandala shape.
Then we will explore the beautiful Cally Woods for deeper nature connection.
The Teaching Team
Lusi Alderslowe
Lead Tutor
(She/her)
Permaculture educator, senior diploma tutor, children in permaculture trainer, and author of ‘Earth Care People Care and Fair Share in Education’. Find out more
Naomi Wight
Suie Fields
(she/her)
We are a small scale mixed farm using nature friendly and soil building methods to produce food for our local community
Cat Train
Tutor
(She/her)
Permaculture educator, professional musician , home educator, and co-founder of Incredible Edible Neilston, Cat will be co-teaching the online sessions.
Lucy Smithies
The Plant Farm, Whithorn
(she/her)
With practical backgrounds in animal science, teaching and horticulture, Lucy with her partner Sam are creating a regenerative fruit and vegetable small holding nestled within the traditional landscape of livestock farming.
Lorraine Ishak
Hidden Mill
(she/her)
Lorraine is a permaculture educator and host of a 10 acre smallholding in rural Galloway, with food growing, animals, renewable energy and more! Find out more about the Hidden Mill
Abi Mordin
Hidden Veg
(she/her)
An experienced grower, facilitator, educator and researcher, Abi has a small market garden called Hidden Veg.
Testimonials
Previous participants said...
“I now have a
Deeper knowledge of permaculture,
Deeper knowledge of sustainable growing
Deeper knowledge of plants and edible weeks
Met some great people and long lasting connections
Alwyn McLaughlin, Galloway
“What I got out of it:
*Connection with others sharing same ethos and interests
*Learning new things
*Visiting varied sites where permaculture is being done
*Being able to share my own skills and experiences with others.
”
Lucy S, Galloway PDC 23
It has been amazing to experience how such a broad subject as permaculture design is explained and exemplified through inspirational case studies in a structured, clear and accessible way.
Daniel, Galloway PDC 23
““I have really enjoyed this course. It has given me so much knowledge and skills of how I can live more sustainably and in tune with nature which is exactly what I wanted from it. I also got to meet some lovely like-minded people. Thank you!.”
Jade, Galloway PDC 23
“I would highly recommend this course for anyone who wants to learn about permaculture and how to apply it in their lives. It is a great introduction to the design principles and provides many tools to use.”
BP, Galloway PDC 23
“I would highly recommend the PDC to anyone looking for inspiration, knowledge and a community for living more sustainably. I have loved the visits to farms, smallholdings, community spaces and other areas where people are applying the permaculture ethics and principles and feel infinitely better informed about how I can design for this in my own garden - and life.”
L CR, Galloway PDC 23
“Having Zoom sessions, meant that I could take part. Being geographically apart from the other members of the group means that I would have been unable to complete the course due to having to travel a distance - so Zoom worked for me.”
ND, Galloway PDC 23
Cancellation
The deposit is non-returnable.
After the course start date, the full course fee is non-returnable.
If you cannot attend a module of the full design course, you still must pay for it.