Dumfries & Galloway Permaculture Course

DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY PERMACULTURE COURSE

Book Your Place

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.



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 12 day (72 hour) course. This is composed of 6 Saturdays (36 hours = half of the course), 18 hours of live online (Zoom) sessions (one quarter of the course) and 18+ hours of pre-recorded content using 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 an opportunity for participants to share their work and research, to ask questions (including about the content on the Community Hub), and to have dynamic discussions on content. The pre-recorded content will need to be completed each week in advance of the sessions to enable a dynamic discussion of the content. This is expected to be one hour per week.





Book Your place

When and Where?

Saturdays 10am-5pm

Module Date (2024) Venue Content
1 16th March The Hidden Mill, Balmaclellan Introductions & Composting
2 13th April Whithorn Tour, Observation practicals, mapping and measuring slope
3 11th May Auchencairn - Link Park Food Forest and Suie Fields Food forest, practicals, regenerative agriculture
4 8th June Gatehouse of Fleet - Lusi's garden and Cally Woods Principles review, forest garden practicals, the Work that Reconnects
5 17th August St John's Town of Dalry Designing in groups
6 14th September St John's Town of Dalry Sharing your designs

Tuesday evenings on Zoom - 6.30pm-8.30pm

Number Date Content
1 26th March Introductions, group discussions about permaculture ethics, definitions, and gardening
2 9th April Plant of the day, permaculture principles and design process
3 23rd April Plant, skills audit, client interview, spirals of erosion and abundance
4 7th May Soil sessions
5 21st May Plant of the day, analysis tools including random assembly and; the ethics of food choices
6 28th May Water sessions
7 18th June Group mini design process
8 2nd July Q&A and bike rack
9 3rd September Design Group Work

Self Study Content

Approximately one hour per week, in your own time.

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 2023. 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.New Paragraph

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

Short of cash? - Funding available!

You can apply for funding to pay the cost of this course - Thanks to Lantra and the Scottish Government! You can apply as either the 'Next Generation Practical Training' or the 'Women in Agriculture' , neither are age-restricted. If you would qualify for either fund, then apply for the Funding for New Entrants, the Next Generation Fund. This is because there is more funding remaining in this fund. 


If you are keen to attend the course:


1) Book your place on the course, choosing to pay the deposit amount for unwaged (£47) or low waged (£87) whichever is appropriate for you. 


2) email hello@propagate.org.uk to say that you are applying for funding and request a short phone chat about what to write on the application form.


3) register on Skills Hub Scotland. - it's FREE!


4) Complete the Skills Hub application form (after having a chat for some top tips from Amy). Remember to 


*emphasis any reasons that you cannot afford to pay for the course yourself 

*include what your plans are around working in agriculture/farming. 

* insert the course price as £807, as this is the full price. 


If you have any questions at all, please just get in touch, I'm happy to have a chat on the phone with you. 7733 111 466

Funding for Women to attend

The Women in Agriculture Fund is for women who

  • live in Scotland
  • would have been unable to undertake training without financial support,
  • is either already working in, or studying agriculture/farming, or who is keen to start.


There are no upper age restrictions (you need to be 13+)

 

To apply go to Skillshub Scotland for the Permaculture Course in Dumfries & Galloway. Register on their website for free, then apply. This funding is available with thanks to the Scottish Government and Lantra.

Funding for New Entrants

 The Next Generation Practical Training Fund is for

 anyone who

  • lives in Scotland,
  • would have been unable to undertake training without financial support,
  • is keen to start working in agriculture/farming, or who has started in the last 5 years.


There are no age restrictions.


To apply, go to Skillshub Scotland for the Permaculture Course in Dumfries & Galloway. Register for free, then apply. This funding is available with thanks to the Scottish Government and Lantra.

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..

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. 

Find out more

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

“The first time I tried this company, I was hooked. Everything was so fabulous and easy. I’ll never go back to anyone else.”

Sheila Marks, Houston

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.


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