PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE
WHEN:
Aug 1 - 10, 2025
COST:
$2775 Early Bird by Feb 28, 2025
$3100 Regular
DEPOSIT:
$350
Registration open until course fills
Scholarships available for those working in public spaces. A letter of inquiry detailing how the training will be applied and your background in this work gets this process going.
Work-traders: 4 spots go to those supporting the course on site for a significant discount.
Course Overview
Immerse for 10 days in a regenerative paradise. Reset your life by jumping into the mountains, streams and dark skies of Vermont at high summer with others from across the US and abroad. Eat and drink from this land, immerse in her waters, inhale the direct life-changing encounter with regeneration and resiliency that this place and experience offers. Join site design veterans Ben Falk, Mark Krawczyk, Erica Koch ND, and many other masters of their craft as they share from their decades of regenerative living experience and insight.
The WSD Permaculture Design Course is a ten-day experience in applied ecological design and living. This is our flagship offering now in its 19th rendition. The course offers an unparalleled, hands-on opportunity to gain permaculture exposure immersed in two of North America's most diverse permaculture research sites, with site visits to Mark’s farm. The course applies the core Permaculture Design curriculum, including applications of Permaculture in a range of settings, and strategies for meeting human needs via mutually beneficial participation in our ecosystems. Join us in developing new solutions to unprecedented challenges.
Enrollment open until filled, secure your spot with a deposit today.
“Ben,
Your PDC was transformational for me and obviously the relationship with you and Cornelius and WSD has been transformational for our practice here.”
Warm regards,-Newell Shinn, Co-Owner South Mountain Co. Martha’s Vineyard
The Curriculum
This course goes beyond the typical Designer's Certification Course by utilizing the background of skills-based training offered by Whole Systems Skills, and is filled with practice-based, learning-by-doing experiences, not just concept-based study. Participants engage with high-performance home and community resource systems that are more resilient in the face of problems posed by peak oil, climate change, environmental toxicity, and the inability of existing economic and social systems to deal with such challenges.
The Food & Lodging
Our food offering bolsters the therapeutic nature of this experience. And it almost outdoes the primary site itself and the curriculum/teachers as the most memorable part of the time here. Three epic catered meals a day celebrate the seasonal local abundance of our sites and other nearby farms. Last year with Tyler Hess (chef and professor of Culinary Arts at CIA) and his large team from Sonoma County, CA and Maine, we managed to deliver an entirely local better-than-organic complete meal offering with zero seed oils emphasizing from scratch meals of vegetables and meats, sourdough bread baked on site, house-made hot sauces, krauts, kim-chis, herbal vinegars, wild-foraged ingredients galore, bone broths, Chaga and flower teas, wild sodas, etc.), ramen bar, and more. It’s game-changing. This was no easy feat and represents a large part of the cost of delivering this experience but the food experience here backs up, rounds out and reinforces the entire program so completely that we have learned to prioritize it despite the expense. Numerous people last year reported experiencing a significant dietary and heath reset from their time here - 10 days - long enough to experience the benefits of a new intervention and set different health patterns into motion. Camping in gorgeous meadows with mountain views and sunrises included, rooms in the farm house may be purchased as an add-on. All you can drink and take home spring water on site.
We study systems including most or all of the following:
A high-performance cold climate home and established zone 1 gardens, 22 years in place, another larger farm-scale site 12 years in, and Mark’s site 10 years in.
Mature fruit, nut, pond, zone 1 homestead systems
A high-performance earth-sheltered greenhouse in year 14
A root cellar, meadery and established food preservation strategies
Established medicine gardens and medicine-making techniques in use
A working homestead shop, barn, and much else well into its 2nd decade
7,000 feet of agroforestry hedges and farm-scale permaculture plantings in year 12
living soils, soil food webs, what composes high quality soil and how make it
Lectures and hands-on work explore bioregional strategies, ecological history of the northern forest bioregion, energy and nutrient cycling, watershed health, gravity-fed water systems, tree crop care, agroforestry, mushroom inoculation and management, rapid soil building, and more.
We practice hands-on skills development such as:
planting & propagating trees
laying out swales on contour and specific % pitches for water and soil regeneration
site mapping and to scale plan-making
harvesting biomass with scythes
sharpening and maintaining tools
knots 101
harvesting water
mushroom propagation
reverse wildcrafting
herbal medicine
wild fermentation
much, much more
The course concludes with students doing their own group Permaculture site design.
Students are encouraged to bring tools to practice with and skills with which to share in the group. There is ample time for group skill sharing as past courses were filled with experts in various disciplines relating to permaculture.
“The Whole Systems Research Farm has what it takes to make the concepts [of permaculture] a reality.”
The Sites
Now 22 years in the making, the original WSD homestead site manifests numerous cutting-edge design opportunities for developing a self-reliant, liberated lifestyle customized for the cold climate, temperate biome. A second site is well underway in year 12 at a commercial permaculture farm scale by applying lessons learned over the first decade at the earlier site. This course is not permaculture as a fantastic idea: it's an immersion in how numerous systems work over time on complex sites — it’s proof of concept - both what has stood the test of time and what has not. We also visit Mark’s phenomenal small farm 30 minutes away.
Camping and room rentals on site offer comfortable and invigorating accommodation, while nightly bonfires under some of the darkest skies (usually with a meteor shower overhead at the bonfire on the last few nights) in the Northeast US serve as backdrop for the lessons we immerse in each day.
Participants have the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in working homesteads to see and feel the opportunities and challenges that arise in developing and maintaining a productive and resilient home and land resource system.
A typical evening bonfire hang
“I knew I’d learn a lot but never anticipated meeting so many incredible people and having that much fun.”
The Instructors
The course is staffed by those who live and make a living as designers, farmers, farm consultants, and health care providers. We bring our professional experiences to the table during the course to provide students with real-world examples and applications. We provide many opportunities for peer-to-peer learning throughout the course, and expect that participants will add to our group learning as well.
Guest presentations and intensives are woven into the program and have typically included Nick Neddo on awareness, tracking and observation skills, and Sylvia Davatz on seed saving, Vivian Kaloxilos soils wizard of Docterre and others. Last year we were graced with Nancy Mellon for an evening of ancient storytelling. Most years brings a new surprise visit in this regard, adding to the diversity and timeliness of the program.
“This course will be a lifetime highlight.”
Testimonials
“One of the most profoundly rewarding experiences of my life.” -Ross, 2022
“Being able to see multiple functioning sites was key to visualize things better and relate to our own home.”
“Feels so good to have the skills to make concept bubble diagrams. Just did 3 versions for my grandparents home in Utah. Before the PDC with WSD I was totally stuck when it came to getting designs down on paper. Now I’m a #bubbleboss. Thank you Ben & Cornelius!” -Jeff M. 2022
"Ben, just want to say that it's taken a while for everything I learned at last summers' PDC to sink in and get digested - i think i needed the winter as a brain reboot so that information could be added to the OS! I can't believe how many things I'm doing this year that are direct applications of your PDC/videos/etc." -Glenn Barr, BC, Canada
“I was skeptical when I heard that it would change my life…not skeptical anymore!” Anon, 2022
"Physically, educationally and emotionally stimulating. Life-changing." -Melissa
"I knew I'd learn a lot but never anticipated meeting so many incredible people and having that much fun." -Cindy C.
"Intense, beautiful, life-changing." -Anon.
"An invaluable hands-on experience to learn more than just about permaculture, but also about essential life skills that are useful." -Anon.
"I figured I'd learn a ton, but I didn't realize that I'd be spending time in some of the most beautiful places I've ever been." -Mark G.
"Full, rich learning in many dimensions - well-balanced theory, design, hands-on, and also play. A generous offering - deeply meaningful and inspiring. Thank you!" -Anon.
"This course knocked the wind out of me and I'll be processing it for the rest of my life. It created an environment that I've never experienced before and likely never will again, and for that, I am eternally grateful." -Brian G., MA, USA
2025 enrollment is now OPEN - secure your spot today
Registration and Cancellation policy:
To enroll we need to receive $350 payment - this is a reservation payment securing your spot.
Cancellation with 100% refund (minus $100 admin fee) due to medical need is honored with doctor’s note.
If one needs to cancel without medical reasoning and doctor’s note we offer the following options:
-your spot is transferable to someone else you designate (for $100 admin fee) if cancelled/conveyed 2 weeks or more ahead of course time.
-within 6 weeks of course start date all commitments are final and there are no refunds, aside from medical needs, because your spot won't likely be able to be filled at that time. (You are purchasing a space in the course that we turn others away for.)
Frequently Asked Questions
2025 enrollment is now OPEN - secure your spot today
How is this course different from others?
The Whole Systems Design permaculture design course varies from others nationally and in the area in several important ways:
It takes place on two sites - an established 22 year-old homestead and newer 12 year-old integrated food, medicine, pollinator refuge and silvopasture farm. Students see both newer plantings and 50’ tall walnuts planted at Ben and Erica’s site. They also see Mark’s site for a more commercially-oriented perennial ag focus. For those interested in improving their own home or farm, or those seeking to develop one, this offers the opportunity to learn directly from the systems here, their successes and failure points, their best aspects and those that need advancement further. Learning from a collective six decades of experience on the instructor team, as well as from directly experiencing a site 20 years+ in the making is extremely different than the more common academic encounter offered at newer sites.
It is hosted along with a professional design and planning firm - Whole Systems Design, LLC - for those in the design fields or seeking to perform professional design this offers an inside view of how a leading firm in the field functions.
A focus on hard skills through hands-on practice differentiates this course from others in the world. We send required readings out well ahead of the course date to help us cover the PDC curriculum while allowing more precious time on-site for the direct practice of skills with practitioners. This is much more hands-on practice (vs. academic or information-focused) than any other permaculture course we know of.
Is the course appropriate for graduates of other PDC's?
Yes, and we get numerous people each course who have taken others. We also get folks totally brand new to permaculture and ecological design.
Is there camping on-site?
Yes, indeed, included in the course cost. Rooms available at both hostel rates and more private setups.
Can I bring pets?
No, sorry.
I have some professional obligations during the course, can I access wifi?
Yes, certainly. We have fast and reliable fiberoptic internet and some students have had to make commitments (ideally in the evening) via wifi in the farm house on site. One can access the wifi regularly if family or other needs require but we do encourage an immersive “mentally-here” focus.
Can I bring my Young child?
No, but we may start a kid’s program concurrent with the PDC, and have some at other times. It’s very intensive and requires the full focus of each attendee. Minors are encouraged to join (and increasingly do!) but only with the accompaniment of a guardian.
Can I rent a room instead of camping?
Yes, please ask about it when registering.
How do I get to the site? How easy is it to travel to the site?
Car: Straightforward.
Train: A train gets 40 minutes away from the site via NYC, to either Rutland or Burlington.
Plane: Burlington Vermont (BTV) is the closest airport. We send directions in the welcome package.
If I am in a wheelchair or not fully able-bodied, can I attend?
Yes, we've worked hard to make that happen for folks in the past with good results.
What about unusual dietary needs?
We accommodate vegan, vegetarian, gluten and dairy free. Beyond this may be challenging for you but some folks bring supplemental foods if they have such needs and that works out well. We have fridges for use on site.
Will coffee be available too?
The food plan includes good dark coffee at breakfast but serious coffee drinkers bring a kit for later doses if needed.
What skills will I be exposed to?
We practice many of the following techniques and tool uses in this course, in addition to many, many others:
The design process in the context of a professional landscape architectural firm and practicing designers
Medicine production and making from our in-house naturopathic doctor and herbalist
Mushroom log inoculation (shiitake) on site
Blade sharpening: scythes, knives, sickles, axes Scything/pasture and yard management with scythes
Forest management
Fruit harvesting
Putting up and processing foods and medicines via various methods
Waterworks for home and farms
Many other rural living and farm/homesteading techniques simply by living on the active farm site for the duration
2025 enrollment is now OPEN - secure your spot today