We’ve just finished up our Spring Permaculture Design Certificate here at Milkwood Farm, and I thought I’d share some of the (yet again) truly impressive design work that came out of it. Some great permaculture designs for both urban and rural systems.

One of the Spring PDC students described their new understanding of permaculture as: “like a basket of tools for humanity: an intersection of biology, geology, climatology, philosophy, social justice and humanitarian issues and history, packaged into a viable way of providing needs of everyday living.”

The PDC started off on the first night with a birthday party featuring impromptu Persian circle dance and rosewater sweets. As part of our fair share we give fulls scholarships to asylum seekers, and this PDC we had 2 fab folks in the mix, learning and sharing their own knowledge as part of the student crew.

From there on in, it was all about design.

Students presenting individual designs to each other In between classroom sessions, students explored the market garden, and learned all about the joys of managing cell-grazed sheep to clear our dam wall for pumpkin planting

While a PDC is about learning the fundamentals of wholostic design for a wide rance of climates and applications, we’ve found that ‘starting with the heart’ is a great way to get people to use their existing knowledge effectively in a short period of time.

Therefore, the student’s firstly design a place they know well, and they often choose their current home.

Starting at your back door and working out from there is a great principle for budding designers, whether their design intentions ultimately reach to the back fence, to the local food system or all the way to the Persian gulf.

Two weeks of intensive design process is… intensive. For everyone. So good nutrient dense food is a big part of keeping people healthy, happy and focused during this time.

This year more than ever before, we’re able to feed everyone with the majority of their meals coming from Milkwood Farm, between our market garden and emerging animal systems. We’re so proud! And also so lucky to have gotten to the point where this is possible. It’s not been easy, but it is awesome, and worth it.

Ready to drool? Take it away, Rose…

Sourdough scones with warré honeycomb The daily write-up Our very own roast pork. And greens aplenty. Don’t worry, the vego + vegan options were delish also Activated quinoa and raw cacao slicey stuff. I didn’t catch it’s full ingredients, I was busy chewing…

What was great about this student crew was the mix of great design work for both urban and rural permacultures. It was humbling to watch how quickly the students ran with the info and knowledge coming in, and applied that to their individual designs.

Of course, it’s not just about gorgeous pictures, but also about the nuts and bolts of getting the design off the page and making it really happen – your overall design objectives, the stakeholders, budgets, climactic factors, where the sun passes in relation to your site and so many other things.

Here’s a couple of the urban designs the students produced…

And here’s a couple of the rural focused designs and project components…

Following on from these individual designs, all the students split up into groups and proceeded to produce group designs, based on Milkwood’s 25 acres. But i’ll leave those photos for another day…

So a big and brilliant THANK YOU to all the students from this PDC. We learned a lot from you all (as always) and we hope that these two weeks have taken you all a step further on your various journeys of sustainability, resilience, regeneration and beyond! Go well.

Also big thanks to the Milkwood crew (again as always) for creating a professional-yet-relaxed, happy, healthy ark for everyone throughout the two weeks of the PDC.

Our next on-farm PDC starts January 6th, and there’s another starting February 24th. We’re also running  Urban PDCs in April (Hobart) and July (Sydney).

>> More posts on Permaculture Design

November 2012 PDC grads. Yay team.

Thanks to Megan for the use of her quote on permaculture, taken from her PDC blogpost on Brave New Eco