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Day 1 – Introduction to Permaculture
- Introductions – history - Permaculture One: Bill and Dave's excellent adventure - Global Gardener: Bill develops the PDC - welcome to a new global nation - reintegrating people into landscape - course outline
- The Parable of the Chicken Lessons from the chicken, what is a system? inputs and outputs, work and pollution, cycling, polycultures
- Design cycle: Observe, Assess, Design, Implement
Lunch
- Observation walk and de-brief, thematic and non-thematic observation
- Ethics of Permaculture - resource use and design - the prime directive of permaculture
- How the course will be organised – participation, dates, work exchange, books, on-line library
Day 2 – Introduction to Permaculture Design
- Recap – ethics and action through design - the parable of the chicken and the introduction to systems
- Design and polycultures - monoculture to polycultures, agriculture to gardening - how is permaculture design different to other forms of design? Design cycle (Observe-Assess-Design-Implement) - "a framework"
- Analysis and placement - work and materials flow, relative location
- Site analysis - classic homestead patterns, zoning
- Our creation story – the basic elements of life, the universe (and everything)
Lunch
- Water, Carbon and the basics of life - hydrocarbons and carbohydrates - combustion and respiration - storage and release of solar energy in Nature
- Basic ecology- food web - trophic "levels" – succession
- Characteristics of natural systems - Permaculture defined Course organisation – review allocation of tasks, issues