PERMACULTURE II VSS105

Advance Your Permaculture Knowledge

This course is a natural progression from Permaculture 1, but can taken separately in its own right. It concentrates on the plants in a permaculture system, how they relate to each other and to the surrounding environment; and selection and placement of different varieties within a permaculture design. This course deals with preparing plans for different types of permaculture gardens, and its duration is approximately 100 hours.

Learn about choosing and Growing the best Plants for a Permaculture System

Course Structure

This course has ten lessons as follows:

1. Permaculture Gardens: Comparing different garden systems (eg. Mandala garden, forests, water, spirals).
2. Design -planning techniques and skills.
3. Garden Zones
4. Designing for natural pest, disease and weed control.
5. Companion Planting
6. Appropriate Technology in Permaculture Design
7. Water Gardens
8. Fruit Gardens
9. Herb Gardens
10.Mandala Gardens

Duration: Up to 100 hours

Twenty to thirty species are used to supply 90 percent of our food, and a lot of them are annuals or treated as annuals. When you consider that there are more then 20,000 edible plants (world-wide), from which you can harvest, leaves, seeds, fruits and roots, many of them perennial plants, it makes the first figure seem extremely small indeed.

Permaculture seeks to increase sustainability and bio-diversity, lessen input, grow plants that have more then one use and that are actually used (rather then just grown). Many plants will perform these functions: plants that are grown as culinary herbs can have medicinal qualities; trees that bear nuts and fruit - feed people and animals, provide windbreaks, animal shelters and alter micro-climates. Some provide fodder for animals, fix nitrogen in the soil, provide mulch, are beneficial companions to other plants, improve the soil and attract insects. Others provide wood for fuel and timber for buildings and fences. Permaculture encourages the use of perennials, they require less input then annuals, do not need to planted, fed or mulched as often, and help to create a sustainable system. No matter where you live (in relation to climate) you could without much effort, double, triple, quadruple or more that original 20 -30 species.

For plants to grow well they must be provided with growing conditions that suit them. The condition of the soil and soil life - such as soil microbes and fungi, soil fertility, soil pH, weeds, pests, and diseases, along with how the soil is managed (ie. cover crops, mulch, weeds etc) are all factors in healthy plant growth.