Permaculture Design Course, March 2016

Permaculture Design Course, 11th to 22nd March 2016

We are pleased to announce dates for Várzea da Gonçala's 11th full PDC, to run from Friday, 11th March to Tuesday, 22nd March 2016.

The course leader will again be the excellent Peter Cow, and the course will be involve a rich mix of classic permaculture design, social permaculture, and including a masterclass in eco-gardening with Chaym Feldman. All in the beautiful setting of the Várzea, 7km from Aljezur, on the west Algarve of Portugal.

What is permaculture??

The term was first coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia in the 1980's as an amalgamation of the words permanent and agriculture.
The philosophy is that of following nature's ways, whereby systems need to be self-sustainable in the long term, and not dependent on external inputs. With the extension of the concept to human society in general, "agriculture" now tends to be substituted by "culture".
Permaculture can also be seen as a reversion to ways which were well-known and practiced throughout human history, simply because where external inputs were not available, the maximum output by necessity had to be made of the limited inputs, in order to grow food to survive, as well as to allow interactive community relationships to flourish.
In other words, humans used to be an integral part of nature, and permaculture is simply an expression of the fact that we need to recognise that we need to see this as our only long-term way.
We can see permaculture as a philosophy, and a call to understanding, as opposed to a set of instructions to be followed. This philosophy is thankfully grounded in the connection with the earth, so that ideas that are not truly functional simply don't work. And the lasting success of permaculture is based on the fact that it works!
It's power is in how it acts as a focus for practical creativity, based on ancient wisdom and latest science, putting ideas under a single umbrella to be tried and tested in our very real world.

There will be many new features on show at the Várzea for the 2016 edition, especially in the development of our food forest, and advanced gardening systems.

There will, as usual, be suberb, plentiful, delicious food, the usual Várzea welcome, camping and all fecilities, all included in the price, held, as it was 2 years ago, at €450, with €60 extra for accommodation.

There are social evenings (please bring an instrument if you can play), outings on the days (1 and a half) off, a tour of the Várzea and creative neighbours, evening projected film-shows in the Pit, our special space, with baking and pizza nights, and always the unique Várzea ambience. Also many walks and quiet spaces to get away from the crowd.

To book a place on the course, we ask for a deposit of €150, and the method of paying can be found on the "booking" page of this website. This deposit will only be refunded if the participant cancels more than 3 weeks before the start date. We can guarantee that the course will go ahead, as we already have sufficient numbers to ensure this.
We are also offering a discount of €100 from the combined price, for people who enrol on both the PDC and the Food-Forest and Ecological Gardening course from 4 - 14th April. The two courses are wholly complimentary.

We are accepting up to 17 students. If you have any questions about the course content, please follow this link: http://www.livingincircles.com/courses/Peter_Cow_PDC_information.pdf or, for any other content queries, mail Peter Cow on [email protected]. Any questions about venue, facilities, infrastructure, or anything else, please feel free to email us at: [email protected].

Thank you.