Permaculture immersive in ‘The Village’

October 31, 2009

The Permaculture course in ’the village’ 21st to 30th August 09, surpassed my expectations in many ways. It was certainly more demanding than previous trainings as its duration was 10 full continuous days with so many interesting topics to cover. Graham Strouts, Klaudia Van Gool and Albert Bates facilitated the Permaculture and Davie Philip,the event organiser, ran the sustainability training during the evenings, Skilling up for Powerdown, which itself is a 10 module course, so you can imagine how demanding it all was.

Being within a residential community of learners can be a life changing experience in itself , and an Ecovillage is an ideal venue for this type of an immersive experience. This is a way of learning about community engagement I strongly recommend.

I had always assumed that I knew what permaculture was all about, the natural way of doing things, and when it originated in the early seventies I wondered what all the fuss was about. Well I discovered that there was a little more to it, and the the skills that have evolved within the discipline of permaculture are comprehensive and far reaching in their philosophy’s and effects.

The principle of observation of a site, region or community is the starting place of any good design, observing for one year, to see the seasonal rhythms, is essential to permaculture. Designing new habitats, to fit in with natures activities, taking advantage of what is already in existence, following the line of least resistance, all allow for a low maintenance, high yielding, resilient community of beings, that can flourish with the minimum interference from humanity.

I now understand why this training is highly recommended to those folk interested in the Transition Movement and I do agree that it really does make a difference. Follow the permaculture links to find out more about this system which has the potential to help heal and restore our entire planet and instigate an age of previously unknown abundance.