online permaculture courses (by toby hemenway, michael pilarski, ross conrad, and others)

OrganicLife Guru is an organic growing, permaculture, and sustainable food systems education company.

They offer pretty darn cheap online courses so you can get the education you want, wherever you are.

I'm going to list each course in it's own post so it doesn't get too confusing.

Growing Food Organically With the Smiling Gardener.



Click Here to learn more and Register!

In this course we’ll be going into many different topics that are specific to growing food including:

– How to choose your garden location

– Companion planting

– Succession planting

– Crop rotations

– Creating polycultures

– Saving seed

– Building and designing raised beds

– Specifics on growing many different vegetables

Food Forest Design Care for Cities and Suburbs




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From this class you will gain a thorough understanding of what permaculture is, how it came to be, what it does, and most importantly what you can do with permaculture. Toby clearly explains how you can apply permaculture to all aspects of your life as you strive to create regenerative systems. He will both inform and inspire! Upon completion you will hold the knowledge you need to create a food forest that will yield the results you want.

Organic Soil Building for the Backyard Organic Gardener




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In this course you will gain the scientific background to understand the science of soil ecology. You will then learn what your soil needs in order to be healthy and fertile. Most importantly, you will learn how to apply this knowledge to your own backyard organic garden. By the end of this course you will know how to build the soil you need to produce abundant, nutrient-rich food in your own organic garden.

Apitherapy, Health and Healing From the Hive




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In this course with organic beekeeper and apitherapist Ross Conrad, you will learn about using honey, bee pollen, propolis, royal jelly, beeswax and bee venom to promote healing and health. From burn treatment and the common cold, to arthritis, cancer and multiple sclerosis, Ross shares how each of these products can be beneficial to human health. Ross explains how bees make each of these products and how the bees use them in the hive. He covers the chemical constituents of each product and how each product can promote health and healing.

Permaculture Design for Conserving Water




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By the end of the course, you will have the knowledge necessary to begin implementing water conservation techniques in your garden. Water is a precious resource. Toby gives you no excuse not to embrace water-wise gardening. So dig in and enjoy!

Permaculture Principles




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In this course Michael Pilarski explores the 12 Permaculture Principles as originally developed by Bill Mollison. After sharing a little history on how the Permaculture Principles came to be and how they continue to evolve today, Michael thoughtfully explains each principle. He uses drawn diagrams and numerous examples to help explain each principle. Michael is able to draw connections beyond the natural world and show how these principles can be applied to other sectors including social and finance sectors.

How to Plant a Medicinal Food Forest




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In this course Michael Pilarski, permaculture and wildcrafting expert, teaches you how to turn your back yard into a food forest. Filmed on site in Michael’s back yard, this is not a classroom-based course. Michael teaches the basics of food forest planting while planting his own medicinal food forest on 1/8 of an acre. Does an 1/8 of an acre sound big to you? Don’t worry! In this course Michael talks about how to scale what you’re learning to your own back yard or land.

Will there be a PDC at some point?

Thank you - I didn't see that

Wow those courses are cheap! At those orices I could see myself taking all of them!

Great: Permaculture to Conserve Water is great ... IF you live in a Dry climate🙀.
I live in Ireland where we have about 4 feet of rainfall a year on average. Are there any courses for THAT sort of Permaculture?
Using drains not Swales etc etc. where raised beds lift roots above a high water table. Whinge whinge.

Thanks Cassie. Lots of good stuff otherwise.

You don't have to do the streaming video. It looks like it's $15 more (it is for Toby's food forest course, anyway), but you can also get the whole course mailed to you on a thumb drive.

Rose Pinder wrote:...but the streaming video makes it very difficult. I'm on a slow connection and I pay for data amounts (i.e. I have to pay each time I watch). I've done online courses where the content is downloadable, which makes them much more accessible and better learning for people who need to watch repeatedly, or jump back and forth...

These are quite intriguing. Is it true then that the course materials are not downloadable for future reference? Then would we be given unlimited access to the streaming that we could then go back to time and again?

It looks like there is a slightly more expensive option for a thumb drive to be shipped to me by mail but that seems unnecessary since zipping it through the interwebs would faster and has a smaller footprint.

I suppose I'll contact the provider of the course to see if there are other options.

Let us know Michael Stein-Ross, it would be great to have them downloadable. The delivery cost is not so high but of course its a waste of so much.
I'll take Pilarsky's on medicinal plants for sure.
Waiting for updates on the options, thanks

I'll have streaming in a week or so, I cannot wait to start watching!

Here is the answer I received from the owners of the online courses. Hope this clears up any questions. They were very quick with their response as well so anyone who has more questions should just shoot them an email.

Hey Michael,

First question: With a streaming purchase do we have unlimited access to streaming for all time? Because I know I will want to come back to the videos again.

Yes you have access to the streaming videos for all time.

Second question: Can we work out a download option for the same price as the thumb-drive? I don't understand why you would offer an option to mail a thumb drive and not one for downloads since the thumb drive option takes longer and uses up more natural resources.

Sorry we can do the streaming or the thumb-drive only. We don't have a download back end set up for that volume (file size) of video files.

I think you would be happy with the streaming. Lots of our users come back over and over to re-watch the same videos. It's lifetime access.

Please let us know if you have further questions.

All the best,

Chris and Samantha
http://organiclifeguru.com

Cassie - do you know if there will be a project at the end of the class, or if it is video only?

Dawn Hoff wrote:Cassie - do you know if there will be a project at the end of the class, or if it is video only?

I don't really know actually. :/ maybe you could ask their contact people. Since Michael said that he got a quick response from them.

I'll try that thanks

Has anybody taken the design course they are offering? If so, do you recommend it?

Rose Pinder wrote: the streaming video makes it very difficult. I'm on a slow connection and I pay for data amounts (i.e. I have to pay each time I watch). I've done online courses where the content is downloadable, which makes them much more accessible and better learning for people who need to watch repeatedly, or jump back and forth.

Rose, we do offer our courses on a thumbdrive if streaming doesn't work for you. We don't yet offer the PDC that way but all our other courses can be put on a thumbdrive.

Cheers!

Dawn Hoff wrote:Cassie - do you know if there will be a project at the end of the class, or if it is video only?

Dawn, our online PDC does not have a design element that is reviewed by the instructor. That is partly why the course is so affordable. The online course was created from a live course in Costa Rica and all of the design process that the students went through is included in the online course. There is a lot to learn from their processes. All of the student/instructor interaction is captured on film and is very useful. Lots of great content!

Cheers!

Samantha Langlois wrote:

Dawn, our online PDC does not have a design element that is reviewed by the instructor.

So does that mean that what you are offering is just a permculture course, not a full PDC?

Burra Maluca wrote:

Samantha Langlois wrote:

Dawn, our online PDC does not have a design element that is reviewed by the instructor.

So does that mean that what you are offering is just a permculture course, not a full PDC?

Our online PDC offers all the content of a live, 2-week PDC with internationally known instructors. We don't offer the instructor interaction or a certificate so that we can share the information at an affordable price. This course is perfect for those who want all the content but don't need the certificate. Our courses are live-streamed and once purchased, students have life-time access to the course so they can revisit any part of the course at any time.

Cheers!
Sam