Portland Maine Permaculture PDC

Is there anyone around who has taken one of the PDC courses offered by Portland Maine Permaculture and what did you think of it? Thanks.

I tried to contact the organizers a year or more ago about the course, when I wanted to start getting serious about permaculture. I was discouraged to receive no reply to any of a number of emails that I sent. I eventually decided to just do as much research as I could on my own.

There's also a meetup group in Belfast but that one isn't really doing anything yet. They've got a few dozen members but there's almost no discussion.

I feel like between all the free resources online and the books available you should be able to get a good understanding of permaculture design. Beyond that, it's really all about tinkering with things and networking. A good PDC should provide a lot of that practical real world experience to help visualize the process. I'm going to see how Geoff Lawton's online course goes this year for those who are taking it. If he offers another one over the winter I'll probably invest in that. At least that way I have a legit certification from Geoff and PRI. At this point a PDC for me is about fine details and networking and less about the basics of permaculture.
That being said, I've not heard anything good or bad about the Portland Meetup PDC. I also do not know if the PDC they are offering is "approved" by Geoff or PRI. For some, that's a sticking point.

Hope that helps some.

Thanks Craig. Weird that they didn't get back to you. Yeah, they don't have any scheduled courses coming up and I too was waiting to see how Geoff's course turns out. Probably not certified, I think I heard Paul say there weren't many in the states. I think PMP's non-intensive course was $800 so Geoff's $1000 fee isn't much a stretch.

Didn't know about the group in Belfast, I'd much prefer going north than south for networking. Hopefully it will grow.

Yeah, with this forum, Mollison's big black book, Gaia's Garden, Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, The Woodland Way and some general agricultural books, I have an okay idea of what is going on. Just need more of that "practical real world experience" and more books, never enough books.

I want to add to this conversation from 9 years ago. I took a PDC with Portland Maine Permaculture in 2013 and it changed my life. Lisa Fernandes is an amazing facilitator. The same PDC is now being facilitated by Maine Ecological Design School. The website is maineecologicaldesign.org.