Welcome to Permaculture Living - our fully mentored, 12 week learning experience. Bookings for the next class are now open -
You'll learn how to use permaculture thinking, design, skills and habits to transform your everyday for the better. Get ready to create abundance, become more resilient, thrive where you already are, and create some seriously meaningful change.
Enrolments for this class are open until Wednesday the 16th of October - and your course will begin on Monday the 21st of October. We can't wait to meet you.
So much goodness in here! And all taught with high-quality video lessons, DIY guides, a personal action plan, and ongoing mentorship from us...
Learn simple but powerful strategies for cultivating community in your street and beyond.
No garden? No problem - you can still grow lots! And if you do have a backyard - we'll show you how to get started.
DIY energy efficiency hacks, backyard design, sun-mapping, and low-footprint ideas that you can get started with right away.
We'll show you how to make pickles, lacto-fermented veggies, fruit, fizzy drinks, sourdough and so much more.
Guilt-free, low-waste solutions and habits for your kitchen, household and everyday life. There's so much you can do to make a difference.
Learn to ID your local wild plants & fungi, learn your watershed, and build your awareness of where you fit into your local ecosystem.
Goal-setting and mentored solutions for a less-stressed, more intentional everyday life - without the fuss, but with more of the goodness you want.
What is the history of your area? Whose land are you on? How can you can acknowledge and contribute to justice & healing country where you live?
Meet fellow students on the same path - from all over the world - in your friendly & private student community. Ask anything!
Got a Q or challenge? We can help. Our friendly expert mentors will answer all (yep, ALL) your questions personally, as you move through your course.
Join your teachers and mentors for regular chats about whatever you can't quite figure out - from lemon tree problems to life goals! All welcome.
Keeping chickens, growing mushrooms, seed saving, mending, tending, making friends and making time. We can't wait to show you around, and get you learning..
"I was blown away by the course quality. The warm, chatty vibe, no preaching or judging, the additional materials, and the utter charm of Kirsten and Nick. It's a fantastic mix. "
"The video lessons are down-to-earth, the information shared with a definite ‘you can do it’ feel. Support is also super; comments and questions were answered in a flash."
"If you are thinking of learning plenty of new skills that will make a difference in yourself and society, I recommend you take the Permaculture Living course!"
You might be:
⇒ A keen-bean beginner who doesn’t quite know where to start, but you DO know that you want to make positive changes in your life, and increase your household resilience while you're at it.
⇒ A city-dweller with no garden, but a real desire to connect with your ecosystem through daily habits in a way that creates goodness for you, and your local community as well.
⇒ Have backyard - check. Now what? What to put where? Chickens before veggie patch? Where should I plant that fruit tree? And how can I shade that side of my house? - All good, we've got you.
⇒ A dreamer who wants to become a doer, but you're still in the thinking phase, because... life. Great! Let's get you goal setting, and learning, and trying small, new ideas and habits. This approach is just as valid, and change-making, as the Big Stuff. Because it all matters. And so do you. So let's get doing.
Any of these sound like you? Our Permaculture Living course might be just what you need...
This class is open for bookings for 10 days - or until the class is full, whichever comes first. Places are strictly limited, to ensure an awesome experience for everyone. We can't wait to meet you.
Welcome to your self-paced, mentored learning experience...
Learn to embed permaculture principles + skills into your life & community - with a mix of easy-to-follow videos & resources.
Alongside each lesson, you get a swag of exclusive resources, plans, and downloads - only available inside this course.
Got questions? Ask away! Our expert mentor team will answer all your questions personally, plus there's regular live Q&As.
A thriving online permaculture community full of students just like you: make friends, swap ideas, learn, laugh & grow.
Many generations of permaculture knowledge, 100+ years of combined experience…
Kirsten founded Milkwood with Nick in 2007. Together, they've established organic farms, urban rooftop community gardens and stewarded 1000's of students. She is the author of best-selling books Milkwood, Easy Peasy and The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook
Nick founded Milkwood with Kirsten in 2007. Since then, he has led over 2000 face-to-face students through their permaculture design journey - as well as farming, homesteading, parenting and growing a LOT of mushrooms. He's the one on the right (just btw).
David is the co-originator of permaculture - alongside Bill Mollison. For the last 40+ years David has been considering, designing with, writing about and teaching permaculture principles. David presents the permaculture concept and each of his principles throughout this course.
You’ll get access to one new set of lessons per week over 12 weeks.
If you need to move through your course at a slower pace, that's completely fine - our mentors will keep pace with you and answer your questions for as long as you need.
BOOK YOUR PLACE
Join us for an open-ended amount of inspirational learning and personal mentorship (you can take as long as you like to move through it all, and ask questions whenever you like) - and get ready to kickstart your permaculture life.
— Craig, Australia
— Anna, United Kingdom
— Marina, New Zealand
This class is open for bookings this week - or until the class is full, whichever comes first. Your course will then begin on October the 21st. We can't wait to meet you.
Yay! - You have a discount code. Click the 'Book Now' button to see your savings at checkout.
Turbo-charge your permaculture journey with:
✔ All 'best value' features
PLUS:
✔ 2 hours of personal coaching call time with Kirsten & Nick
✔ Both of Milkwood's best selling books personally autographed by Kirsten & Nick:
The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook
+
Milkwood: Real skills for down-to-earth living
— Kathryn, Costa Rica
— Mirranda, Australia
— Laurie, Australia
Based on this much-loved course, The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook is a companion book, now available in bookstores worldwide.
We wrote this book so you could take a little piece of this course with you to snuggle up on the couch with, or get messy in the kitchen... it's a great intro to Permaculture Living, which is expanded with in-depth knowledge (and hands-on mentorship!) inside this course.
Permaculture Living is full of great ideas and skills to suit a wide range of lifestyles, no matter where you live. Milkwood has 6000+ students living in 71 different countries across almost every continent of our planet. Because we really are all in this together.
Learn the three ethics and 12 principles that underpin permaculture - and how you can use permaculture design thinking to design everything from your kitchen cupboards to your community garden.
You’ll then be ready to define your own personalised goal for this course, to guide your decisions and learnings as you begin to make changes for the better.
Based on permaculture principle #1 - Observe and Interact - this module is all about spending mindful time with our bodies, our homes and the environment around us, and then engaging with those things.
First we will guide you through the theory, and then we’ll show you practical ways to apply this principle to your everyday life, with actions such as:
Energy comes in pulses and waves, and then it’s gone. This is why we need to ‘make hay while the sun shines’, or capture that energy for when we need it later.
First, we'll take you through permaculture principle #2 - Catch and Store Energy - and then it’s time for practical application. You might choose:
Permaculture principle #3 - Obtain A Yield - is all about reconnecting to our natural cycles - and also to human, plant, animal and other communities, and, importantly, ourselves.
Practical actions you can learn during this module include:
In this important module for our modern times, you’ll learn about accepting feedback and self-regulating to apply the brakes when needed.
Then we’ll show you ways to practice permaculture principle #4 - Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback - in your own life. You might choose:
Time to think about permaculture principle #5 - Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services. This principle asks us to reconsider our dependence on non-renewable resources, primarily fossil fuels.
Then let’s put it into action. You can learn about:
When embracing a permaculture life - whether that involves food, materials, packaging, processes, or skills - we try to ensure all elements are fully utilised, in a closed-loop.
First, we'll run you through this #6 permaculture principle - Produce No Waste - and then we’ll get into practical actions:
In this module, based on permaculture principle #7 - Design From Patterns to Details - we encourage you to look at the big picture before focusing on the finer details - an essential step to designing a permaculture life.
Putting this into practice, you might choose actions such as:
As we learn about permaculture principle #8 - Integrate Rather Than Segregate - we take our lead again from nature. We integrate rather than segregate so each part of your system works as part of the whole.
The actions you can choose in this module include:
Permaculture principle #9 - Use Small and Slow Solutions - sounds gentle but as we'll explain, it’s actually pretty radical. It flies directly in the face of consumerism and capitalism.
To bring this into action in your life, you might choose to learn about:
We use permaculture principle #10 - Use and Value Diversity - to build resilience in our local habitat, communities, finances, personal health and in a multitude of other ways.
So, once we've showed you the theory - it’s time to apply this at your place. You will learn about:
The ‘margin’ or ‘fringe’ is often ignored - but in fact, it’s a most useful space.
We'll explore this in #11 permaculture principle - Use Edges and Value the Marginal - and then we’ll show you how to put it into practice.
You can choose to learn about:
As the saying goes: ‘The only constant is change.’ So in our final week, you’ll learn permaculture principle #12 - Creatively Use and Respond to Change - which calls on you to look forward and embrace the future.
And then we ask you to get political, to help stop catastrophic climate change.
You can also learn about:
In this final module, you will revisit your personal goal statement and the action plan you’ve slowly built throughout the course - a deeply useful document you can return to again and again as you contemplate future big decisions.
And thus, you will now be the keeper of a whole swag of new skills and ideas to help the planet, while making life better at your own place too.
Go you!
For students who choose the one-time payment option, we’ll sneak a special bonus into your course hub area - a mini version of our best-selling book Milkwood - for you to download and keep.
This mini book includes how-tos and recipes from all five chapters - The Tomato, Mushroom Cultivation, Natural Beekeeping, Seaweed and Wild Food.
"Kirsten and Nick are passionate, know their stuff, love sustainability and are very generous with the information given."
"The Permaculture Living course is my favourite EVER online course. It is so well designed, so informative, so amazingly organised and just plain inspiring."
"I’ve loved the energy and encouragement from the Milkwood team, which made me feel that any step I took was awesome."
But ... my apartment is too small ... I don't have enough time ... I don't have a backyard ... I'm not fit enough ... I might get it wrong ... I don't quite know where to begin ... I killed my houseplant, so that means I can't grow things ...
Hey. You there. Guess what? Permaculture is for everybody.
You don't need a garden. You don't need stacks of time each week. This is a mindset shift. This is about learning how to see the world differently, and yourself as a functional part of it. It's about changing your habits, one by one, to become the change you want to see.
This course IS all about new skills and habits that you can use right now to become more resilient, but it's also about creating the world we need, in a world out of balance.
If you join us, we will help transform your thinking and your backyard... to create resilience for both your household and our planet – while also ensuring YOU create a life that's truly worth living.
This course begins on Monday the 21st of October 2024.
You'll receive new lessons each week for 12 weeks, but you'll have enduring access to all your course materials. So if you need to move through your course at a slower pace, that's completely fine - our mentors will keep pace with you for as long as you need.
Yes, it does! All videos are fully captioned and the cations are searchable. You can also download the full transcript of all lessons, for maximum accessibility.
Yes, absolutely! We have folks studying from literally every continent on the planet (except Antarctica).
Our course is designed to be applicable to all contexts - you’ll be able to choose from a wide array of skills and habits to suit your particular situation.
Everybody who joins the course will be able to ask questions in the comments section in each lesson, and get answered by our team.
You'll also get access to our exclusive student community & our ongoing live Q&As.
So once you're inside the course, you have access to Kirsten or Nick in our regular live student Q&As - where you'll be able to ask anything you like and get all your questions answered.
You will also have the opportunity to submit your questions beforehand - and if you can't make the live stream, you can watch the recording in your own time afterward.
Yes - every 2 weeks we hold live Q&A sessions, where you can ask us questions and get detailed responses (and yes, they’re recorded and you can submit your questions beforehand, if you can’t make the live session).
We also answer all your Qs in your student community - sometimes almost as quickly as you can ask them!
Lifetime access means you will be able to access this course, and all its resources, for as long as we have it available online.
Milkwood has over 14 years experience of delivering stellar education - and we're not going anywhere, anytime soon.
This is a long-haul commitment for us, and for our family business. No tricks, no fine print. We want you to have access to this knowledge for as long as you need.
Yes, you will! We send you a Certificate of Completion as soon as you finish the course.
You will also be invited to join our Alumni on LinkedIn, if you wish.
Please note there is no 'official' accreditation for Permaculture courses, and that this course is not the same as a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC).
We recommend you set aside 1-2 hours a week to do this course - 30 minutes for viewing, 30 minutes for reading, and 30 minutes for working on your permaculture action plan.
Each week you'll get access to roughly 3 new video lessons. These range in length from 5 minutes to 20 minutes.
On top of that there is additional reading and worksheets which will take you less than an hour to read through and absorb.
Then, there's your action plan to work on, and interacting with the student community - plus Q&A webinars, some weeks.
You can complete each lesson at any time that's convenient to you. Five minutes at a time, or all in one hit.
But..... a big part of your course is about building your permaculture life, one good habit at a time. We want these habits to last a lifetime - so the more work you put into this course, the more change you'll get out of it.
We've made this course for anyone who wants to get closer to their food , their community & their environment. Anyone whose interested in living a healthier, happier life.
There are no prerequisites or required reading. Just bring your enthusiasm.
Permaculture Living has several price options, plus payment plans as well - you can find full details here: courses.milkwood.net/permacultureliving#pricing.
We've found that our students get the most out of their experience if they move through the course with a group of peers.
For this reason, you'll receive a weekly package of lessons to work through, each week for 12 weeks.
Nope! If you can view this page and the video on it, you can access the entire course just fine.
The course is delivered via our special course portal, web pages and email.
You can access your course content (and private community) via any web browser on any laptop, PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone that is connected to a reasonable internet connection.
You don't need any other special applications or memberships to other platforms. You are not required to have a Facebook or Google account.
It's simple and easy.
We'll do our best to make your course the best experience we can. However, it just might not be for you. That’s ok! If you decide that’s the case, let us know.
Notify our team within 30 days of your purchase and we’ll refund your payment. No questions asked. At this point you should be about a third through the course.
Please note that the 30 day money-back guarantee applies for the online component of your purchase only. Books, postage or personal coaching calls that have already been supplied as part of the Fast-Forward option are non-refundable unless damaged or similar.
Yep, no worries. Head over to courses.milkwood.net/permacultureliving-waitlist and sign up there - we'll then let you know when the next course opens.
Yes, we have been there. We know what it's like to establish a vegetable garden in a record-breaking drought. To have zero budget but want to build a tiny house on just a simple patch of earth. We know what it's like to have to 'begin again' and start from scratch in a rental, leaving behind an organic market garden for growing in pots on a verandah in the suburbs.
Most of all, we know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night, scared for our kid's future, desperate to do something about it. Something that will really help. Something that you can get started with, right now.
AND SO - after years of farming, growing, designing and community organising ... after establishing community rooftop gardens, windowsill herb pots, community swap-meets, protests, bulk-buys and everything in between ... we know there’s a way for you to live a permaculture life.
We hope to see you inside the course.
~ Kirsten & Nick
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