Small Permaculture Gardens - Short Course

Learn Permaculture!

• Start small and grow
• Create productive, intense small gardens
• On a terrace, veranda, courtyard or corner of a larger garden

This is an achievable first step to understand and try out the concepts that underpin permaculture. Learn a little, try on a small scale, and lay a foundation to take it further if your passion builds and opportunities grow.

• Grow your own fresh food
• Reduce your shopping bill
• Grow food sustainably
• Practice self-reliance
• Make use of any small space

Permaculture in Small Spaces has something for everyone - from balcony deck to suburban backyard to the empty city block down the road! Learn how to grow your own food in a healthy and sustainable way. 

This course is particularly well suited to people who believe you don't need acres of land to make a positive environmental impact - just thoughtful design, practical knowledge and a willingness to work with nature rather than against it.

COURSE CONTENT 

LESSON 1 APPLYING PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES IN SMALL SPACES 

Introduction 
Ethical underpinning 
Permaculture principles 
Zones and sectors 
Central Place Theory 
Multi owner developments and urban permaculture 
Maximising edges
Natural succession
Review what you have been learning

LESSON 2 ECOLOGY AND SYSTEMS 
Ecology in the garden 
Designing with systems 
Start with the soil biology
Microclimates & Ecosystems 
Creating microclimates 
Creating Outdoor Rooms
Supporting Animal Biodiversity
Planting Vegetables
Review what you have been learning

LESSON 3 DESIGNING THE SMALL PERMACULTURE GARDEN 
Design considerations 
Topography, structures, sun and wind 
Formulating ideas 
Circular Designs 
Use of Scale 
Garden beds
Plant genome development
Vertical gardens
Advantages and disadvantages of vertical gardening
Review what you have been learning

LESSON 4 PLANTS FOR SMALL SPACES
Deciding what to grow 
Prioritise your criteria 
Polycultures 
Interplanting 
Guilds 
Companion Planting 
Beans
Onions
Spinach and chard
Growing grapes
Berry fruit
Citrus
Review what you have been learning

LESSON 5 SUSTAINABILITY 
What is meant by sustainability? 
Minimising or eliminating inputs 
Composting 
Worm Farming 
Sheet mulching 
Mulching 
Repurposing 
Water recycling 
United Nations Food Sustainability
Food Security
Creative recycling 
Review what you have been learning 

LESSON 6 OTHER WAYS TO GET MORE FROM LIMITED SPACE 
Value-adding 
Protective structures 
Windbreaks 
Container Growing 
Aquaponics 
Stacking or Layering 
Raised Beds 
Mushroom Cultivation 
Domesticated Animals
Snail Farming
Micro-greens
Managing your needs
Aquaponics
Herbs in Containers
Bee keeping
Chickens in small spaces
Review what you have been learning

LESSON 7 NATURAL CONTROL MEASURES 
Strategies to Reduce Pest and Disease Problems 
Using Plants 
Protecting Plants 
Pruning 
Natural Weed Control 
Non Chemical Pest Control
Biocontrol
Companion planting 
Review what you have been learning 

LESSON 8 THE PERMACULTURE COMMUNITY 
Introduction 
Connecting with others
Trading with neighbours
Community gardens
Building communities
What can go wrong
What can go right
Reducing waste
Landfill, environmental pollution, wastelands
Review what you have been learning 
Final Assessment 

Learn to Create Microsystems within a Small Garden

A permaculture landscape isn't determined by size. It is determined by the way it is developed to be ecologically divers, balanced and sustainable. To do this is more than just selecting a number of components and dropping them into the landscape. You need to approach your selection and arrangement intelligently and holistically.

A holistic and harmonious system optimises yields, reduces the need for external inputs, is less damaging to the environment, and requires less maintenance. A mature ecological garden is resilient. If one plant or animal dies off, the rest of the system can withstand the loss. Furthermore, the plants in an ecological garden are selected because they have many uses. Just like in natural ecosystems, each member of an ecological garden has many uses. In many other types of gardens, a plant is used for a single purpose, so its multiple benefits are not exploited. 

Understanding natural systems helps to design spaces to make them more productive and minimise the labour involved in using them. Working with permaculture principles also enables designers to create sustainable garden spaces. These sustainable spaces are long-lasting, and will repay the energy that went into producing them over time. 

Permaculture gardeners do not advocate returning gardens to how the land might have been before it was developed- as native plant sites. Instead, they advocate creating gardens based on natural systems that incorporate food plants, native plants, and exotic plants. The idea is that if people in cities produce more of their own food and create multifunctional sites where plants and animals interact symbiotically, there will be less need for farmers to continue to degrade land to provide food and other resources to the cities – which is where most farm products are consumed.