
Create a Meaningful Life That Restores the Planet.
Stay tuned for the FALL 2023 LIVE Online 72-hour Permaculture Design Course
START FOR AS LITTLE AS $219CAD* ($163USD) plus applicable tax.
Connect with a Positive, Proactive Community and
Create Sanity, Security, and Abundance with Training, Tools, and Support to Thrive, Here on Planet Earth!
What Our Students Are Saying…
We Have an Absolute Passion for Sharing This Earth-Healing, World-Changing Information.
And our #1 goal is to empower you to step from being a fearful consumer, dependent on fragile social systems, to a confident producer of your own food, water, energy…
…and a secure, sustainable livelihood helping the earth and your community!
In the last decade+, Verge Permaculture has…

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Trained more than 2000 urban & rural homesteaders, and small-farmers
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Produced a comprehensive multi-media permaculture knowledge base
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Founded a ground-breaking online academy for permaculture studies
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Established advanced urban and rural homesteads, and teaching centers
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Built a global permaculture community of experts and specialists
Our mission is to grow the number of humans practicing permaculture. In order to maximize the accessibility we have shifted to online courses. As always, learning circles and creating strong community bonds for our students is a central part of the Verge Permaculture Design course.
Stay Tuned for Our Next Live Online Course Beginning FALL 2023
Find 2023 class dates, schedule, course content HERE
What Makes Our Course Awesome?
We set you up for success from the very beginning…
As permaculture practitioners and entrepreneurs, we’ve lived every lesson we teach. From planning and growing a food forest, to building a passive solar greenhouse, to rehydrating an eroded field and stream bed, even to creating a rainwater harvesting system in our home. From creating Verge’s startup vision and mission, to marketing and attracting clients, even to transforming local natural disasters into teachable moments with permaculture solutions!
Verge’s own home-grown crop of permaculture experts forms the nucleus of our faculty: Carmen Lamoureux takes the lead instructor’s role with Jen Nobel as the program manager. Supporting us in teaching the standardized PDC topics is a diverse faculty of successful permaculture professionals, authors and entrepreneurs (see below for names & bios!). With more than 10 members on our teaching team, we strive to cover every possible need and deliver as supportive an experience as possible.
We also invite Internationally-Recognized Guest Instructors …
Past special guests include Geoff Lawton (Permaculture Research Institute), David Holmgren (co-founder of permaculture) and Peter Bane (Author, The Permaculture Handbook), Stefan Sobkowiak (Miracle Farms) and Dan Chiras, author of 38 books on natural and green building technology.
The Verge Permaculture Design Course in LIVE online. That means ….
You’ll interact with our teaching team, guest instructors, and your classmates during more than 30 lively webinars. Ask questions, and get them answered in real time. If you can’t make it to a live class you can post questions in the course dashboard and one of our instructors will answer it.
Nearly every graduate knows the bond that springs up among classmates. We’ve experienced it, witnessed it…and now we’re leveraging it using social learning! We pack the course with opportunities to meet and collaborate with your peers – from regional teams, to break-out rooms, and our student portal where you can join an exclusive online student social network to chat about the course content, kibitz, share resources, perspectives, and plans, network, ask questions, and collaborate. It’s the first step toward the lifelong connections you will form among the worldwide network of over 2000 Verge grads!
You’ll get peer support and mentoring through breakout rooms during class time and between classes on our exclusive community platform. And when it’s all over, you’ll receive a personalized feedback video from one of our instructors about your submission. When you register for the premium or pro level you’ll you’ll have access to our end-of-course office hours with a small group of students.
You’ll Also Get …
With your certificate in hand, you’ll find that a Permaculture Certification through Verge is a respected credential worldwide – even more so as we are now endorsed by the Permaculture Institute of North America.
Our PDC comes with so much more than just the course content! Just for starters, you get exclusive access to copies of all class slides, detailed handouts and supporting materials. Then, add on a half-dozen hours of riveting bonus lectures from our teachers and guest instructors. And then, there’s our ever-growing student knowledge-exchanges with over 15 hours (and counting) of peer-led sessions on a wild range of topics from wind turbines, permaculture software and small-scale project management, to composting toilets and more! Plus, for the entire course you’ll have online access to a copy of the classic textbook Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual.
Have to miss a live class. No worries – catch up with the recording!
As comprehensive as this course is, there’s so much great supplementary info out there! So, we’ve arranged for you to get all sorts of special student discounts…
- 25% off Tagari’s Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual
- 30% off ALL books from our sponsor, New Society Publishers
- …PLUS 30% off our Verge Merchandise (to show your permie-pride!)
We believe whole-heartedly that if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it’s not worth doing! So our team strives to combine serious learning with a lot of fun throughout this course, with weekly themed events, interactive activities, competitions, awful jokes, and other silliness. We also give prizes for best costumes. We have themed weeks where you can put on your best garb and may the best Permie win! You can hobnob with your teachers and classmates in numerous online social gatherings…and then there’s a final blow-out party featuring a private concert with the ukulele-strumming ecological troubadour, Charlie McGee!
Get a Solid Foundation for Your Regenerative Life or Career!
THREE PACKAGES TO SUIT YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS
With three levels of engagement, we can support the simplest makeover of your backyard or community commons, all the way up to your most ambitious business plan.

THE FOUNDATIONAL
PACKAGE
- The international standard permaculture curriculum taught in live webinars,
- bonus recorded content,
- the Permaculture Primer course
- access to the private online student community
- full-year access to the course recordings.
$1,299CAD
(est. $970 USD)

THE PREMIUM
PACKAGE
- All the content from the Foundational PDC, plus
- access to office hours,
- lifetime access to the course recordings,
- a six-months membership to the the Verge Permaculture Academy.
$1,799CAD
(est. $1,320 USD)

THE PRO
PACKAGE
- All the content from the Foundational PDC, plus
- access to office hours,
- lifetime access to the course recordings,
- a full-year membership to the the Verge Permaculture Academy,
- come back and audit the course for a second time.
$2,499CAD
(est. $1,830 USD)
START FOR AS LITTLE AS $219CAD* ($163USD) plus applicable tax.
Each weekend module will cost you ONLY $219CAD ($163USD). If you don’t love the course you can cancel anytime.
* When you register for the foundational course and choose a payment plan at check-out you will be charged ONLY $219CAD ($163USD) today, plus applicable tax. You will be automatically billed five additional monthly-payments of $219CAD ($163USD) unless you choose to cancel.
Don’t Hesitate. We Only Offer this LIVE Course Twice a Year!
What difference will this course make in your life?
We’ve seen it over and over: students enter full of fears for the future…and within weeks, replace their fears with dawning hope and vision! By the end of the course, they walk out of the door with a plan and the resources to create positive change and security for themselves and their communities…
Isn’t that how you’d like to navigate the coming years?
Kick Start Your Permaculture Life Now!
We Hope to See You There!
LOOKING FOR MORE DETAILS?
SCROLL DOWN FOR COURSE SCHEDULE, TEACHING TEAM & FAQ’S
2023 Course Schedule
Our next course starts FALL 2023 and runs over seven monthly weekends.
Course Hours:
- TBD for Fall 2023
Module | High-Level Topics Covered |
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Module 1 |
Welcome, Myth, Permaculture Principles |
Module 2 |
Mapping, Methods of Design, Pattern, Climate, Micro-climate |
Module 3 |
Water, Broad Acre Water, Composting Toilets, Wastewater, Rainwater |
Module 4 |
Soil, Compost, Trees & Their Energy Transactions |
Module 5 |
Cold Climate Forest Gardening, Agroforestry / Keyline Design, Resilient Permaculture Gardening Strategies, Design Case Studies |
Module 6 |
Aquaculture, Livestock, Structures & Energy, Values & Vision, Community Design & Planning |
Module 7 |
Alternative Strategies, Group Project, Design Project Overview |
Office Hours |
Drop in office hours and additional group time with your design mentor for Q&A and direct feedback / support with your final project (Premium & Pro Package students only) |
Final Projects Due |
Verge’s Permaculture Design Course Teaching Team
With Special Guests
…And Design Mentors and Support team that help us pull this off!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
You can pay online with your credit card.
If you’d prefer to pay using another method select that option during checkout and you’ll receive instructions on how to do so. Note that we can accept cash, bank-certified cheques, email money transfer (Canadians only) or credit card over the phone.
Your spot is not saved in the course until payment is received.
We can also accept payment plans for some of our courses. The payment plan option will be displayed at checkout if that is the case.
*Please note that registrations paid by email money transfer are processed manually. Because we are not in the office everyday, be prepared to wait 24 hours during weekdays before your registration is approved. If you are registering with short notice before an event, we recommend that you pay online using a credit card so that your registration is processed and approved automatically by our system.

We are not considered a designated educational institution (i.e. university or college) that qualifies for the purposes of the education tax credit claimed on the tax return. Therefore, our course cannot be claimed under tuition fees on your tax return and we cannot issue T2202A slips.
If you are working in a small business and would like to write off the course because it relates to your business, then yes, you may use our proof of enrolment / course receipt when filing your taxes.
A registered education savings plan (RESP) is a contract between an individual (the subscriber) and a person or organization (the promoter). Under the contract, the subscriber names one or more beneficiaries (the future student(s)) and agrees to make contributions for them, and the promoter agrees to pay educational assistance payments (EAPs) to the beneficiaries. For more information about RESPs visit the CRA website.
Our Permaculture Design Course can meet the requirements of “specified educational program” for the purpose of Educational Assistance Payments, as described on the CRA website. Note that a specified educational program is a program at post-secondary school level that lasts at least three consecutive weeks, and that requires a student to spend no less than 12 hours per-month on courses in the program.
However, before assuming that your promoter will provide Educational Assistance Payments we highly recommend that you contact them to find out if they have any additional requirements above those stated on the CRA website. The reason for this is that although we have had numerous students successful in requesting EAPs from the holder of their plan (i.e. the promoter), there have also been some students told by their promoter that we do not qualify.
Yes.
For more information about the Verge Permaculture Scholarship Fund, and how to apply, click here.
Would you like to make a donation to our scholarship fund? 100% of donated amounts are directly handed out in the form of tuition reduction to deserving students. Learn more at the link above.
The PDC is a tested and proven standardized curriculum offered by permaculture institutes and educational centers around the world. Developed by visionary author/educator/naturalist Bill Mollison, it includes all of the topics in his pioneering work, Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual…which you will have temporary online access to during class as a part of your course package.
Offered in a 12 week online format, our Permaculture Design Certificate, or PDC, is a course for people who want to make permaculture a way of life or create a livelihood doing earth repair. We’ve gone above and beyond the requirements of the standard 72 hour curriculum by incorporating our own expertise from sustainable design projects around the world, additional products and resources, and teaching our own special step-by-step design process.
No. All you need is the ability and desire to learn in a fast-paced classroom environment.
Our Permaculture Design Certificate includes a 5-hour Introduction to Permaculture video course (The Permaculture Primer) that all students are expected to watch prior to the first class. It is accessible to students the moment they register.
Time commitments vary depending on which PDC format you’re registering for. Our Spring PDC is stretched over 7 months where online classes happen only 1 long weekend per month. During that long weekend, class time commitment is around 15 hours (5 classes of 3 hours each). During the rest of the month you are able to complete optional assignments and review any content at your leisure – 4 hours throughout the rest of the month should be more than enough to complete assignments.
During our Fall PDC format there are 3, three-hour online class sessions per week. Including optional weekly assignments, dedicating 10 hours a week to the PDC in this format will ensure success, but even dedicating 6 hours a week will keep you up to speed throughout the 11-12 weeks of the course.
In each one of our PDC classes in both Spring and Fall formats, 2 hours are dedicated to lectures from the instructors and 1 hour is dedicated to Q&A from students. We recommend that you attend live (see the course schedule for dates and times), but you can also watch the recordings if you happen to miss a session (see the FAQ about catching up on missed sessions here). The Q&A portion of each session is optional.
Both the spring and fall courses finish with 1 month of Office Hours and final project work. During this time, there are no lectures but students have access to their Design Mentor for support with their final design project. Students must complete and submit a Final Design Project before the final due date in order to be awarded a certificate in Permaculture Design. For more questions about the Final Design Project go here.
We can accept Email Money Transfers from Canadian Bank accounts.
*Please note that registrations paid by EMT are processed manually. Because we are not in the office everyday, be prepared to wait 24 hours during weekdays before your registration is approved. If you are registering with short notice before an event, we recommend that you pay online using a credit card.
To send an email money transfer you need access to online banking through a participating financial institution (BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotia Bank, or TD Canada Trust, among others).
Step by Step Instructions:
1. Login to your online banking.
2. Locate Interac Email Money Transfer, usually found in the Transfer/Payments menu.
3. Fill in the Interac Email Money Transfer information as follows:
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- Recipients email address: payments@vergepermaculture.ca .
- Payment Amount: the total amount of your invoice.
- Message: Include your name, the course name and if different, the name of the course registrant.
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No password is required for your EMT.
If you need more detailed instructions for completing an email money transfer, go to http://www.interac.ca/index.php/en/interac-etransfer/etransfer-faq.
Yes, we have payments plans for our Permaculture Design Courses.
The payment plans are set up as an automatic charge against your credit card (usually 3 – 6 equal payments) spread out over one month intervals. There is a non-refundable administrative surcharge of $100 for all payment plans.
During checkout, look for the following in order to enable a payment plan option:

Many of our students develop businesses or projects leveraging their permaculture training. We think the best way to get an idea of the wide range of possibilities is to peruse the 50+ alumni interviews, profiles and blogs, found here.
Our Permaculture Design Course follows Bill Mollison’s textbook, Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual. A physical copy of this textbook is not included in the OPDC but is highly recommended, though you will have temporary online access to a digital copy.
It is true that a lot of Bill’s examples in his textbook are from the tropics and sub tropic climatic zones, as he is from Australia.
What differentiates us is our emphasis on the process of design. We feel strongly that the process is what drives good design. Process is climate indifferent.
The specific techniques that you might employ in the tropics may differ from the techniques used in a cold climate. In addition the specific plants you may use would also be different. But the fundamental principles and processes are the same.
Lastly, our course has a focus on temperate and cold climate given that is the climate here in Canada and the climate that a majority of our students are working in. However, we have students who have taken our Permaculture Design Course and are working in climates around the world.
For courses paid up-front in full:
If you need to cancel your PDC, Masterclass, or other Live course registration for any reason:
- Up to 10 days following the 1st class: we will refund your course fee but will deduct an administrative fee of $150 (plus applicable taxes), however, you will lose access to all course materials and recordings. Tuition for the PDC On-demand course is not refundable.
- More than 10 days following the 1st class: We cannot provide a refund.
For payment plans:
You can cancel your payment plan anytime (but you will lose access to all course materials and recordings). Payments made towards plans are not refundable.
The live webinars are definitely going to be a way for students to interact in real-time with the teaching team, and with each other. We highly recommend that you attend if you can.
However, we understand that it may not be possible for you to attend all webinars. And you may have conflicts (or time zone considerations) that prevent you from attending any of them.
As such, we will be recording and uploading all webinars to the student dashboard (please give us ~24 hours). We will timestamp the webinars so that they are easy to navigate and you’ll have access to these recordings indefinitely. We will also provide audio-only files for all webinars.
Our teaching assistants will be monitoring all questions submitted through the student dashboard. They will record your questions and summarize them for our instructors to cover in the live sessions. Getting your questions answered is a huge priority for us. You can help us stay organized by keeping your questions relevant to the topic and posting them under the correct lesson / webinar.
We are confident that even if you can’t catch the live sessions you will still get significant value from our program and you will still feel a part of the live aspect of the course. There is a caveat though – we ask that you keep up with the content and get your questions to us in a timely fashion at we are only monitoring comments until the course ends.
Update in progress….
Completion of the design project is a requirement to receive your Permaculture Designer’s Certificate. Our Teaching Team has set aside several months at the end of the course to review and provide feedback on student projects as part of your course tuition.
If you do not submit your project before the submission deadline we will not be reviewing your final project. Unfortunately, with so many students taking our live courses it becomes too difficult to keep track of everyone’s projects and to coordinate with those individuals who submitted late all those weeks or months after the project was due.
We’ve had lots of folks ask us: “Can I share this course with my partner / spouse?”… (or with someone else in your household).
When you register in our online PDC (or other online programs), we create one user account linked to your name and email address. This user account gives you access to our student dashboard and the ability to interact with the course content. We track your progress through the lessons. You can post comments and interact with our teachers and other students both in the lessons pages and in any live webinars.
And although we ask that you do not share your password and username with anyone (that’s just smart, and good practice in general), the reality is that we have no control over who is sitting beside you while you are participating behind your computer screen. And really, we actually really do want you to share this information with your spouse / partner, your children and the other stakeholders involved in making your project happen! How else are you going to get everyone onboard?
Having said that – we think that there are a few very good reasons that each person might want to have their own unique registration in the course:
- We will issue only one Permaculture Design Certificate, in the name of the user who enrolled in the course. Same goes with any other online programs that come with certificates of completion.
- Your unique user account is your own personality and way to engage in the course material, and with the instructors, and with other students in the course. Sharing your user account in this way is similar to sharing your Facebook Account. So, ask yourself: Do you want your own profile?
- Our learning management system will track your progress throughout the course material (what you’ve watched, what you haven’t) as well record your results on Knowledge Checks (i.e. quizzes). This is a very useful tool to track your own individual completion and progress through the course.
Please also be aware that you can only log into the Student Dashboard from one IP address at a time. That means that if you login from home (and don’t log out) and you try and then login from another location you will be unable to do so. This will also cause problems for you if you share your login credentials with someone.
Rob Avis is a Diplomate in Education from the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) and PINA recognizes and endorses Verge Permaculture’s courses and curriculum.
The Premium and Pro levels of our PDC include access to live Office Hours with our Design Mentors. These are offered throughout the course as well as at the end of the course, before projects are due. This invaluable time offers the opportunity for students to ask questions directly related to their context and personal projects and receive constructive feedback and support from their design mentor in real-time. Typically, students receive 5-10 minutes of 1-on-1 time with their design mentor during the designated office hour. Multiple office hours are available if students wish to attend more than one during the course.

THE FOUNDATIONAL
PACKAGE
- The international standard permaculture curriculum taught in live webinars,
- bonus recorded content,
- the Permaculture Primer course
- access to the private online student community
- full-year access to the course recordings.
$1,299CAD
(est. $970 USD)

THE PREMIUM
PACKAGE
- All the content from the Foundational PDC, plus
- access to office hours,
- lifetime access to the course recordings,
- a six-months membership to the the Verge Permaculture Academy.
$1,799CAD
(est. $1,320 USD)

THE PRO
PACKAGE
- All the content from the Foundational PDC, plus
- access to office hours,
- lifetime access to the course recordings,
- a full-year membership to the the Verge Permaculture Academy,
- come back and audit the course for a second time.