14 – 15 June 2025 or
20 – 21 September 2025
9.30am to 5pm in Brighton
Start your path toward environmental resilience and personal empowerment.
Permaculture is about working with nature, not against it; designing systems that are ecologically sound, economically viable, and self-sustaining. This weekend course introduces the basics of permaculture design. It aims to inspire and empower you to use permaculture design in your everyday life.
What will the Introduction to permaculture course cover?
This weekend course offers a meaningful experience of connection and belonging—perfect for those seeking fresh beginnings and a deeper sense of community. Equally, if you are interested in reconnecting with natural patterns and how to work with, not against, nature you’ve arrived at the right place.
Permaculture can be used in all aspects of life – whether you’re seeking to grow sustainable food, farm more ecologically, working on home improvements or developing a business strategy.
This course will cover the history, various definitions, design process, ethics, principles, other design tools and case studies from a range of applications. You will use this theory to co-create a design over the two-day course.
If you would prefer an online only version of this course, you can read more here
Who is the Introduction to permaculture course for?
Whether you’re an agriculturalist or a gardener, homeowner or architectural designer, project manager or working in tech, retiree or simply keen to be inspired, this course is for you. People of all abilities and interests should find this a positive and inclusive experience and no prior knowledge of permaculture is needed.
Learning methods and outcomes
The course will be taught using a variety of methods; group work, games, presentations, discussion, video and slides. We will spend some time outdoors at one of our community food growing projects.
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Learn from Nature: Gain insights from nature’s patterns and processes to design sustainable systems that can be applied to various aspects of life.
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Space to feel truly connected: to nature, to others, and to yourself.
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Collaborate and Share Ideas: Work together with others to reflect, plan, and implement strategies that help accelerate natural regeneration.
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Hands-on Experience: Participate in practical activities that offer real-world applications of permaculture principles and experiencing the design process together.
What does the Introduction to permaculture course lead on to?
This course is an ideal starter for anyone interested in a full permaculture design course. You need to have completed an Introduction to permaculture design course to take Brighton Permaculture Trust’s Permaculture design course (Building sustainable communities). You can also go on to explore other specialist courses.
Please note that attending this course does not qualify you to use the term ‘permaculture’ as part of your work as a professional or with the public, such as being a gardener, a teacher, a designer, giving talks about permaculture, etc. In order to do this you need to go on to complete a permaculture design course such as our Permaculture design course (Building sustainable communities).
Course tutors
The course will be led by some of the following tutors, with assistance from trainee teachers:
Stephan Gehrels received his Permaculture Diploma in 2009 and runs school environmental projects in Brighton.
Hannah Wilde completed her Permaculture design course in 2014, is working towards her Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design and has been teaching on courses since 2017.
Fran Pickering has been with Brighton Permaculture Trust since 2003 and received her Permaculture Diploma in 2009.
Polly Charlton completed her Permaculture Design Course in 2018 and is on her Applied Permaculture Diploma Pathway with five designs signed off and implemented.
Ttai Morra completed her Permaculture Design Course in 2023, and is now working on her Permaculture Diploma designs.
Venues/Accommodation
June and September 2025 courses:
Earthship Brighton
Stanmer Park (near University of Sussex)
Brighton
Sussex
South East England
Get directions to Stanmer Park.
If you intend to book accommodation, please check availability before booking a place, as accommodation in Brighton can be hard to find, especially over the summer months.
Get details of local accommodation and Brighton Permaculture Trust supporters who can provide accommodation in their homes.
Fees
Fees include tuition, refreshments, handouts and information sheets.
- £247.50 – Sponsored/organisation rate
- £247.50 – Individual income more than 25k/yr
- £200 – Individual income 18-25k/yr
- £152.50 – Individual income less than 18k/yr
- £84 – Individual, concessionary rate (check eligibility)*
* Concessionary places are limited. If places are not available check back two weeks before the course/event as more may be available then.
We endeavour to make our courses and events affordable to all. Unfortunately, we do not receive any external funding for most of these and rely on large amounts of voluntary input.
See the cancellations and refunds policy.
Booking the Introduction to permaculture course
Spaces are limited, so sign up now to secure your place in this inspiring and educational experience. Let’s work together to create a better world, one design at a time.
Book the 14-15 June 2025 course >
Book the 20-21 September 2025 course >
Bookings can be made until midday the day before the course/event. A place is not secured until we have received the requested payment. If you have completed the booking process but you haven’t received a confirmation email from us please contact us to check your booking has gone through.
If you are booking within two weeks of the event, or the event is nearly full, you will not have the option to pay by BACS. Instead, you will need to pay immediately using a credit/debit card or PayPal.
*To be added to the waiting list for a course that is fully booked please use the Make an Enquiry button at the bottom of this page.
Recommended introductory material
The following provide good introductions to permaculture. It is not essential to have covered this material before the course.
- series of short films introducing application of permaculture design: Living with the Land
- Introduction to permaculture by David Holmgren, co-founder of permaculture, free download: Essence of permaculture
Recommended further reading (optional)
- Permaculture design – step by step, Aranya
- The Permaculture Way, Graham Bell
- Permaculture – a beginner’s guide, Graham Burnett
- Introduction to Permaculture or Permaculture One, Bill Mollison
- Permaculture In A Nutshell, Patrick Whitefield