Hi, my name is Lusi and I live in southwest Scotland. By next summer I will have been a permaculture educator for 20 years! It's amazing to me how long I have been doing this and yet how varied and interesting all those projects I have done have been - from an outdoor playgroup in inner city parks leading permaculture activities for young children, to working in school grounds, training teachers, gardening in community spaces, creating food forests, supporting people to become accredited permaculture centres, tutoring apprentices to achieve the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, writing case studies and a book about permaculture for children, connecting adults with nature and so much more.
Permaculture opens so many doors and can be applied in so many different places and different ways, that really it can be applied anywhere and to anything!
I really recommend finding out more about it to anyone who is yet to discover the usefulness and applicability of the permaculture ethics, principles, and design tools.
One of the highlights of my year is the Permaculture Design Course in Ecovillage Findhorn. I love journeying to the highlands of Scotland to spend time in this inspirational ecovillage.
It started in the 1960s as a spiritual community, working with the nature spirits to grow incredible vegetables in what was essentially a sand dune. Since then, the residents have worked to create many nature-friendly systems which we experience throughout the course, learning from their decades of experimentation with low impact living. We visit ecological buildings from houses made out of disused whisky casks to co-housing units with full modern eco-technologies; green tools and technology including ecological sewage treatment works, solar panels, wind turbines, and hot composting; we visit permaculture gardens including Craig Gibson's inspirational forest garden, vegetable gardens, community compost, food forest, and a regenerative farm tour; we spend a whole afternoon on a regenerative woodland management tour; we learn how to work with microbes in the soil and in our gut through a fermented food making workshop; and we integrate spiritual practice through attuning, earth lodge, and ceremony.
I just love it because wherever you walk in Findhorn you can see permaculture in practice!
What’s Included in the Course?
🌱A Full Immersion into Permaculture with Heart–Head–Hands Learning Methods
Cover the complete curriculum based on Bill Mollison’s original design framework—updated for our modern world and the unique ecology of Findhorn. How to live in a way of embracing permaculture in your gardening, ecology, relationships and self-awareness 🙏
🛠️ Skills & Knowledge You’ll Gain
Dive into core permaculture themes such as:
Soil Management:
Mulching, composting, soil food web, mycorrhizae, no-dig gardening.
💧Water Systems:
Hydrology, rainwater harvesting, ecological wastewater—including a tour of Findhorn’s iconic Living Machine.
🌳 Plants & Trees:
Forest gardening, shelterbelts, indicator species, food forests.
🍉 Food Systems:
Polycultures, bed creation, ethical sourcing, preservation, ecological footprints.
🏛️ Built Environment:
Ecological buildings, retrofitting, renewable energy, urban permaculture.
✨ Resource & Social Systems:
Carbon footprints, governance, communication, community resilience.
Join here!
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