{"id":1612,"date":"2026-05-04T16:26:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/?page_id=1612"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:05:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:05:31","slug":"permaculture-design-certificate","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/permaculture-design-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"Permaculture Design Certificate"},"content":{"rendered":"<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><h1>Permaculture Design Certificate<\/h1><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><\/div><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1619 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-1024x512.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-1024x512.png 1024w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-300x150.png 300w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-768x384.png 768w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-1536x768.png 1536w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-2048x1024.png 2048w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-1140x570.png 1140w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2026\/05\/PDC_headerimage-1-310x155.png 310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/div><p>UMW&rsquo;s Continuing and Professional Studies Department has partnered with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shenandoahpermaculture.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shenandoah Permaculture Institute<\/a> (SPI) to bring the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) training to the Fredericksburg region.<\/p><h2>About the Permaculture Design Certificate program<\/h2><p>The Permaculture Design Certificate program is an ethically-based, hands-on training that empowers participants to create sustainable human communities. Offered in partnership with the Shenandoah Permaculture Institute, this program explores permaculture principles rooted in agriculture while integrating elements of regional planning, ecology, architecture, and international development.<\/p><p>Through 72 hours of workshops held over four weekends, participants will engage in field trips, collaborative design projects, and practical activities that focus on ethics, design, and sustainability. Modules cover key topics such as regenerative agriculture, water conservation, soil management, and applied permaculture.<\/p><p><strong>Who Should Attend:<\/strong>&nbsp;This course is open to anyone interested in developing a productive, efficient and ecologically sustainable landscape, including backyard gardens, farms, homesteads and communities. Designed for teachers, sustainability professionals, landscape designers, farmers, and community members, this program equips students with real-world permaculture credentials to transform gardens, farms, neighborhoods, and cities into thriving, sustainable ecosystems.<\/p><p><strong>Program Completion Requirements:<\/strong> Attendance at all courses is required. SPI has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shenandoahpermaculture.com\/fall-pdc#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20attendance%20policy%3F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">strict attendance policy<\/a> for all PDCs. There will be a final design project assigned in small groups that applies all of the course concepts.<\/p><h2>Event Details<\/h2><ul>\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong> University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dates:<\/strong> 4 multi-day sessions on September 18-20, October 3-4, October 24-25, and November 7-8<\/li>\n<li><strong>Time:<\/strong>&nbsp; 9am &ndash; 6pm<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cost:<\/strong> $1375 per person. Discount codes for early registration with $200 off before July 1 and 10% off for veterans. Registration closes 1 week before the event.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Group rates:<\/strong> Available for couples.<\/li>\n<\/ul><p><a class=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/umw-cps.catalog.instructure.com\/courses\/permaculture-design-certificate\">Register<\/a><\/p><h3 style=\"color: red\">Program Modules<\/h3><ul>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Permaculture Design Process<\/h4>\n<p>Design is at the core of the science of permaculture. Learn the full permaculture design process including ethics and principles, patterns in nature, mapping and drawing techniques, and presentation skills. The goal is for you to learn how to create effective designs for your own home, farm and community systems.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Regenerative Agriculture<\/h4>\n<p>Regenerative agriculture produces abundant nutritious food while increasing the health of the ecosystem. It encompasses innovative techniques such as Food Forests, Perennial Plant Production, Integrated Livestock Systems, Rotational Grazing, Organic Gardening and Mushroom Cultivation. We will learn how to apply these techniques in our homes and farms and visit local sites to see them in action.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Social Permaculture<\/h4>\n<p>Learn concepts for designing the social landscape or &ldquo;the human sector.&rdquo; We will explore techniques for community building, financial permaculture and urban permaculture design.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Water Conservation &amp; Management<\/h4>\n<p>Water management is a key element of the sustainable farm and homestead. We will learn how to look at water holistically and practice key techniques such as earthworks, swales, ponds, water catchment and keyline design.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Soil Management<\/h4>\n<p>Permaculture focuses on natural and organic management of soil resources. We will cover soil science with a focus on the soil food web, and learn soil-building techniques such as composting, cover cropping, low-till farming and mycoremediation.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>The Built Environment<\/h4>\n<p>Learn how to integrate the built environment into your permaculture system including greenhouse placement and design, passive solar house design, renewable energy systems and sustainable building techniques such as cob, straw bale and cordwood.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Health<\/h4>\n<p>Permaculture takes a natural and holistic approach to health that includes herbal medicine and nutrition. Learn how to identify and use wild medicinal plants, how to design and cultivate a medicinal herb garden, and how to craft your own fermented foods and beverages at home.<\/p><\/li>\n<li style=\"border: 1px solid #ccc;padding: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<h4>Applied Permaculture<\/h4>\n<p>Permaculture design should be practical, tangible and accessible. To bring this idea home we will take field trips to working permaculture sites throughout central Virginia and we will also learn about successful permaculture projects around the world that have inspired us, with a focus on profitable permaculture farm businesses.<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ul><h2>Contact Us<\/h2><p>For more information or to register for an event, please contact Continuing and Professional Studies at <a href=\"tel:+1%205402868097\">(540) 286-8097<\/a> or email us at <strong><a href=\"mailto:continuingstudies@umw.edu?subject=Permaculture%20Design%20Certificate\">continuingstudies@umw.edu<\/a><\/strong>. Connect with us on social.<br>\n<a class=\"genericon genericon-facebook\" style=\"color: #002d61\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/University-of-Mary-Washington-Continuing-and-Professional-Studies-102136881344909\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"hidden\">Facebook<\/span><\/a> <a class=\"genericon genericon-linkedin-alt\" style=\"color: #002d61\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/university-of-mary-washington-continuing-professional-studies\/?viewAsMember=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"hidden\">LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Permaculture Design CertificateUMW&rsquo;s Continuing and Professional Studies Department has partnered with Shenandoah Permaculture Institute (SPI) to bring the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) training to the Fredericksburg region.About the Permaculture Design Certificate programThe Permaculture Design Certificate program is an ethically-based, hands-on training that empowers participants to create sustainable human communities. Offered in partnership with the Shenandoah [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6441,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1612","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Permaculture Design Certificate - Continuing &amp; Professional Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/cps\/permaculture-design-certificate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Permaculture Design Certificate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Permaculture Design CertificateUMW&rsquo;s Continuing and Professional Studies Department has partnered with Shenandoah Permaculture Institute (SPI) to bring the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) training to the Fredericksburg region.About the Permaculture Design Certificate programThe Permaculture Design Certificate program is an ethically-based, hands-on training that empowers participants to create sustainable human communities. 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