There’s still time to register for Cornell Garden-Based Learning’s online course Permaculture: Fundamentals of Ecological Design. Registration fee is $675 and the course runs January 13 through February 23, 2025.
Permaculture systems meet human needs while restoring ecosystem health. The course helps gardeners, landowners, and farmers apply ecological understanding to support healthy soil, water conservation, and biodiversity. Students will learn the foundational ethics, principles, and planning tools needed to design ecological systems in the context of their evolving local environment.
View the full syllabus for the course and find registration information at the course info website.
The Horticulture Section’s distance learning program offers two other online permaculture design courses:
- Permaculture Design: Ecosystem Mimicry (also offered January 13 through February 23, 2025)
- Permaculture Design: Design Practicum (offered next March 10 to April 13, 2025)
The lead instructor for the courses is Monica Ibacache, founder of Beyond Organic Design.
Most of our participants take our horticulture distance courses for life enrichment or professional development. You do not receive Cornell University credit for taking the course. But students who successfully participate and complete the course and all required assignments are eligible for Continuing Education Credits and can receive a certificate of completion from Cornell University’s Office of Continuing Education. Students who complete all three permaculture classes with a finished portfolio that meets the standards of the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute will receive an internationally recognized Permaculture Design Certificate.
If you are post-secondary undergraduate or graduate student, explore the possibility with your faculty advisor of receiving credit for the course (typically as independent study) using your certificate as evidence of your completion.
New York State Certified Teachers may earn NYSED CTLE credit. Cornell Garden-Based Learning is now an Approved Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) Sponsor.