Courses

Join us for a 15-day permaculture design intensive to learn about:

  • Principles and Ethics of Permaculture Design
  • Site analysis and design, from the tropics to temperate regions
  • Landscape master planning and microclimate design
  • Reading the landscape and pattern recognition
  • Design for climate change
  • Regenerative Land Management and Stewardship
  • Water catchment, storage, filtration, and distribution
  • Biologically based treatment of greywater and blackwater
  • Using greywater in the landscape
  • Natural building techniques and vernacular architecture
  • Plant propagation and grafting
  • Organic horticulture
  • Medicinal plant propagation, usage and preparations
  • Biointensive gardening and seed saving
  • Soil rehabilitation and fertility strategies
  • Myco-forestry and myco-filtration
  • Orchard design and maintenance
  • Renewable energies and biofuels
  • Local and Regenerative economics
  • Urban and suburban permaculture strategies
  • Ecovillage design and community building strategies
  • Networking within the permaculture community and beyond
Perm Course Photos

COURSE FAQ: Find additional information about the course, the farm, and Ometepe
COURSE FLYER: Click here to download a pdf version of this course flyer



The course will be held on Isla Ometepe, an island of twin volcanoes in southern Nicaragua


Project Bona Fide is a 43-acre permaculture site which has been in development for nearly a decade, and has become an important center for education and community development. Infrastructural systems contain: natural buildings built with local materials, terraced & medicinal plant gardens, an extensive nursery, seed bank, developing fruit and nut orchards, food forests, native timber forestry, timber bamboo plantings, water-catchment, drip irrigation and ferrocement technologies, renewable energy systems, and composting toilets. Outreach efforts include social programs that provide educational opportunities based in ecological agriculture, community reforestation efforts that are supported by our seed bank and nursery, local seed and plant exchanges, a children’s nutritional kitchen and an upcoming community center. The developing site, interwoven with the support we’ve received from our local community, allows Bona Fide to be fertile ground for cultural exchange on the island and beyond.


PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE PRICE: $1,250 USD


Please register early as the course can and does fill quickly • Course price does not iclude airfare • $400 USD non-refundable deposit required • Meals will include a mixture of traditional cuisine and farm foods • Academic credits are often available to undergraduate and graduate students • The course is taught in English and simultaneously translated into Spanish via FM-headsets


Contact JACKIE PITTS FOR MORE INFORMATION: JACKIE.PITTS13@GMAIL.COM