Join us at Thriving Earth Farm in Joelton, TN for our 2024 permaculture design and earth skills training course.

The course will be one weekend a month for 4 months. The sessions will be the second Saturday and Sunday of May, June, July, and August. The course is an 72hr permaculture design certificate course. All students who complete all 72 hrs will receive a permaculture design certificate.

Participants will learn permaculture design methodology and will earn a permaculture design certificate. In addition to the standard content of a permaculture design course, participants will learn vital skills essential for homesteading and will learn in a hands on learning environment. Participants can expect to learn about organic gardening, regenerative forestry, small scale staple crop production, dairy systems, heavy equipment operation and maintenance, hand tool carpentry, wild foraging, composting, farm fencing, mushroom production, season extension, grazing, and much more. Participants will also visit nearby farms to observe different farming systems and bussiness operations.

Lunch and dinner will be provided on site. Food is organic, grown on site, locally grown, or ethically sourced otherwise. We cannot accommodate vegan diets.

Permaculture Design Curriculum
- History
- Philosophy
- Ethics
- Principles
- Practices
-Site analysis
- Design tools and methodologies
- Designing practicum
- Permaculture anarchism

Permaculture Gardening in our bioregion
- Planting Schedules
- Annual vegetable planting techniques
- Staple crop production
- Cover crops, compost, and mulch
- Perennial herbs
- Fruit, nut, berry
- Intro to plant propagation
- Maintenance techniques for our region
- Design and maintenance
- Processing and preservation
- Season extension techniques
- Shiitake productions on logs
- Composting systems

Livestock systems
- Grass fed beef
- Homestead scale broiler production
- Traditional dairy systems
- Egg layers
- Ecological grazing and grazing philosophy

Regenerative Forestry
- Forest ecology
- History of our forests
- Reading the forested landscape
- Regenerative forestry theory and practice
- Forest products
- Forestry tools
- Methodologies

Home Design
- Permaculture designing your home build
- Natural building techniques
- Examples around the world
- Local examples

Earthworks
- Water managament earthworks
- Building roads and infrastructure
- Pond construction

Farm Equipment Overview
Hand tools
- Tools for different jobs
- Sharpening and maintenance
Tractors
- Different types for different applications
- Maintenance
- Safe operation
Heavy equipment
- When to use what and why
- Maintenance
- Safe operation

Traditional skills of the homestead
- Hand tool carpentry
- Wild foraging
- Tree and plant identification
- Useful knots
- Homestead butchering


The cost of the workshop is $2,000 USD.
A $500 deposit is required to hold your space. Limited spaces are available.
Full payment for the course is due April 1st.
Financing options are available for folks who need it. Click the financing link on our websites drop down menu to see what monthly payments may look like. (some are as little as $20 a month).

For any questions about the course, to pay your deposit/secure your spot in the course, or to apply for a scholarship please e-mail ThrivingEarthFarm@Gmail.com