September 2025 - February 2026

£864 incl VAT for 12 days over 6 weekends - This ticket is for a deposit - FULL PAYMENT THROUGH INSTALLMENTS

Concessions may be available upon request, please contact us if the cost is prohibitive for you.

The Apricot Centre Permaculture Design Course is a part-time, non-residential course that takes place over 6 weekends between September 2025 - February 2026, making it perfect for those wishing to study whilst working or who have other commitments.

The course runs in bite-sized chunks so that you can digest the information and self-study between the sessions. The course is unique in that it is based at Huxhams Cross Farm which has organic and biodynamic status. The farm is a demonstration permaculture site and a rare example of farm-scale permaculture in action; this enables us to show practical examples of permaculture on-site as well as visiting other permaculture designed sites in South Devon.

Our Permaculture Design Course uses creative and practical teaching methods to enable you to develop and experience the principles and practices of permaculture design, with emphasis on guiding you to design in groups and individually with support from your tutors. This structure equips you with the skills to go on to design and implement your own larger farms, smallholding, community gardens, or even your back garden.

The 12-day course covers:

Permaculture principles & ethics
Renewable energy & sustainable building
Simple vegetable growing and fruit growing
Soil management & fertility
Forest gardening
Simple livestock management
Transition movement
Design skills
Visits to inspirational sites

Dates:

Sept 13-14
Oct 11-12
Nov - 8-9
Dec - 6-7
Jan 10-11
Feb 7-8

The course is run by Bob Mehew and Rachel Phillips.

Bob is a project manager and has managed the development of the Huxhams Cross Farm from its start, he is an expert in using permaculture design for projects and business development. Bob is director of operations at the Apricot Centre.

Rachel is an Ethnobotanist and Nature Connection Practitioner, as well as a Permaculture designer and tutor. Rachel is managing director athe Apricot Centre.

This course is not residential. Should you need accomodation in the area for the weekends where you staying, please check out the "Accomodation" section of our "Events" page for recommendations on this link. There are also further hotels and lots of AirBnBs and other accommodation solutions in the area.

Permaculture Design Certificate 2025/26