Sophie Strobele

Gardner - Germany

I’m so grateful for your detailed response, feedback and the great input! Really motivating to get the design started.

I noted all the points you mentioned and would love to keep in touch over the design process. Your and Neils idea of the support group is really wonderful!

All the best to you and good luck for upcoming projects, looking forward to staying in touch.

PS – And as a little extra to my euphoria of finsihing the PCD course, i gave birth to my daughter last week, just on the finishing day of the course. She waited for me to finish the master plan 🙂 Very excited to bring up this child in the permaculture environment and mindset. Thank you so much for teaching and guiding us so patiently and professionally.
Education, General, Land Design, OSU PDC Student, PDC Student

 

Ben Garrett

Tiny House and Earthship Building - Healthy Homes - Canada, New Zealand, Australia

Your guidance through our property search has been invaluable. The quality of research and attention to detail that you provide has been outstanding. With climate change, food security, fire, water management, geotechnical data, noise and views in mind, you have saved us from buying a property that did not suit us, and above all suggested incredible alternatives.

Our family has so much appreciation and gratitude for how you have helped with this process.
Client, General, Land Design, Pre-Purchase Land Assessment

 

Jaqui Aubert

Gardner - Life Coach - Performing Artist - France

I loved this course!

I feel I got a full spectrum of the basics of Permaculture and I understand them very well.
The course is really well organized in a way that one can learn by gradients and it all fits perfectly together in the end. Now that the course has been restructured, it is even better. Once all the assignments are done and all together in one portfolio, you feel like a pro!

The way the course is set up to give and get feedback from the other students is fantastic. It really helped me to see the work other students were doing, and what kind of sites and climates they were working with. It often helped me get new ideas to do my own work even better.
The instructors were always available and answered any questions right away. This is a great support.

The intensity of the course pushed me to really work and learn. I think many PDC courses can be quite simple, but this one is very much a university level and it pushed me to be at a high level. It also inspired me to go even deeper and do more research. I didn’t do the course just to get a certificate, but rather because I wanted to get as much knowledge as possible about Permaculture from experienced people, so this PDC from such an experienced person as Andrew Millison and all his other also very experienced instructors was perfect.

I did it in two semesters. I planned originally to do it in one, but I had to start late so I needed more time and that was actually lucky because doing the course in two semesters gave me more time to go slowly through the material and go deeper with my assignments.

My primary instructor  was Javan Bernakevitch. He was always very helpful, gave great feedback and always answered any questions or emails right away.

He has done great instruction videos for every assignment with Neil Bertrando, and this was a huge help for me. They also did some webinars to help us more with specific topics and those were also a great help for me, besides making it feel like an even more interactive course.

For my second semester Javan is now giving assignment feedback in videos where we can see our assignments and he points things out to us or shows how to make a correction. I love this. It is really like being live with the instructor and getting great feedback in person. It gives him also possibility to be much more precise and detailed with the feedback.

My favourite thing about Javan is how he was very complimentary and supportive. This gave me incentive to keep doing my best work and strive to be even better.
Education, OSU PDC Student, PDC Student

 

Ryan Grabe

University Student - Gardener - Ontario - Canada

I really loved the course. The step by step learning about my land and designing zone by zone slowly and thoughtfully was key for me to come up with my final plan. I don’t think I would have been able to come up with nearly as good of a design for my yard on my own. The readings and videos were helpful in this learning process, but your commentary was the most valuable to me.
Education, OSU PDC Student, PDC Student

 

Sandra Sinatsch

Gardener - Ludwigsburg - Germany

Thank you so much for your assistance, guidance and feedback, great to have you as an instructor. It helped me a lot discussing the individual aspects of the project. You put so much energy into this course, I applaud you for that. I can only recommend you to others.
Education, OSU PDC Student, PDC Student

 

Alex Heffron

Farmer, Writer - Wales, UK

Hi Javan, just a quick message to say I’ve just listened to two of your interviews with Diego Footer, and wanted to say how much I’ve taken from them. Thanks so much for doing the work and sharing it. I appreciate it.

I run a small farm in Wales and currently taking some time away for the first time in 3 years and I’m utilizing your advice and pondering what you’re saying.
Education, Life Design, Limiting Beliefs, Podcast

 

Charlotte Lundeen

Firefighter

Javan, thanks for all your wonderful insight and feedback on the last assignment and throughout the course. As much as I am sorry for this PDC to be coming to a close, this is just the very beginning of my project and I am looking forward to having more free time to go through things at my own pace and check out some of your stuff as well!
Education, PDC Student

 

Salha Saleh

Student - Tanzania, Africa
Thank you sooo much Javan!
It’s been a really lovely time well spent.  I was very skeptical at first of the whole course idea.  But i have gained soooo much knowledge i think this is just the tip of the iceberg for me.  Theres soooo much more to learn and experience.
This is really a gift of life for me.  I thank you and everyone involved and the nice environment you and Neil provided in our group.  This is a kind of course where grades dont really matter.  Its the knowledge you get and do something with it. Thank you so much guys, a big thumbs up from me and from my hubby who made this possible.
You never know maybe will cross each other someday in Swahili theres a saying that says this – milima haikutani which means mountains don’t meet but humans do.
Education, General, PDC Student

 

Tine Rossing

Climate Specialist - Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada - https://www.weadapt.org/member/rossing

Just a quick note to let you know that I am deeply grateful for your comments. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy this course. Everything that I have been working on for the past 20+ years are coming together, being connected by this new precious knowledge.

I have felt very disenchanted with work for quite a while – “Compassion fatigue” sums it up quite nicely. I sorely needed such new positive inspiration,

Thank you – for your time and inspiration.
Education, General, PDC Student

 

Marianne Cicala

Advance Design for Climate Resilience Student - Virginia, USA

I can’t begin to tell you how timely this work is; my site is a new area for me on every possible level.  Mudslides, forest fires, steep terrain, lower growing zone, breath taking views and most people in the area are part timers which leaves almost 10 months without people noise.  There is so much to learn and figure out with this little slice and this course is beyond helpful. You cannot imagine how grateful I am – where we are moving is foreign to me and as a farmer, having food outside of my door is paramount

Thank you – it is making a world of difference to me.
Education, General, PDC Student