Free masterclass · Not a mini-PDC · Aotearoa New Zealand
Free permaculture masterclass
Learn to see land like an expert regenerative designer
This is not another permaculture slideshow. In 30 days you will read water, wind, fertility, and hidden opportunity on your own place, with distinctive field tools, a Visual Diary, and a taste of what becomes possible. The PDC teaches you how to design; this teaches you how to see.
274 designers enrolled across NZ, AU & UK · Free to start · NZ-focused
5 tools
Scanner · Rain Walk · Cards · Score · Compass
5 shifts
Emotional journey to PDC readiness
30 days
See first · design in the certificate
NZ
Sun through north · real field work
The PDC teaches how to design. This teaches how to see.
Most people arrive with opinions about what their land needs: a pond, a food forest, more fencing. Expert designers arrive with questions. They read water after rain, wind in winter, fertility in the paddock corners nobody visits.
Over 30 days you will not complete a certificate. You will complete something more valuable first: a new pair of eyes. Plus a toolkit, Opportunity Scanner, Rain Walk, Reading Cards, Regeneration Score, Design Compass, that you keep and use through the full PDC.
When you enrol, you are not starting over. Your scans, rain walks, sector map, and first design sketch are the opening pages of your facilitator-certified portfolio.
Learn permaculture → Learn to see land like an expert regenerative designer
Five shifts that make people want the full PDC
Every farm is talking. You just did not know how to read it, yet.
I've been looking at land completely wrong
Beautiful NZ landscapes, then hidden patterns appear: water, wind, frost, fertility, movement, energy.
I can actually understand this
One framework, five questions, instead of memorising principles.
I can do this myself
Rain walk. Sector map. Biggest leverage point. One place losing fertility. One hidden opportunity.
Wow… there is so much more
Food forests, silvopasture, water harvesting, regenerative grazing, integrated orchards: NZ possibilities.
I need the PDC
You know what you want. You do not yet know how to design the whole system.
What is this land already doing?
The Landscape Reading Framework
Forget memorising twelve principles for now. Ask five questions on any property:
- 1Where does water want to go?
- 2Where does energy enter (sun, wind, shelter)?
- 3Where is fertility accumulating?
- 4Where is fertility escaping?
- 5Where is life strongest?
Answer these on your place and you are already thinking like a designer.
Five tools no slideshow can give you
Printable, field-ready, NZ-grounded. These are the distinctive assets Regenpreneur students actually use, not generic PDFs.
Property Opportunity Scanner
Score ten dimensions, discover your biggest leverage point.
Print A4 →Rain Walk Checklist
One walk after heavy rain changes how you see land forever.
Print A4 →Landscape Reading Cards
Detective training: scene, question, reveal.
Print A4 →Regeneration Score
Current vs future potential, people love seeing the gap.
Print A4 →Design Compass
Six questions before any fence, path, or planting decision.
Print A4 →
Printable tools above are free without signup. The guided pathway requires joining the masterclass list.
Pacing
One structured month, one step at a time
Nineteen guided steps across four weeks. About 2–3 hours outside per week. No clutter, finish each step before the next unlocks.
4 weekly unlocks · Resume where you left off · Mark steps done
Week 1 · 2–3 hrs
A new way of seeing
Shift 1–2: land has been talking; learn the five landscape questions.
Week 2 · 2–4 hrs · include rain walk
Hidden patterns & five tools
Shift 3: rain walk, sector map, Opportunity Scanner, Reading Cards.
Week 3 · 2–3 hrs
Possibilities & design challenge
Shift 4–5: imagine NZ futures; complete your first design challenge on paper.
Week 4 · 3–5 hrs
Digital map & the journey continues
Vectorworks intro, AI assistant preview, vision close, ready for the PDC.
You arrive at the PDC knowing what you want and holding real site evidence: scans, rain walks, sector map, first sketch.
What becomes possible: NZ regenerative design
We are not teaching these systems yet. We are opening your imagination. Which future do you want on your place?
Food forests & agroforestry
Stacked canopy, understory, and ground cover working as one system. A mature guild on a NZ lifestyle block can quietly produce fruit, nuts, mulch, and shelter from the same small footprint.
Water harvesting & rehydration
Slow it, spread it, sink it. Swales, ponds, and rehydrated gullies turn a property into a sponge that carries a dry Canterbury summer instead of cracking under it.
Silvopasture & regenerative grazing
Animals become land managers the moment tree, grass, and soil are designed to work together. Shade, shelter, and forage stack on the same paddock instead of competing for it.
Integrated orchards & living fences
A boundary can do more than mark a line. Planted well, it delivers shelter, fodder, and biodiversity while still producing a harvest every season.
Passive solar & natural building
A home oriented and built with the sun and local materials in mind can carry itself through a Southland winter on far less power than one that ignores both.
Aquaculture & wetland recovery
Water treated as an asset, not a hazard to drain away. A recovered wetland or a well-placed pond can feed a household, support wildlife, and buffer the whole catchment at once.
What you will take away
- See NZ land through water, wind, fertility, and energy, not just features on a map
- Use the Landscape Reading Framework on any property in under an hour
- Complete the Rain Walk and Property Opportunity Scanner on your own place
- Feel confident with sector maps, Reading Cards, and the Design Compass
- Imagine food forests, water harvesting, grazing, and orchards on your site
- Finish knowing what you want, and hungry to learn how to design the full system in the PDC
Who this is for
Curious beginners
You want a real month of practice, not a 45-minute teaser, before committing to the certificate.
Lifestyle blocks & small farms
Site analysis, Vectorworks base maps, and shelter logic grounded in Aotearoa, not Northern Hemisphere templates.
Urban & backyard growers
Microclimate, zones, and 1:500 base maps matter on a section too. The masterclass scales down as well as up.
“Richard's course was a fantastic way of being able to complete a PDC remotely. The content and community was engaging, and I learnt a lot.”
Imagine walking your property ten years from now
Water moves slowly across the land instead of rushing off it. Fruit trees are heavy with harvest nobody had to force. Birds you have not heard in years are back, working the hedgerows and orchard edges. Your soil is richer every year instead of thinner. Your children inherit a landscape more alive than the one you were handed.
That future begins with learning how to see it. The Permaculture Design Certificate teaches you how to build it, one whole-site design at a time.
Where the journey continues
You know what you want. The PDC teaches you how to design it.
That is the natural next step, not a sales pitch. Your rain walks, scans, sector map, and sketches carry into the facilitator-certified Permaculture Design Certificate with free Vectorworks, forums, and NZ coaching.
- $40 NZD/month, keep all masterclass work in your portfolio
- Free Vectorworks, continue the base map you started
- 12 modules + optional tracks: food, water, grazing, ecohome, aquaponics
- Facilitator-certified: whole-site design, not box-ticking
Free · Join the mailing list
Enter the 30-day masterclass
The overview above is public. The guided pathway — weekly unlocks, step-by-step videos, field prompts, and progress tracking — opens after you join with your email. Printable tools stay free either way.
- 19 guided steps across four weeks
- Mark steps done and resume where you left off
- Masterclass updates and PDC pathway news by email
After signup you'll go straight to your personal masterclass pathway
Join the masterclass mailing list
Get week-by-week unlocks, field prompts, and course updates. We’ll take you straight to your personal pathway after you sign up.
Already joined? Open your masterclass pathway
Week 1
A new way of seeing
Week 2
Hidden patterns & five tools
Week 3
Possibilities & design challenge
Week 4
Digital map & the journey continues
That future begins with learning how to see.
Imagine your property ten years from now — then start the Permaculture Design Certificate when you are ready to build it.