Workshops, Events and Certifications
Learn practical tools, skills, and proven strategies you can immediately apply to your home, farm, ranch, business or development.
Upcoming Events
Introduction to Permaculture Design
- Albuquerque Garden Center, 10120 Lomas Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112
- October 10, 2026
- 10:20am – 11:20am MST
- No cost to attend
Hosted by the Xeric Garden Club of New Mexico, learn the principles of permaculture to design productive, edible, beautiful, and resilient landscapes that work with nature.
Topics include:
- Permaculture Design Principles
- Site Analysis & Planning
- Soil Building & Water Harvesting
- Plant Guilds & Food Forests
- Sustainable Living Practices
All skill levels welcome!
No registration required
Using Apple Trees in Permaculture Tree Guilds
- Homestead Stage
- October 3, 4, and 11 2026
- 1-2pm MST
- Free to attend with Festival admission
Learn how to design productive apple tree guilds that improve soil health, conserve water, attract pollinators, and increase fruit production. This seminar covers companion plant selection, living soils, passive rainwater harvesting, and practical strategies for creating resilient, low-maintenance apple ecosystems adapted to New Mexico's climate.
Festival details: www.manzanomountainretreat.com/ourevents
Tree Guilds for the Drylands
- Plant World Nursery
- October 31, 2026
- 10am - 11:30pm MST
Discover how to create thriving tree guilds tailored to Albuquerque's high-desert climate. Through a combination of classroom learning and hands-on exercises, you learned practical permaculture strategies for harvesting water, building healthy soil, selecting companion plants, and designing regenerative landscapes that become more productive and resilient over time.
No cost to attend.
10-Day Drylands Permaculture Design Certification Workshop
- Certification Course
- Synergia Ranch, Santa Fe
- April 5–15, 2027
- 9am–5pm MST
- $1300 per person (3 or more attendees from same organization receive 10% off)
What Makes This Permaculture Design Certificate Special?
This immersive 10-day Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) combines expert instruction, hands-on field experience, and a comprehensive design project to prepare you to create resilient, productive landscapes. Designed specifically for the American Southwest and other dryland climates, you'll learn practical skills you can immediately apply to your home, farm, ranch, business or development.
Earning your PDC is also the first step toward becoming a professional permaculture designer. Recognized worldwide, the PDC provides the foundational knowledge for advanced study, consulting, teaching, and professional design practice.
What You'll Learn
You'll gain practical experience in:
- Permaculture ethics, principles, and systems thinking
- Site observation, analysis, and the Scale of Permanence
- Dryland design strategies and climate adaptation
- Passive and active rainwater harvesting
- Earthworks, erosion control, and watershed restoration
- Living soils, composting, mulch, cover crops, and soil biology
- Efficient irrigation and water-wise landscape design
- Food forests, tree guilds, orchards, and kitchen gardens
- Native plants, biodiversity, and pollinator habitat
- Livestock integration and regenerative land management
- Greywater reuse and residential water systems
- Natural building and appropriate technologies
- Site mapping, field exercises, and a complete permaculture design project
Who Should Attend?
Perfect for homeowners, gardeners, farmers, ranchers, landscape professionals, educators, conservation practitioners, and anyone interested in designing regenerative, water-wise landscapes.
No prior permaculture experience is required.
Graduate Ready to Design
You'll leave with an internationally recognized Permaculture Design Certificate, a completed design project for your portfolio, and the knowledge and confidence to create landscapes that conserve water, build healthy soils, support biodiversity, and grow more abundant over time.
Participants are encouraged to book accommodations through the Ranch for the event duration to take full advantage of day and evening time learning and social activities.
Seats are limited so register today!
- When: April 5 - April 15, 2027, M-F 9am-5pm (weekend off)
- Meals: Delicious catered breakfast and lunch included in registration (veg or meat).
- Lodging: First come, first served. Contact Starrlight Augustine at 505-471-2573 to book.
What's better than attending this workshop alone? Attending with friends and family! See you there!
Introduction to Permaculture
- Santa Fe Community College
- Feb 13, 2027
- 9AM - 1 pm MST
- Cost: $49
Course Description
Design productive, resilient landscapes using nature's design principles! Master site planning, rainwater harvesting, soil building, food forest installation, and sustainable land stewardship Techniques. Learn the principles of permaculture to design productive, edible, beautiful, and resilient landscapes that work with nature.
What You'll Learn
- Permaculture Design Principles
- Site Analysis & Planning
- Soil Building & Water Harvesting
- Plant Guilds & Food Forests
- Sustainable Living Practices
Regenerative Landscapes: Soil, Water, Plants & Design
- Santa Fe Community College
- Mar 13, 2027
- 9am - 5pm
- Cost: $99
Course Description
Transform your property into a thriving ecosystem! Learn to evaluate microclimates, construct earthworks, harvest rainwater, enrich soil biology, and select drought-tolerant native plants for sustainable land management. Whether you're a gardener, homesteader, land steward, or just curious to learn - this day is for you! OLD: Join us for a full day of learning about soil, water, earthworks, plants, and practical regenerative techniques for New Mexico landscapes. Whether you're a gardener, homesteader, land steward, or just curious to learn - this day is for you!
What You'll Learn
- Read your landscape - understand how sun, slope, soil, water, wind, and microclimates shape your site
- Design with nature - use permaculture principles to create productive, resilient landscapes
- Build healthy soil - improve soil fertility, structure, water-holding capacity, and biological activity
- Work with water - capture, slow, spread, and infiltrate rainwater while reducing irrigation needs
- Use earthworks effectively - address erosion, improve infiltration, and make better use of natural landforms
- Choose the right plants - select climate-appropriate, drought-tolerant, productive, native, and habitat-supporting plants
- Create plant communities - combine plants strategically to support food production, biodiversity, soil health, and resilience
- Put it all together - develop practical strategies you can apply to your own garden, homestead, farm, or landscape
- Think regeneratively - move beyond simply maintaining a landscape toward systems that become healthier and more resilient over time
Past Events
Nurturing Your Land: A Permaculture Journey Through Design, Soil, Water, Earthworks and Plants
- Trees That Please Nursery, 3084 NM-47, Los Lunas, NM 87031
- September 20, 2026
- 8:45am-5pm MST
- $99 per person
Co-teaching another high-value seminar/field workshop at Trees That Please in Los Lunas. Join us for a full day of learning about soil, water, earthworks, plants, and practical regenerative techniques for New Mexico landscapes. Whether you're a gardener, homesteader, land steward, or just curious to learn — this day is for you!
What's included:
- In-depth presentations on permaculture design, soil health, and water systems
- Guided site visit and hands-on exercises
- Panel discussion with Q&A
- Catered lunch by local restaurant Sopas
- Networking
- Refreshments throughout the day
- Exclusive access to nursery inventory and Soil Secrets discounts
- Entry into high value raffle for gardening and design products and services
What to bring: Weather-appropriate clothes/shoes, water bottle, notebook.
Registration required, seats limited. See you there!
Using Prickly Pear (Opuntia) in Dryland Tree Guilds
- Gutiérrez-Hubbell House
- September 19, 2026
- 11am - 12pm MST
- No cost to attend with Festival entrance fee
Discover how to incorporate one of the Southwest's most resilient native plants into productive, water-wise tree guilds. In this one-hour presentation, you'll learn how prickly pear supports soil health, conserves moisture, provides food and wildlife habitat, and complements fruit trees and other climate-adapted companion plants. Leave with practical design strategies for creating beautiful, regenerative landscapes that thrive in Albuquerque's high-desert environment.
Part of the 8th Annual New Mexico Prickly Pear Festival
Festival details: https://nmpricklypearfest.com/
No registration required
Tree Guilds for the Drylands - Osuna Nursery
Osuna Nursery — September 5, 2026 · 11am - 12pm MST
Discover how to create thriving tree guilds tailored to Albuquerque's high-desert climate. Through a combination of classroom learning and hands-on exercises, you learned practical permaculture strategies for harvesting water, building healthy soil, selecting companion plants, and designing regenerative landscapes that become more productive and resilient over time.
Free to attend.
Using Lavender in Dryland Tree Guilds
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park — July 26, 2026 · 11am - 12pm MST
What you'll learn:
- Why lavender is an ideal companion plant in dryland tree guilds.
- How lavender supports pollinators, beneficial insects, and biodiversity.
- Where to place lavender within a guild for healthy growth and long-term success.
- How to combine lavender with fruit trees and other functional companion plants.
- Water-wise strategies for building living soil, conserving moisture, and reducing maintenance.
- Practical examples of lavender-centered tree guilds designed for Albuquerque and the Southwest.
Designing and Installing Rainwater Harvesting Systems Workshop
Trees That Please, Los Lunas — Saturday, May 23, 2026 · 9am–5pm
Who's ready to learn how to design and install active rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems on their own or clients' homes, businesses, ranches and farms? Workshop co-hosted by Jeremiah Kidd of San Isidro Permaculture and Susan Cersosimo of Vital Soil Landscapes.
You learned:
- Rainwater harvesting principles
- Assessment of collection surfaces
- Methods of rainwater harvest sizing, calculations, and design
- Passive and active rainwater techniques
- Active rainwater catchment components
- Gravity vs. pumping systems
- Filtration techniques
- Hands-on design
Nurturing Your Land: A Permaculture Journey Through Design, Soil, Water, Earthworks and Plants
Trees that Please, Los Lunas — Sunday, April 26, 2026 · 9am–5pm
A full day of learning about soil, water, earthworks, plants, and practical regenerative techniques for New Mexico landscapes.
- Expert speakers
- Practical hands-on learning
Soil Hydration Workshop
El Zócalo Plaza, Bernalillo — Saturday, April 18, 2026 · 10am–2pm
Co-teaching a free classroom/hands-on workshop hosted by the Coronado SWCD building in Bernalillo exploring the importance and role of soil hydration in regenerative farming. This workshop gave attendees a powerful overview of how soil is built with plants, water and microbiology, how rainwater can be passively harvested to support the food-soil network, and why it matters on both an agricultural and horticultural scale, emphasizing examples in dryland climates.
Rainwater Harvesting Workshop
El Zócalo Plaza, Bernalillo — Saturday, March 21, 2026
Co-teaching a free classroom/hands-on workshop hosted by the Coronado Soil and Water Conservation District focused on active and passive rainwater harvesting. Topics included: Rainwater Harvesting and Permaculture, Passive vs. Active Harvesting Review, Key Benefits, Key Considerations/Techniques/Features, Designing Your System, Implementation Steps, Maintenance & Sustainability.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can a Permaculture Design Certificate Help Me Design My Own or Others' Sites?
A Permaculture Design Certificate teaches you a practical, systematic approach to observing, assessing, and designing landscapes. You'll learn how to evaluate factors such as water, soil, sun, wind, microclimates, vegetation, access, and existing resources, then use that information to develop thoughtful, integrated designs. The skills you gain can be applied to your own home, garden, farm, or property, as well as to sites for clients, communities, or organizations. You'll learn how to identify opportunities and challenges, develop design strategies, and create climate-responsive, regenerative landscapes that work with natural systems.
Do I need prior experience to benefit from your classes?
Not at all. Our classes are designed for beginners as well as experienced gardeners, homeowners, landscapers, farmers, and land stewards. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to expand your existing knowledge, you'll gain practical skills you can apply to your own landscape, garden, farm, or property.
Do you offer courses for plumbers, landscapers, general contractors, and other professionals?
Yes. Trainings can be tailored to focus on soil health, rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, residential blackwater treatment, climate-ready planting, regenerative landscape practices, plant establishment, ecological design and more.
What makes your approach different?
We combine permaculture design, regenerative landscaping, soil health, water conservation, food production, and hands-on experience to create practical solutions for New Mexico's unique climate and growing conditions. Our courses teach students to observe and assess the land, understand its opportunities and challenges, and design with natural systems. Attendees develop practical skills in soil health, water harvesting, regenerative landscaping, food production, plant guilds, climate-responsive design, ecological restoration, and more—then learn how to confidently put those principles into practice. We don't just teach principles—we help homeowners, farmers, ranchers, and landscapers understand their land, make informed decisions, and put regenerative practices into action.
Ready To Transform Your Land?
Request your free 15-minute consultation to discuss your vision, goals, and how we can help.