Learn about animals in permaculture gardens. As with Permaculture II, this course is also a natural progression from the earlier Permaculture units, but can be taken separately in its own right.

It concentrates on the animals in a permaculture system, how they relate to each other, how they relate to surrounding environments, and selection and management of different types of animals in a permaculture design. The course covers the role of insects, animal husbandry of poultry, bees, pigs, goats and cattle, aquaculture systems, and how to integrate animals into a garden.

You will learn:

• • Understand the principles behind integration of animals in permaculture systems.
  • Understand the role of insects and other small animals in permaculture systems.
  • Understand the role of poultry and bees in the permaculture system.
  • Develop knowledge of the role of grazing animals in permaculture systems.
  • Understand the role of aquaculture production systems in permaculture.
  • Develop knowledge of the range of aquaculture species available for permaculture systems.

Detailed Course Outline

This course is made up a number of lessons or units. Each of these has self assessment questions, a set task (practical homework) and an assignment which you can upload online.

There are 6 lessons in this course:

1. Integrating Animals Into A Permaculture System/Garden

• • Locating animals in the Permaculture system, birds, types of gardens, how to plan and prepare zones in relation to animals

2. Role Of Insects And Other Small Animals

• • Ecosystems and their constituents, the web of life, the classification of animals, insect classification, lifecycles, feeding habits and control, companion planting

3. Poultry and Bees

• • Ducks, poultry food, fowls, turkey, geese, bees

4. Grazing Animals: Sheep, Goats, Cattle, Horses, etc

• • Animals as mobile tractors, types of pasture

5. Aquaculture Production Systems

• • Biological filtration systems, clearing dam water, protecting fish, mariculture

6. Aquaculture Species to Grow

• • Australian native fish, yabbies, marron, spiny fresh water crayfish

When you have completed the lessons of your Certificate course, you will be given the option of taking the optional exam. It’s okay if you don’t want the exam, we still issue your Careerline Certificate. For Advanced Certificates however, the exam is compulsory (per module) and are included in the course fee.