Water
Welcome!
We are so glad you are here.
“When you look at a forest you are looking at a lake whose water is locked in trees and earth.”
– Shad Qudsi
- Water is truly one of the most important components and forces of nature. It promotes diversity, thriving life, succession, microclimates, and interesting shapes of the land. Understanding how to interact with it, utilize it, recycle it, clean it, and slow it can unlock many permaculture revelations.
- This course will cover creating water recycling systems, how to work with your microclimates, when and how to divert and redirect the flow of water, and how to be a responsible water steward.
Questions this course will answer:
What are strategies for slowing, spreading, and sinking the water that flows through your land?
What is the global water system?
How does adding ponds to your land increase plant and animal diversity?
How do you utilize and/or reuse your grey and black water from your house?
Learning Outline
Each course is broken down into digestible lessons and each lesson contains different components.
Lectures are broken down into bite sized mini lectures* with key takeaways for your viewing and comprehension ease. Please view all content for the best learning experience.
Engage with your peers and community in forums and discussions related to this lesson and course. Deepen your understanding by digging into the community knowledge available
Additional resources are available for your additional learning at the bottom of the lesson. Take advantage of the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the lesson at hand.
Take notes using the embedded, super nifty notetaker tool (the black box labelled Take Notes) in the lessons. As you progress lesson to lesson, course to course, your notes will cumulative into one handy-dandy document.
*Note: Since the original filming of these lectures, we have made some improvements, tweaks, and updates such as breaking the lectures into bite-sized chunks, reorganizing topics, and expanding the additional resources available. We made these little tweaks to bring this course from amazing to legendary and to provide the best learner experience possible. So occasionally you may hear one of the teachers refer to a resource (ie: Notepack) or mention a former lesson that you can’t find in this specific course–don’t fret!
Meet your teachers

Shad Quidsi
Shad Qudsi has 20 years experience in organic and commercial gardening and farming. He is certified in Permaculture Design and has over 12 years experience in holistic site development and homesteading. Shad originally set out to study mathematics and work in big business, but long ago had a change of heart. Shad is the Co-Founder of Atitlan Organics Permaculture Farm and Education Center, and more recently serves the role of President in the non profit organization, Wellkind Guatemala. Aside from all of this, Shad is an enthusiastic teacher who truly believes that humans are good for the planet. Human resilience cannot be erased from the landscape and now, it is coming back with a gentle loving caress.

Jeremy Fellous
Jeremy Fellows has focused ten years of study, mentorship and implementation of permaculture design systems back home in Massachusetts. With many years of experience in botany and horticulture, he is fascinated by the world of plants. After working many years in Guatemala, Jeremy has dedicated his focus to land and water management systems that lend to ecological acceleration and social integration through food production. Jeremy now runs granja tzikin, works as a designer and consultant with Regenera and teaches in the Atitlan Organics teachers guild.