Forest Gardening Teacher Training
Ecological Vision & Practical Application to a Sustainable Future
Forest Gardening is an unique course combining the ancient wisdom of Ecological Design, Deep Ecology and Forest Gardening with the application Regenerative Practices.
Forest Gardening is experiencing Gaia in Action. It is the ancient art of rooting to place.
You can create a beautiful, diverse, high-yeild garden. If planned and created with attention and deep understanding of ecosystem function, you can also achieve a garden that is primarily self-maintaining.
"Those who are concerned with the full implications of the ecological crisis which we now face generally agree that urgent steps should be taken to plant many millions of trees. There is no reason why many of the desperately needed new trees should not be fruit trees planted in peoples gardens and public green spaces comprising of fruit and nut trees, fruiting bushes and climbers as well as herbs and perennial vegetables."
~Robert Hart, Pioneer and Originator of the term forest gardening
Forest ecosystem exhibit numerous advantageous properties we humans would be wise to follow: they sustain, restore, enrich and proliferate themselves without human efforts; they build, store, and sustain clean water, clean air air, nutrients, soil quality, and biodiversity; and they create stability, resilience and adaptability. These qualities transpire from the dynamics of the forest as a whole system, not from any one or more of the elements that comprise the forest alone.
Together, we can make a stand for universal access to fresh healthy organic food, for greening our cities, and protecting biodiversity. With this poetic and pragmatic act, we can make a commitment to the environmental and community health of our city and the next generation!
Intuition and common sense tells us that we are one with the Earth. If our world is sick and poisoned, then so are we. If the forests are being destroyed, then we die a little with each felling. Humanity is being faced with the beautiful reality that we are a part of a ‘shared planet'.
We are at a turning point on the planet, with the realization that the intimate embrace of our world is a healing force moving humanity towards a transformation in our relationship with the earth, each other and ourselves.
Having studied and integrated the various aspects of forest gardening you may feel called to share what you have learned with others. Certified forest garden educators will be able to facilitate this wisdom-centered course. Each of the trainings includes practical instruction, which you can begin to apply immediately into your daily life.
The Trainings can be taken individually as a 3-day training or as a full diploma course. Previous organic gardening or forest gardening practices experience is not required. This educational process is for people from all walks of life who are enthusiastic about bringing the path of the forest gardening lifestyle practice into their own lives and to their communities.
"When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, There is always the garden."
~Minnie Aumonier
Please see our photo gallery for Forest Gardening
Become a Forest Garden Educator - An Active Agent in the Transformational Shift
This training is for those wanting to learn how to create gardens that sustain humans and nature, are easy to manage, require few tools and give you the highest quality food. Sustainable Forest Gardening gets its inspiration and direction from observing and following the patterns of nature and how she creates gardens that sustain and nourish all life. Learn more>
Regeneration is a design science that weaves together the principles of sustainability. This training course will give you a solid, wholistic, ecological worldview, while simultaneously offering practical solutions that demonstrate how we can create a sustainable, abundant garden environment, home and regenerate our community. Empowering individuals to live whole-heartily, deeply rooted in the abundant flows of natural systems.It is possible to rapidly heal the land and ourselves. Regenerative living is a mutually enhancing relationship between the people and the earth. Learn more>
For over a decade Earth Wisdom: Power of the Elements trainings have shown thousands of students how to harness the creative power of the Five Elements to achieve their deepest desires. The body-centered practices of Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings and the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda Medicine come together to offer you a powerful transformational and regenerative experience. Learn more>
The Forest Gardening Diploma Process
An ecological garden is one that is designed to benefit both humans and the surrounding, interwoven, natural world. We aim to enhance nature's ways, with our strategy to 'work with nature' rather than against her. We choose techniques that rebuild soil and nutrients, rather than disrupt soil communities, and we carefully select diverse plant communities to be self-reliant, self-maintaining, and self renewing. The ultimate goal is to establish a garden in harmony with nature's patterns, resulting in a landscape that requires less maintenance.
To qualify for the Forest Gardening Educator's Diploma course, the following pre-requisites must be completed:
Completion of the Forest Gardening (Three 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of the Regeneration: A Call to Action (One 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of the Earth Wisdom Teachings (One 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of our Forest Gardening Correspondence/Mentorship Course
Signing and submitting the Living Arts Institute Teacher's Path Agreement form and enrolment registration form.
Forest Gardening Certification Process is divided into three parts:
Part 1: Correspondence/Mentorship Course
The correspondence/mentorship courses come with course binders and textbooks with the essential material to provide you with the information and instruction needed to become a Forest Gardening Educator
In addition, you will receive reference books from the leaders in the field of forest gardening and ecology as essential parts of your study. Upon completion of each section you will be asked to submit the lesson for examination and feedback.
After completing the correspondence/mentorship material you will be asked to write a thesis to evaluate your competence and the practices and principles of Forest Gardening. The estimated time for completion of the course is one year. Successful completion of the trainings and correspondence/mentorship course will qualify you to attend the Teacher Training Course.
Part 2: Completion of the Trainings
Completion of the Forest Gardening (Three 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of the Regeneration: A Call to Action (One 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of the Earth Wisdom Teachings (One 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of our Forest Gardening Correspondence/Mentorship Course
Signing and submitting the Living Arts Institute Teacher's Path Agreement form and enrolment registration form.
Trainings will be available throughout the year at The Living Centre and can be taken at your convenience. See our calendar for dates
Part 3: The 3-Day Teacher Training Course
This part of the training is to ensure that you have clearly understood and integrated the course material into your life and is ready to share this information with others. Qualified participants will receive intense instruction, practice and evaluation in Forest Gardening, Regenerative Ecological Design Practices and Earth Wisdom Teachings. Teaching and speaking skills will be reviewed and support given to develop the expertise needed to facilitate the Visionary Herbalism course.
Each student will undergo an evaluation.
Upon completion of this uniquely designed educational process you will have the opportunity to become a Forest Gardening Educator.
"By learning you will teach; by teaching you will understand." ~Latin Proverb
Forest Gardening Diploma FAQ
Our aim in forest garden design is for a state of 'regeneration' of the earth's natural life systems. Not only do we aim to maintain and sustain natural systems - here we aim to improve them!
We plan for cultural shifts in the face of climate change, diminished fossil fuel supply, and economic turns - in our communities across the globe, in our local bioregions, and at home. We employ techniques and strategies for a renewal of earth systems, work that is deeply connected to renewal.
What are the prerequisites before attending the Diploma Course?
• Incorporating the Practices and Ethics of the Path of the Forest Gardener into one's life-style.
• Attendance and Completion of:
Completion of the Forest Gardening (Three 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of the Regeneration: A Call to Action (One 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of the Earth Wisdom Teachings (One 3-Day Trainings)
Completion of our Forest Gardening Correspondence/Mentorship Course.
Signing and submitting the Living Arts Institute Teacher's Path Agreement form and enrolment registration form.
- Passing the evaluation
- Writing a 5,000 word thesis
- Conducting a research project and presentation at the end of course of study
- Passing and completing of the Teacher Training course
- Signing and submitting the Educator's Agreement
When will I receive the Correspondence/Mentorship Course?
Some people realize that they want to become a Forest Gardening Educator after attending one or more trainings. The Correspondence/Mentorship course can be applied once you know this is the direction you wish to take.
The Correspondence/Mentorship Course provides foundational information and will support the education you receive in the trainings, and therefore, can be incorporated into your course of study and practice as soon as you are ready.
The Correspondence Course will be mailed to you within 10-14 days of registration. The Correspondence course provides foundational information and will support the education you receive in the trainings.
How long will it take to become certified?
All participants will have two years to complete the program after receiving the Correspondence/Mentorship Course.
Do I receive discounts as a Certified Instructor?
Yes, you will receive a 10% discount on all future workshops and trainings through The Living Centre and 10% off all retail products. Also, our certified instructors receive a 10% commission for referring students for enrolment in any of the Living Arts Institute Certification Training Courses.
What does it mean to be a Living Arts Institute Educator?
Upon completion of this uniquely designed program, the correspondence course and teachers training you will have the opportunity to become a Forest Gardening Educator.
519-652-9109 or 519-652-0230
The Forest Gardening Profession
There is no culture, ancient or modern that did not use plants as part of their natural way of life.
The forest gardener's path comes to us from a long lineage of responsible living practices. Forest Gardeners of today is a fairly new career in North America. Many are self-employed, operating their own consulting practice; grow edible or medicinal plants for sale for customers; or educate the general public. Teaching positions are becoming available in colleges and schools continuing education programs.
If you are enthusiastic about working with plants and people; if you would like to learn more about the transformative power of a forest garden and how to use them to enrich your life, and how to share this leading edge information with others, then the Forest Gardening Diploma Course is for you.
Discover how to teach and empower others to experience lasting health, soulful connection with nature and be of service to humanity and the Earth through our group and individual one-on-one trainings.
Become a part of the expanding Living Arts Institute network.
Imagine ... making a living doing what you love, while supporting others and the planet.
Is this Program for You?
If you agree to more than five of the following statements then The Living Arts Institute Forest Gardening course may be for you!
1) I want to start a successful practice as an Forest Gardening Educator.
2) I want professional training that will help me implement the skills and techniques to motivate and inspire others in the way of a regenerative lifestyle.
3) I want access to the leading-edge up-to-date education from forest gardeners foremost thinkers and authors
4) I want to be around radiant, healthy and motivated people - who want to support others to be healthy and reach their optimal potential.
5) I believe that incorporating edible and medicinal plants is a common sense approach to living a vibrant life.
7) I could enhance my current educational background with the many lifestyle approach of plants and trees.
8) I can benefit from deepening my connecting nature.
9) I see myself as an forest gardener educator.
Upon completion of your course you may become a part of The Living Centre's team.
A Growing Need
The Forest Gardening course takes you back to the source of working with plants where lifestyle practices become a way of life. Through plant identification, ecological pattern design, regenerative gardening practices and reconnection with the Elements you will be given a wholistic model of forest gardening education that brings lasting results.
Forest Gardening is an innovative process that facilitates the well-being and deep ecology issues that are needed in this modern world. Forest Gardening is an amazing preventative natural system, with a lineage to the beginning of time.
Creating a Fulfilling Career
Upon completion of the Forest Gardening Course you will be eligible to create a career as an ecological Forest Gardening Educator. Assessing the emergent popularity of the natural living arts, a career as a Regenerative Forest Garden Educator is both rewarding and fulfilling, knowing you are making a difference.
The Forest Gardening principles can be taught and applied through teaching workshops, in schools and colleges, in ecology centers and in professional institutions which incorporate innovative processes to educate their staff and employees about preventive health and well-being.
Opportunity Potentials
Choosing a career as a Regenerative Forest Gardening Educator will open doors of opportunities in a variety of environmental educational centers and institutions. Or you may desire the scheduling flexibility that being a private Forest Gardening Educator can give you. Either way, life as an Forest Gardening Educator enables you to experience continual growth for yourself in a regenerative lifestyle, as well as enjoy the noble opportunity of being of service of others.
Career Opportunities
• The Organic and Ecological Activities
• Teaching and Private Landscape Tutoring
• Educational Consulting Design Services
• Natural Health, Wellness Centers and Resorts
• Wholistic Stores that are interested in setting an example of Sustainability
• Ecological, Environmental & Nature Centers
• Include in your already existing wellness practice
Follow your Bliss, and Fulfillment will Follow!
Forest Gardening is Beyond just an Amazing Concept – it’s a Campaign!
Looking to take forest gardening to the next level? 
“My vision is to inspire and educate individuals as to the whole system benefits of forest gardens from, climate change to relocalization of food and medicine sources and creating sanctuaries of human settlement in our communities. To do this we will help eager to learn participants and interns design and install these living systems.”
"The goal is to have 1,000 forest gardens in Carolinian Canada by the end of 2012. And, multiple to one million by 2017. I have no doubt we will get there as the realities of relocalization campaigns continue to expand." ~Shantree Kacera
I personally believe that an essential aspect to stopping energy decent and global warming is relocalizing community resource requirements on a global scale. Food, water, social interaction, fuel, and energy, these can all be created or accomplished locally. As a forest garden educator I see the aesthetic that people here in Southwestern Ontario want. This cultural aesthetic of landscape is devastating, energy intense, and fairly useless, impractical and unnatural. My goal and vision is to accelerate the paradigm shift in this bioregion in the way that individuals view the aesthetics of landscapes and empower landowners to realize their precious land as a functional and well-designed part of their lives, a base of their resource necessities and a solution to global scale concerns (i.e., Climate Change, environmental destruction, etc.)
The objective here is to train as many forest gardeners as possible to be confidant designers and installers of these living systems. As we change the community aesthetic, the market for food forests should start to spread to larger and larger scales. For this to happen will require many knowledgeable and experienced forest gardeners to take on these projects. One part of this goal is to help the forest garden movement get out of the cycle of always offering advanced training to inspired students and interns that requires a lot of capital. We want to be able to offer affordable trainings and courses to individuals. We need to get the forest gardening movement out of the financial groove and help provide right livelihood for those that want to make a career out of forest gardening.
Along with all of this is transitioning rural farms and orchards to more diverse and perennial food forest garden systems. The other desire is to transform vacant city lots, and transition public parks to food forest garden systems that deliver a surplus of resources for local neighbourhoods and wildlife. This is happening and expanding as part of our work here at The Living Centre and we will continue to thrust for more and more of this in our campaign.
We need enthusiastic individual to part of this solution. Join us in reforesting your bioregion.
“Obviously, few of us are in a position to restore the forests. But tens of millions of us have gardens, or access to open spaces such as industrial wastelands, where trees can be planted. and if full advantage can be taken of the potentialities that are available even in heavily built up areas, new ‘city forests’ can arise...” ~Robert A de J Hart, was the pioneer of forest gardening in the UK in the early 1960’s
Forest Garden Internship Program
Facilitator
Shantree Kacera, R.H., D.N., Ph.D.,
Shantree is a Nutritional Researcher, Therapeutic, and Visionary Herbalist, Permaculture Teacher, Regenerative Designer, Deep Ecologist and Forest Garden Educator with 35 years experience in the Natural Healing Arts. He is the founder and co-director of The Living Centre (1983), and Living Arts Institute, a 50-acre permaculture educational centre located in Carolinian Canada growing 1,000 species of edible and medicinal plants and trees.
Shantree received his doctorate in Nutritional Medicine and Herbalism in the 70′s. Since then his passion and study has lead him to explore the benefits of a high-energy bioregional approach to organic nutrition. He has had the honour to teach, counsel and empower thousands of individuals on their health and educational journey.
A past Vice-President of the Ontario Herbalists' Association, Shantree served on the OHA board for 10 years and a member for over 25 years.
Shantree's deep connection to the Earth has drawn him into the teachings of shamanic and earth wisdom practices as well as Carolinian Canada native plant preservation and studies. He is a passionate edible forest gardener, permaculture teacher and well known for his unique circular medicinal-wheel garden.
Shantree is the author of numerous books and courses, which are offered through The Living Centre and are used through various schools and institutes in North America. Shantree is an internationally celebrated visionary, author, educator, nutritional researcher and world peace worker.
“Shantree is a true pioneer and his work deserves respect and celebration.” ~Shirley Thomas
Forest Gardening Diploma Tuition
A forest garden is one that is designed to benefit both humans and the surrounding, interwoven, natural world. We aim to enhance nature's ways, with our strategy to 'work with nature' rather than against her. We choose techniques that rebuild soil and nutrients, rather than disrupt soil communities, and we carefully select diverse plant communities to be self-reliant, self-maintaining, and self renewing. The ultimate goal is to establish a garden in harmony with nature's patterns, resulting in a landscape that requires less maintenance.
Course Investment:
- Forest Gardening: Sustainability for the Future
- Regeneration: A Call to Action
- Earth Wisdom Teachings: Power of the Elements
- Forest Gardening Correspondence Courses of your choice. Prices do not include hst tax
Standard Tuition Package is $2625; Discount package $1625. CAD.
Course Investment:
Save $1000 from the standard price when you pay the tuition in full upon registration
Tuition when paid in full - $1625. CAD.
Includes listed training courses, course material and an organic live-food lunch each day of the training. Accommodations, transportation and other meals are not included in the diploma educational process. Does not include hst tax.
Please call to speak with a program specialist for further information and to register: 519-652-9109 and 519-652-0230
Payment can be made by certified cheque and is due prior to receiving the Correspondence Course or attendance of your first Training. Please make cheques payable and send to:
The Living Centre
5871 Bells Rd., London, ON.,Canada, N6P 1P3
Upon completion of the four uniquely designed course you will have the opportunity to become a Forest Gardening Educator. As a certified instructor your relationship to The Living Arts Institute will be that of an independent contractor. We support you in teaching this course in a manner and frequency that suits your schedule. We will provide ongoing support including suggestions on promoting your services.
For information & dates of trainings click here>
We have just launched a new educational experience Carolinian Canada Forest Garden Internship Program
Read our commitment and cancellation policy here
Click here to request more information
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
~Albert Einstein
