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The Wilding Course at Midsummer Farm
Brand new for 2026 - Now open for registration!
Starts Saturday, March 14th 2026. Takes place over 6 Saturdays.
We have been running our Permaculture Design Certification Course for over ten years now, and I have really been wanting to develop a new course exploring my passion for the natural and wild side of permaculture design.
For the past couple months, I have been planning a course that specifically explores how to rewild a landscape... and so I am thrilled and excited to offer a new course here at Midsummer Farm in 2026, which I am calling, The Wilding Course. It is all about Rewilding your yard, homestead, or permaculture and landscape designs...
Rewilding can be about creating a wild environment out of a lawn, it can be about creating food forests, it can be about building effective perennial borders for vegetable gardens, and so much more....
Note that even though this course builds off of a permaculture foundation, you don't need a formal permaculture background to dive into rewilding.
The Wilding Course will be jumping into a paradigm of gardening that is both new and old... exploring how we, as humans, can apply a light touch - a guiding touch - and create well-designed and planned landscapes that allow nature to rejuvenate and to then take over and be wild.
This course will be presenting answers to questions like: How can our gardens help fix the land and regenerate nature? How can we create landscapes around our dwellings that go beyond sustaining nature, but actually actively repair the environment? And how can we make this all look stunningly beautiful?
Over the course of our 6 all-day classes, we will be discussing:
Strategy and Planning - developing current ecosystems and micro-ecosystems and/or rejuvenating damaged ones... We'll be thinking about all types of spaces - dry sunny meadow, wet swamping meadow, dark damp woods, dry high forest, ponds and riparian areas, spots next to roads, spots with dramatic swings of moisture, edges of woods and gardens and patios, and much much more. Every landscape has micro-ecosystems and layers and changes through time and seasons....
Starting from Scratch - basically lawn to forest and everything in between...
Insect and pollinator strategies
Wild-life regeneration
Re-imagining the Aesthetic - we'll be actively balancing classic garden design and human needs with what is necessary to restore nature and the needs of wildlife - both fauna and flora. From a planning perspective, we will be thinking 4 season and 8 season aesthetic into account big time!
We'll be taking the permaculture principle of multi-use and redundancy for integrating human-edible landscaping and taking things like accessibility into account. And how can wilding concepts be applied to very civilized gardens like vegetable gardens and even raised beds and containers...
Accessibility is more than just lovely pathways - our work in accessibility will also focus on integrating irrigation, soil fertility, etc. It can seem like a wild space should be on its own, but sometimes it feels right for us as human stewards to step in and make up for or help with what the climate may be throwing at our wilding projects...
Diversity! In-depth species work! There is such abundance of fabulous native species. I am so excited to share these wonderfully supportive and restorative plants with you. And we'll also talk about balancing pure-natives with 'fancier' cultivars of natives, and how to responsibly integrate non-native plants into the landscape. We will also dive into ways to control and replace aggressive and invasive species.
Weeds? There is a big difference between a neglected space and a wild space - finding a balance between weeds and volunteers is an important aspect of consciously rewilding.
As we talk about various native species, we'll be exploring the ecosystems that surround them, creating organizational patterns, and building guilds of symbiotic species.
Guild-Building! There is a difference between a simple garden design of plants that look good together and share common needs and a Plant Guild. Guilds are plant communities - groups of plants that function symbiotically together to promote each other's health and to promote the growth of other plant species as well as the well-being of fungi, insects, birds, and animals as well.
Fauna - How to plan for getting birds and insects and animals back into our landscapes...
The Worlds of the Landscape - How to diversify and regenerate air, water, soil spaces as well as the vegetative.
Energy Work - This is something I've become very passionate about integrating into garden and landscape designs... it can make a huge difference in how nature actually responds to the designs you are physically manifesting and then maintaining over time.
Sanctuary - Along the lines of energy, we will also discuss way that we can create sanctuary spaces for our own healing and rewilding.
How do we get there? Hands-on work in how to get to the dream landscapes?
We will spend time discussing the physical how-to aspect of wilding... How to integrate appropriate landscaping and gardening tools in a natural landscape - exploring how tilling and cultivating, sheet mulching and weed-barriers, etc. actually work in a wilding project...
2026 Schedule
6 Saturdays - 10 am - 3 pm
March 14th 2026
May 9th 2026
June 27th 2026
August 1st 2026
September 26th 2026
October 17th 2026
Registration & Payment
Registration for the 2026 Wilding (Re-Wilding) Course at Midsummer Farm
$795.00 per person.
That includes 6 full day classes, plus you will also be going home with comprehensive handouts, full of practical info and inspirational ideas, and lots and lots of native plant material - seeds, roots, and plants!
Limited Seating!
Please note - Because we want to provide a individualized experience and our farm spaces are small, we have to limit the number of seats available for this course to 12 participants!
Please register as soon as possible to insure your spot!
Books I really recommend for your work in actively rewilding:
The Book of Wilding
Gardenista
Regenerative Landscaper
Planting the Natural Garden
Planting in a Post-Wild World
The main instructor is Barbara Taylor-Laino, accompanied by her husband and co-farmer, Mark. It is going to be an exceptionally inspirational course – designed to help you move forward toward accomplishing what you want in life.
This course is going to be hopeful and positive - even the smallest wild space can make a difference in regenerating and building resilience and in re-naturing your human well-being as well.... Hope you will join us for this exciting course!
Interested in Participating in a Future Wilding or Permaculture Course?
Let us know! We'll keep you in the loop with fun and practical permaculture info!
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