Immersion in Agroforestry & Perennial Design
with Kyle Smith
Help us shape the future of our food forests! This 5-day intensive focuses on the "architecture" of regenerative systems: mastering agroforestry, perennial plant guilds, and the relationships that build a thriving landscape. We’ve traded the classroom for the orchard and woodland, so you’ll learn the "why" and "how" of long-term design through direct action in our living systems.
Price €420 Includes all meals and free camping: Bring your own campervan or tent and stay on our beautiful off-grid farm at no extra cost.
Why This Course?
The Permaculture in Practice (PIP) workshop is different from a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC). While a PDC focuses primarily on theory and design principles, this course is hands-on, seasonally informed, and rooted in observation-led decision-making.
At A Quinta, we believe that you cannot design a forest from behind a desk. In May, the landscape is in full expression, providing the perfect "living textbook" to understand how systems interact over time. You won’t just study agroforestry; you will walk the lines and feel the microclimates.
You will gain the practical confidence to:
Design with Time: Understand "succession" by seeing it in action across our mature and establishing systems.
Build Plant Guilds: Learn how to stack functions by choosing the right trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that support one another.
Read the Landscape: Move beyond the garden bed and develop the ability to see water flow, light patterns, and ecological energy across 130 hectares.
Master Perennial Care: Gain the physical skills needed to establish and manage trees, ensuring they thrive for decades to come.
What You’ll Learn & Do
This course invites you into the complexity of perennial systems. We move beyond the "flat" design of garden beds and into the three-dimensional world of food forests and agroforestry. Learning is guided by the real conditions of our 130-hectare landscape during the peak of the spring growth surge.
You will:
Deconstruct the Food Forest: Spend time within existing agroforestry systems to observe how trees, shrubs, and groundcovers interact with soil, water, and light.
Design & Build Plant Guilds: Move from theory to practice by identifying and planting "support species" that provide nitrogen, mulch, and habitat for your main crops.
Master Landscape Reading: Learn to identify "indicator plants" and topographic patterns to make site-specific decisions about where to plant for long-term success.
Water & Earthworks Management: Observe how we manage water across the farm and practice techniques that ensure your trees thrive even through the dry Portuguese summer.
Practice Perennial Care: Get hands-on with the establishment and maintenance of young trees, including protective mulching, spacing, and long-term management strategies.
Is This For You?
No prior permaculture experience is required. This course is ideal for:
Aspiring Food Foresters: If you dream of planting a forest garden but feel overwhelmed by which trees to pick or where to put them.
PDC Graduates: For those who have the theory of "guilds" and "swales" in their heads but want to see how they actually function and evolve in the ground.
Land Stewards & Smallholders: Anyone managing a larger piece of land who needs to understand water management, windbreaks, and perennial systems.
Future-Thinkers: People interested in "succession"—learning how to plant now for a harvest that lasts 20, 50, or 100 years.
Tree Lovers: Gardeners and growers who want to move beyond annual vegetables and gain confidence working with woody perennials and agroforestry.
Holistic Learners: Those who prefer to learn "patterns-to-details" by observing a 130-hectare living landscape rather than looking at a slideshow.
The A Quinta Classroom
A Quinta isn’t a simulated environment; it’s an active 130-hectare regenerative farm. During the workshop, your "work" is your learning. You will participate in farm activities with intentionality, applying design thinking to real-world challenges alongside a community of like-minded stewards.
Meet the Facilitator Kyle Smith
After practicing horticulture and community living on a kibbutz in Israel when Kyle was 20, he was inspired to pursue a career in horticulture. During his studies, he completed an internship at Soil for Life, a Cape Town-based non-profit organisation empowering people to grow food and create healthy soil. Kyle went on to work at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa, where his primary focus was conserving indigenous plant species, rehabilitating degraded ecosystems, and designing and establishing education gardens on the botanic garden's grounds. Kyle later became the perennial plant and nursery manager at Panya Project, Thailand, where he spent three years facilitating numerous permaculture and organic gardening courses, and designing and co-coordinating the volunteer and internship program.
He is currently living in southern Portugal, consulting and teaching for Surplus Permaculture Design. Kyle is passionate about conserving soil ecosystems, plant propagation, reforestation and small-scale ecological agriculture. He hopes to empower people to grow their own food, become more self-reliant, and regenerate a degraded ecosystem through his unique teaching style and depth of knowledge.
Location & Logistics
Step into a lifestyle of regenerative practice on our 130-hectare farm. Beyond the canopy and the food forests, you’ll gain firsthand insight into intentional living and what it means to care for the land in cooperation with others.
You’ll experience the daily flow of a working regenerative project, sharing organic meals and gaining a deeper understanding of cooperative land stewardship. It is an invitation to see how agroforestry isn't just a planting technique, but a way of living in relationship with a changing landscape.
Included in the fee:
● 3 wholesome vegetarian (vegan options available) meals/day
We can accommodate for gluten free or other requirements with prior notice.
● All tools, materials & tuition
● Stays in Campervan/Tent:
Private rooms/cottages available on request (extra fee).
Prices
420€ with your own caravan or tent
480€ with accommodation in dormitory
We have private cottages, rooms and bell tents available, if you prefer this option please contact us to inquire about availability and pricing.
Your course fee supports both our facilitators and the ongoing regenerative projects at A Quinta.
How to Book:
Click "Book Now" to fill out our registration form.
After submitting, you will be redirected to Eventbrite to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure your spot.
The remaining balance is due upon arrival (Cash or Bank Transfer).
Note: If we cancel the course, your deposit is refunded in full. If you cancel less than 7 days before the start, we ask for 75% of the total fee to cover our costs.