NC State Extension: Backyard Permaculture 2026 Series
TL;DR: Transform your home landscape into a sustainable ecosystem with a six-part educational series from NC State Extension.
- Learn science-based, actionable strategies for sustainable residential landscapes.
- Focus on local ecology, climate, and soil of coastal Carolinas.
- Cover soil health, water conservation, native plants, and pest management.
- Implement permaculture principles for resilient and productive systems.
- Assess your property to maximize ecological opportunities and food production.
Why it matters: This series empowers homeowners to create resilient, productive landscapes tailored to their local environment, reducing resource dependency and increasing ecological health.
Do this next: Visit the NC State Extension website to register for the upcoming Backyard Sustainability Series.
Recommended for: Homeowners in southeastern North Carolina interested in practical, science-based methods for creating sustainable and resilient landscapes.
NC State Extension's Backyard Sustainability Series provides a structured six-part educational program delivering science-based, immediately actionable strategies for transforming residential landscapes toward sustainability in southeastern North Carolina. Updated in March 2026, this series brings together local extension experts and regional specialists to address the specific ecological, climatic, and soil conditions of the coastal Carolinas, ensuring that recommendations reflect local bioregional knowledge rather than generic sustainability advice. Each session in the series focuses on distinct aspects of home landscape sustainability, covering topics such as soil health building, water conservation and management, native plant selection and establishment, integrated pest management, composting and nutrient cycling, and seasonal landscape practices aligned with regional growing patterns. The program emphasizes immediate implementation, providing participants with specific plant species suited to southeastern conditions, practical techniques for soil amendment and water harvesting adapted to local rainfall patterns and soil types, and step-by-step guidance for establishing sustainable practices within existing residential landscapes. By grounding sustainability education in permaculture resilience principles—particularly the emphasis on working with local ecology, building soil fertility, and creating productive systems—the series bridges formal extension science with practical permaculture application. Participants learn to assess their individual properties for microclimates, water flow patterns, and ecological opportunities, then implement targeted interventions that increase food production, reduce resource inputs, and enhance landscape resilience to climate variability. The series format allows participants to engage progressively, building knowledge across multiple sessions while having time between meetings to implement practices on their own properties and report results. By combining university-backed horticultural science with permaculture design thinking and focusing specifically on southeastern bioregional conditions, NC State Extension's Backyard Sustainability Series equips homeowners with both the knowledge and confidence to transition their landscapes toward productive, resilient, and ecologically regenerative systems.