Site Design

Relative Location and Element Functions

April 27, 2016 by Amber Leave a Comment

All elements in a permaculture design perform many functions, at least 3 to be exact. Elements are pieces of a design- be that a house, tree, animal, etc. To be sure you’ve thought of all the functions of an element has, write out a ‘functional analysis’ and list the needs, outputs, behaviour, intrinsic characteristics, and tolerance. You can then match one elements needs with another’s outputs to try to mimic a healthy, self-sustaining environment. Just as a healthy natural habitat doesn’t need human intervention to continue to grow and stay healthy, a well designed area with properly placed elements won’t take much work from you to stay healthy and productive either.

Take a house (or any building) for example. It provides shelter for you, but also can provide shade, be a wind break, provide water from the roof, and thermal mass creating small micro climates around the perimeter. Carefully placing elements to use these functions and build on them means your environment will need less work from you to stay productive and thriving.

You’ll still need to do some work though! A productive fruit tree won’t help you if you don’t go out there and pick the fruit. Eggs don’t help you if you won’t go pick them up. You get the idea. But these tasks can be made very efficient when designed correctly. Chickens and trees need water, so don’t place them where you’re going to have a hard time taking water to them. Similarly don’t put a Mulberry tree next to your front door where one of its functions, dropping ripe fruit, becomes more of a nuisance then an asset. This concept is also part of the relative location principle in permaculture, meaning place elements where they can benefit from the elements around them and give the same service back.

Using this idea you can begin to change your environment to work with and for you, not against you.

Efficient Garden Design

April 8, 2016 by Amber Leave a Comment

Things to consider when planning a garden area.

If you have been considering starting a garden spot, or haven’t had as much luck with your current garden as you would like, here are a few things to think about before getting started this year.

– Distance from your back door. Don’t choose the area of your yard that isn’t frequently visited simply because it isn’t in use. The chance of you forgetting to visit after planting is high.

– Slope. Is your chosen site flat so you need to water each area? Or is there just enough slope for the water to gently run down a small canal and water plants in a line? Too much slope might cause rain water to wash away soil and mulch around your plants, or even the plants themselves if they aren’t established. Designed correctly slope can be very useful to catch and distribute water without much effort on your part.

–Water. How do you get water to your plants? Do you have a pond or spigot nearby, are you going to carry it by the bucket-loads or use a rainbarrel? Sprinkler or drip system? You need a good water source to be successful.

– Sunshine and buildings. How much sunshine does the area get? Some plants need all day sunshine and heat while many others benefit from some afternoon shade. Buildings, trees, shrubs and other things may be around to provide shade, and protection from adverse weather. Just make sure that your plants will benefit from that kind of environment.

– Other environment factors. Does the ground get sun-scorched in the summer and maybe need shade cloth? Or does it stay warm enough to extend your growing season past the first frost date? Do your plants get beat-up in the wind or other storms? A system of protective frames or low level hoop tunnels might help block the weather but keep most of your sunshine.

– All of these fall under the zones and sector design ideas of permaculture. The idea is to carefully design for all of the energies on and going through your site, creating a highly productive area that requires very little effort from you to maintain. To read more see the Zones post here.

I hope you consider some of these ideas as you plan your current or future gardens. If you garden in the furthest place of your yard you probably won’t visit it often, or if you have to haul water around the house your plants might die of thirst. Give yourself a chance to enjoy the opportunity and experience of growing your own produce. Don’t make it a chore!! If container gardening is all you can do right now- do it! You can gain garden know-how just from that experience alone. And there are many container-friendly plants out there to choose from.

So take that step and have fun! 🙂

Designing with Zones and Sectors

March 30, 2016 by Amber Leave a Comment

Designing with zones and sectors is really about placing elements (people, buildings,trees, etc) on a site in such a way that they conserve energy for the entire site. In the end most elements should take care of themselves, with the elements needing daily attention being very close to your door. Most people will never design a site completely from scratch, so you will have to use what is already around you to start. Nevertheless, these concepts can help you either add more production to what you already have, or just fix a problem like water pooling on the driveway.

Zones are areas of space that represent the energy on your site in the form of people, machines, wastes, etc. They are broken into groups based on use, availability and access.

Sectors show energy which comes through your site in the form of sunshine, wind, water, fire, wild animals, views, and temperature(air flow).

Let’s first define the Zones:
Zone 0: Your house.

Zone 1: If you take an aerial picture or drawing of your house and land, this is the area closest to your house, the most frequently used space you have. It has most, if not all, of the buildings, paths, food storage, garage, greenhouse/nursery, high value plants, kitchen gardens, and generally things you use or visit daily.

Zone 2 is the food forest. It has your main food crops meaning your raised bed or traditional garden areas, and possibly a wood/coppice tree lot. On the edge of 1 and 2 you might have a small poultry pen, compost systems, worm farms, or other items which you have to visit frequently, so you shouldn’t place them far away, but you don’t want them right next to your living space either.

Zone 3 is your grazing/pasture system, large food forest items like trees, and smaller water ponds.

Zone 4 is your farm forestry and generally large water bodies.

You don’t need to include all of these areas on a design of your area. In fact, most designs will only have a zone 1 and 2. Zones don’t even have to connect, for example a zone 1 road goes thru the middle of a zone 2 area.

Together with Sectors
When looking at sectors, know (or write out) which way the cool summer breeze comes from, and where the sun will be the hottest in the summer.

Now when you start deciding where to place your zones, don’t put a thick hedge-row where it will block out your cool summer breeze. Similarly don’t leave your house exposed to the full summer sun, or at least try minimize it.

The idea is to get you to think about your site, how you use it, and to design accordingly. Don’t place items which need frequent attention in the back corner where you dislike going or forget about them. Similarly don’t waste precious zone 1 space with useless items.
This works for apartments too, for example: the community garden down the street vs the rooftop garden vs your balcony vs a sunny window- where do those fall into your zone map?

Resource:
PDC
Permaculture A Designers Manual by Bill Mollison, 1988, pg49-55.