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| Placement of the Elements - There is little or no waste from any element.
One design constraint is that we are on quite a flat site, which means that we can't take advantage of gravity to help with transportation of heavy object like logs. Being 5+ acres, it is inevitable that there will be movement of materials from A to B, but the design keeps this to a minimum. In order to place the elements in the most efficient and productive way, we utilise the concept of zones, where: Zone 0 is the home, the “centre” where there is a lot of activity both at work and play, the highest maintenance, uses and inputs. The aim is to create harmony here and to utilise natural resources wherever possible. This zone includes our house, office, swimming pool, decks and verandah where herbs and often-picked salads grow.
Zone 1 is the area nearest to the house for elements that need regular attention or harvesting mainly annual plants surrounding the house, the Mandala Garden, trips to the compost bin, feeding the hens, the shed and storage.
Zone 2 is the area a little further away that requires less regular attention, like the forest garden, larger compost heaps, the vegetable plot (less frequent harvested crops), the duckpond, backyard windmill & self-contained cottage. In our case the pasture is here because we don’t want it any further away (as is often recommended in permaculture zoning) since there are predators of our livestock in the area.
Zone 4 is semi-wild for coppicing, timber production, wild edibles collection, hedgerows and tree plantation.
Zone 5 is for a completely wild, untouched area with no human input except to observe and learn from nature.
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In reality, in our case at least, the zones do get rather blurred, but then which of us lives in a circular plot with the house at the very centre and carefully maps out our zones in concentric circles? Although zoning is a very useful permaculture concept in terms of placing elements efficiently, we don't take it too prescriptively. | Placement | Benefits of Placing it there | Chicken House | Close to the house for ease in all seasons but not too close to avoid smells and noise (rooster!). Raised up so underneath provides shelter during rain or hot sun. Near to the compost bins so kitchen scraps can be split between chicken food and composting. Also near to their pasture land and the vegetable plot so that they can do vegetable gardening pest control from time to time and eat up vegetable garden scraps. | Pasture | Next to the chickens and lambs | Shed | Fairly close to the house for storage, sheep’s quarters located furthest away from the house to avoid smells and noise. It also insulates and shelters the hen house. | Cottage | Located in the grounds. | Polytunnel | Away from the main growing areas, could be closer to the house but now too difficult to relocate. Watered by drip irrigation on a timer so the distance is not as important as before when we had to remember and go and water it every day. | Outdoor Furnace & Woodpile | Close together, outside the house, far enough away to minimize any fire risk, no need to chop wood up small as furnace takes up to 5 feet lengths, no need to carry wood indoors. The woodpile is situated fairly close to the furnace, we are all on the flat, so can’t take advantage of gravity and the woodpile provides some shelter from the sun and wind from the east for the hens, etc. | Fences Hedges | These are all placed to provide protection, habitat and windbreaks. | Wood Cookstove | Wood needs to be cut into pieces and carried into the house. It provides winter heat and cheer, an ever boiling kettle and cooking facilities and back up hot water and humidity. It provides just the right temperatures for cheese and yoghurt making and for rising bread. In an emergency it could be used to distill water. | Verandah | The verandah is on the South facing side of the house, very well shaded by large, old deciduous trees in summer. It is screened to provide protection from bugs. It is accessed via the front door and also through French doors directly from the kitchen, so it’s a great place for often-cut salads and herbs to grow in pots. | Well | Situated in the basement. Would love to have another well with a hand pump. | Septic Tank | Doesn’t require any day-to-day maintenance. It should be emptied about once every five years, but with us having extra B&B guests it might need emptying more often, although we’ve heard that if well managed it may not need emptying at all. The Septic field is underneath the front lawn. | Swimming Pool | Because of Environmental health regulations we carry out chemistry analysis twice a day. It is outdoors and close to the house. Chemicals are input into the pool, if we ever use it for ourselves only we could reduce these (i.e. using ionisers, etc.), but not at present. It holds 100,000 litres of water which are mainly cycled through the system and only needs occasional topping up if it hasn’t rained for a while. The pump which drives the water around the system is electric and we are looking into using wind or solar power instead depending on how costly the installation. In an emergency it would be a large supply of water. Sunlight is reflected from the water also when it turns to ice in the winter. Birds swoop down to feed on insects on the surface or sometimes to bathe on the steps. | Solar Pool Heater | An array of south facing panels heat the pool. It has the added bonus that the framework provides extra outdoor storage space. In addition it deflects north winds over the house and has helped to stop cooling of the lounge in the winter. We are also using the framework to mount micro wind turbines. | Solar Water Heater | Positioned for maximum solar gain, does not require anything but very occasional maintenance. It either heats or pre-heats the water on sunny days. It is circulated using a pump driven by solar pv. | Rear Screen Room | Shelter from mosquitoes, extra dining space, in winter screens are replaced with plexiglass and it provides a storage area for outdoor furniture, etc. plus extra insulation from north winds and protection from snow. The adjoining room is much warmer as a result. | Hens, Ducks, sheep | Time, effort and water used to be wasted until we dug the pond! | Forest Garden | This is far enough away from the house and watering system to make irrigation impossible and we find we don’t usually need it because we usually have it fairly well mulched. A lot of the mulch from this area comes from lawn clippings and it can be hard work transporting them over. In theory, as the forest garden develops over the years it should provide its own mulch from fallen leaves and living mulch groundcovers like strawberries. Again, the worst time is early in the season when the berries are just making an appearance and it’s all too easy for them to get choked out by weeds. For 2009 we will be starting a new rainwater butt system to capture rainwater. | Vegetable Plot | Irrigation from pond overflow which is directed into a swale. | Perennial Bed | These are right at the front of the property so we couldn’t easily water them. We eliminate the need for water and reduce weeding by heavy mulching. The worst time is early in the growing season when plants are popping up from the soil and shouldn’t be mulched at that time (also to allow the soil to warm after the winter). We fetch wood chippings from the ditch across the road (a short distance) which are dumped there by the municipal tree cutters. They have done all the work and chipped all the branches so we are using a waste product to our advantage. | Herbs | These circle the front part of the house, accessed from the back door or through the verandah. It is more convenient this way than constructing a herb spiral in our case. | Mandala | Close to the house, doesn’t require much watering as it is mulched. Manure, compost, etc. needs to be transported to it, produce from it is brought into the house or fed to the animals. Water collection system. | Wild Meadow/Tree Planting | Zone 5, furthest away from the house. Doesn’t require any attention, just mow paths through it, a place to study and meditate. Swales have been dug to provide moisture and mulch for tree seedlings. | Pond | Rainwater is collected and diverted from the house and into the pond. If the pond overflows, this is diverted into a swale constructed in the vegetable plot. Ingenius! | Mulch | Carpets need to be moved from time to time but this is far less work than digging and clearing land, woodchips from across the road are transported by wheelbarrow, this is quite a distance. Grass clippings, seaweed, etc. | Straw Bales | These are purchased from a local farmer who delivers them for us. I am looking into the possibility of growing, cutting and baling our own straw. The first two should be easy but not sure about making bales. Having the straw in bales makes it a really useful material to work with, i.e. building structures for shade for the animals, etc. | Cooking | I am aiming at 75% raw at present, but we do cook for ourselves and the guests. B&B guest cooking uses an electric cooker (from the grid at present) because it is too hot in the kitchen in the Summer (when we are open to guests). In the winter we use a wood cookstove and wherever possible we use solar cooking in the Summer (on clear days). | Lawns | Surrounding the entire property. Despite a “Lawn Reclaim” drive, there is still plenty of mowing required, a labour intensive process, however it does provide useful grass clippings to use as mulch (retains water, reduces weeding, adds nitrogen to the soil). |
Fabulous Permaculture Diary & Calendar 2010 | Details! |  |  |
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