Section 3b - Zone Planning
Think about how productive each zone is, what resources they will require and how frequently a zone requires attention.
Keep in mind that we do not put an element in a zone because "that is where it goes" but rather the things that need daily attention create zone 1 and the things we give less attention to can be placed further away without creating extra travel and requiring extra time to maintain. Our patterns of behaviour drive placement.
Let the activity level shape the zone, and let the zones guide you into properly placing the locations for each activity.
Zone 0
The home/centre of action.
Constantly in use, someone is always there.
Your writing here should list features of the building, any design modifications you have planned, and major changes the design will require, and any special design elements included in or added to the home structure in service of the design, with a brief description where appropriate.
This should include commentary about how an existing structure could be modified, or how a new structure would be designed to be more beneficial
While this section could easily turn into an essay of great length in its own right, try to limit the written portion after the list to between 400-500 words.
Be sure to spend a moment highlighting any connections between design elements within this zone and explaining how the connections benefit the design as a whole.
Describe Zone 0:
Zone 0 used to be a Texaco service station/restaurant. That fact alone makes its transformation to a Permaculture learning centre, food forest nursery, and regional permaculture catalyst so satisfying.
The new metal roof, gutters, and indoor tanks will provide potable water for those that use the building.
A composting lavatory system is also going to be installed, as the existing sewage system is inferior.
Grey water will be collected and delivered by tank to the lower swales. The quality of the grey water will be controlled by not allowing anything to be added to it which would require extra treatment with wicking beds or other components.
The new sunroom will be used to provide "free" heat for the building as well as food.
Interior walls will be removed to allow room for permaculture classes.
West and north windows will be removed and covered with stockade style sawmill slab siding.
There's a good sized walk-in cooler that should come in handy to stratify some seeds once the compressor's fixed or replaced with something more efficient.
Most of the daily tasks connected to the outdoors are accessed through the door on the south side of the building.
A large rocket mass heater will be built to use a seemingly endless resource of branches & sticks from the region.
The northeast room will serve as a "lab" to experiment and learn techiques such as tissue culture propagation.
There is a loft, which may serve as sleeping quarters.
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Zone 1
The area immediately adjacent to the centre of action.
Visited daily, sometimes more than once.
Your writing here should list elements, components, structures and systems which will be within this zone.
Note which of these are "on the edge" and which edge where appropriate, i.e., the chicken coop that straddles the line between zone 1 and zone 2.
Include a section of written commentary between 400-500 words explaining the vision for this zone within the whole design, and why the included elements are there.
Be sure to spend a moment highlighting any connections between design elements within this zone. Then explain how the connections of zone 1 tie into elements and connections mentioned in the zone 0 description before explaining how these connections benefit the design as a whole.
Describe Zone 1:
Zone 1 consists of the rabbit shelter, cuttings sandbox, sheet mulch garden box, and hoophouses. The hoophouses are connected to Zone 1 by the western doors and will be used for propagation of food forest plants.
The courtyard created by the orientation of the hoophouses will allow for a gentler, wind reduced, hardening off area for plants that require hardening off before sale/transplanting.
The hoophouses will contain elements which will provide a means for propagating trees that have longer taproots. Additional roof water collection tanks may be added at a later date if needed.
The cuttings sand box will be very easily accessed and monitored through the northern door. Depending on the time of year, this component will require timed irrigation mist. This will be automated with timers & pumps. It may be irrigated with roof water collected in the indoor tank. It may also be irrigated with water from the fish pond channel located 10 meters to the east. Worst case scenario is that it would be irrigated with water from the drilled well.
The sheet mulch garden is easily acccessed from Zone 0 by the door in the sunroom. As with the cuttings sand box, irrigation is preferred with roof water, followed by water pumped from fish pond channel, and finally by the water in the drilled well. This garden is to provide food for anyone working on the premises and to be an example for the permaculture students.
The rabbit shelter is adjacent to the walk-in cooler and accessible by a window for butchering & storage of meat and fur. The shelter will house rabbits in cages. It will also store any food that can't be provided on-site, such as pelleted feed. The droppings and waste will be easily recovered by design and made available for any of the compost piles that will be scattered throught the site. Ventilation of the rabbit shelter will be adjustable, depending on the weather.
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Zone 2
The area immediately outside of daily activity.
Visited perhaps only every couple of days.
Your writing here should list the elements, components, structures and systems which will be within this zone.
Note which of these are "on the edge" and which edge where appropriate, i.e., an element that straddles the line between zone 2 and zone 3.
Include a section of written commentary between 400-500 words explaining the vision for this zone within the whole design, and why the included elements are there.
Be sure to spend a moment highlighting any connections between design elements within this zone. Then explain how the connections of zone 2 tie into the elements and connections mentioned in the zone 0 and zone 1 descriptions before explaining how these connections benefit the design as a whole.
Describe Zone 2:
Zone 2 consists of most of the rest of the property.
The fish pond channel, the orchard directly to the west of the fish pond, the biochar production facility, and most of the paved areas that aren't being used for access or covered by a building, but are where potted plants will be spread out as thickly as possible.
The fish pond channel is where the most experimentation will occur. Varying depths along the length will serve to carry out different aquaculture techniques. There will be a deep zone that allows water to remain unfrozen to see if any fish can overwinter. There will be shallow sections to see if any local crustaceans can survive. There will be one part along the channel that will attempt to grow a trellis which will hold vine crops. The pond channel will also be a place to store water to quench the biochar production facility. The pond channel may also be able to be a secondary resource for irrigation water in the hoophouses, sheet mulch garden and cuttings sand box.
The biochar production facility will consist of an open top metal shed for producing biochar using the flame-cap method. All that's needed for the roof section is a screen to stop sparks from leaving the facility. The metal walls around the flame-cap kiln are primarily to buffer any wind. A hose and a pump from the pond channel will be used to quench the coals when a batch has been completed. The waste water from the quench will be directed across the pavement to the swales. This water will have tiny bits of biochar and nutrients that will help to enrich the soil along the swale.
The biochar production facility also has a feedstock storage bin to hold the chunked branches that will be turned into biochar.
The biochar product will be added to mulch and compost to be used in the propagation of the food forest plants that will be grown at this nursery.
An area of the pavement will be used for compost creation. The specific area hasn't yet been determined. It will be fairly easy to create compost on pretty much any bare surface, therefore the exact location isn't required at this time. The only requirement is that it is reachable by a hose...which isn't that difficult on this property.
Only a narrow passage and a small parking area is needed on all the paved areas of this property. Wherever passage access and parking aren't needed, potted plants will fill in all the gaps on the pavement. The potted plants will be arranged in a bit of a zig-zag to buffer winds, leaving a path wide enough for vehicles to reach Zones 0 and 1.
Between the building and the fish pond are the spots where there is still unpaved soil on this property. It's currently grassed, but it will be transformed into as much of a food forest as possible in the relatively small space available.
The goal is to turn this zone into as much of a jungle as is possible in this climate. Food bearing trees, fruit bearing bushes, nut bearing bushes, fruit bearing vines, nitrogen fixers, and so much more will be squeezed into every space in the 3 dimensions offered. Quite a few of the plants will be bordering the pond channel, and these will be chosen as plants that can be tended and harvested from a canoe in the 80 meter long channel.
Zone 3
The area further outside of daily activity.
Visited perhaps only every 7-30 days.
Your writing here should list the elements, components, structures and systems which will be within this zone.
Note which of these are "on the edge" and which edge where appropriate, i.e., and element that straddles the line between zone 3 and zone 4.
Include a section of written commentary between 400-500 worlds explaining the vision for this zone within the whole design, and why the included elements are there.
Be sure to spend a moment highlighting any connections between design elements within this zone. Then explain how the connections of zone 3 tie into elements and connections mentioned in the previous zone descriptions before explaining how these connections benefit the design as a whole.
Describe Zone 3:
Along the front (west) of the property, there's a bit of an island of grass between the pavement and the main road. It is here where 2 swales will be installed. The purpose of the swales is to grow trees. Nut trees and fruit trees will be the goal, along with all the species that will help speed along their growth and production. These trees will not necessarily be grown to raise food, but could be "mother trees" for cuttings and seed.
Toward the main road is a very wide ditch which will be partially filled in with dirt from the digging of the pond channel. This will narrow the roadside ditch without affecting its function while increasing the area served by the lowest swale.
Both swales will have water channeled to them by placing speed bumps on the pavement that will serve as mini berms to direct water to the swales. Both ends of the pond channel will have spillways that drain onto the pavement, which will then hit the berms to feed the swales.
The soil isn't very rich in this section of the property, but every effort will be made to enrich it with biochar, compost, mulch, and a thick planting of nitrogen fixing plants.
Zone 4
The area outside of monthly activity.
Visited perhaps a few times a year, but no more than once or twice a month "in season".
Your writing here should list the elements, components, structures and systems which will be within this zone.
Note which of these are "on the edge" and which edge where appropriate, i.e., an element that straddles the line between zone 4 and zone 5.
Include a section of written commentary between 400-500 words explaining the vision for this zone within the whole design, and why the included elements are there.
Be sure to spend a moment highlighting any connections between design elements within this zone. Then explain how the connections of zone 4 tie into elements and connections mentioned in the previous zone descriptions before explaining how these connections benefit the design as a whole.
Describe Zone 4:
Zone 4 exists on the outskirts of the Southeast area of the property. It's on the channel shore opposite Zone 2 leading out to the property lines.
Along the shore of the will be planted productive, higher value trees, bushes, and vines. These will provide easy access by the Zone 3 channel for tending and harvest.
Just beyond the shoreline, productive bushes and canes will be grown. Berry bushes, nut bushes, berry canes, and associated greenery to assist with enriching the soil along this strip.
On the property border, hawthorns will be planted to deter deer and other large wild animals.
As the channel in zone 3 matures, the sediment will occassionally be scooped and spread on the soils of this area.
A narrow walking path will be parallel to the property line to ease access to the bushes and canes that are out of reach of a canoe along the channel.
As this zone is on the highest elevations on the property, the bushes should provide ample wind buffering for the rare times winds come in from the east and southeast.
To the east, there is a bit of a sharp drop in slope that may be tamed when earthworks for the channel are conducted.
Zone 5
The area where we are not actively changing, the wild.
Hopefully visited frequently for inspiration, but not with tools in hand and manipulation in mind.
Your writing here should list any elements, components, or systems which you expect or hope to be found here in Zone 5.
Note if any of these are "on the edge" and which edges where appropriate, i.e., an element that exists by a road, in a clearing, or along the water, etc.
Include a section of written commentary between 400-500 words explaining the vision for this zone within the whole design.
Be sure to spend a moment highlighting any connections between design elements which reach into or benefit from this zone. Then explain how the connections to zone 5 tie back into elements and connections mentioned in the previous zone descriptions before explaining how these connections benefit the design as a whole.
Describe Zone 5:
A patch of land that borders the main road and consists of a culverted ditch is pretty much all that's left as a possible Zone 5.
Although Zone 5 is supposed to remain untouched, we can't stop the highway department from mowing the bank from the road to the bottom of the ditch.
As well, every decade or so, the highway department excavates sediment from the bottom of the ditch to maintain steady, uninterrupted flow.
We can help prevent any future disturbances to this zone by planting groundcover along the bank that's regularly mowed. This would obviate the mowing requirements.
The bottom of the ditch can also be lined with readily available field stone, which will help maintain a harder bottom that will self-clean any sediment during a good rain.
On the side of the ditch that is away from the road, very little need for disturbance or access is required. We would like to encourage tall trees in this area to help with wind buffering from the west. There are a number of trees existing that are benefitting from the moist soil on the eastern side of the ditch.
An apple tree grew wild in this ditch and produced very tasty apples that were similar in size, colour and taste to yellow transparent, but had a more dense texture and were slightly more creamy flavour. The problem over the years is that the tree is exposed to road salt from the main road and after about 15 years, the tree is dying bit by bit.
Therefore, any trees that survive in this small Zone 5 can be regarded as being tolerant to road salt.
The task for this Zone will be to discourage interaction from the highway department. Only a one-time planting of perennial ground cover along the road ditch and placing field stone on the ditch base should do the trick.
Zone Map Guidelines
Files should be in JPEG format and ideally less than 4MB in size.
This image should clearly illustrate the different zones of activity for your whole site in proper context. As part of making this map a useful tool, using different (highly visible) colours for the zone overlays is recommended. If the zones themselves were the only colours on the map and all other details were rendered in black that would be preferable to a map that is difficult to read because one zone blends into the background colour or because two zone colours are too similar.
This map is presented best when only the site boundaries, the zone colours, and only certain other "key features" appear on it at all.
Such key features should be limited to:
The outline of large structures (the home, the barn)
The boundaries of large ponds
The route of the main access track
Other similarly important, permanent, major site features.
While all of these key features will have appeared already on other maps, an exception is being made to include them again for context. They should not be labeled here, and would only be included as a boundary outline on the zone map to provide additional context and support to the context provided by the site boundary. With the boundary and these outlines in place on the map, the rest of the zone map is just areas of different colour labelled clearly. The zone map is definitely an example of "less is more" philosophy and should not include extraneous details carried over from another map.
The compass rose (orientation) and scale (distance) data should also be present on this map, and presented in a way similar to previous maps. As we move from map to map the orientation should be kept consistent so that there is no need to turn and reorient each image to look at them all at the same time.
Remember:
Clear lines, and clear labels.
Less is more when it comes to details and extras on this map.
Different colours, make them easy to tell apart.
Do not include:
Anything that isn't specifically asked for above.
Site design details which have a place on another map.
Anything that makes it harder to read, find, or see, the details required for this map as described above.
