Section 4 - Demonstrate Your Understanding

Species List

Along with your detailed description and final drawing (detailed below) you will need to show and describe many living elements in your design. This is the section to list these, so they can be referred to more easily elsewhere in the design and will not clutter your written description.

When listing a living element, be aware of what details provide clarity. You can say "comfrey" elsewhere, but this list is where you would note that you are referring to "Comfrey - Bocking 14 - Symphytum uplandicum", or in the case of several varietals your list can show "Apple - Malus domestica - varieties used: " and list those under apple itself.

If you are describing a guild in the detailed description then include a description of the guild in this list. Include the name of the guild (e.g. Apple Guild) followed by a list of what is in the guild so those details can be referenced without extra description in the writing or the final drawing below.

This is a section we want to be exhaustive with, to cover all your bases and not worry about how much space is required. Be thorough, and fill in the details and explanations which will be cited elsewhere in the FDE form. With that said, the way you organise and present the information in this list will determine how useful this list is to you later while implementing the design, or discussing it with clients and colleagues. It is a list, and a reference, not a free form writing section. LIst here, describe later.

Unlike the list of species already on your site from section 2b, this list should also include the species you are bringing in, designing with, and which make up the living systems of your design. This means it should be longer than the list from 2b, as it will include those species, formatted for this list, and also any other species you have incorporated in the design.

It is worth noting here that this list could be quite long, as it is one of the places where the diversity level of your design work will be immediately apparent.

If after reading the above you think you may not have enough species in this list, Consider what other plant species ubiquitous to your area might be beneficial to your design. Take this opportunity to consider how each might be woven into the rest of your design interactions as well.

If after reading the above you think you might have too many species in this list, make sure you are not listing species just for novelty's sake, or just because you know that species is mentioned in the course. Species in the list that aren't properly woven into the system will reduce the effectiveness of this tool for you and will overcomplicate the design when you being to implement it.

Add Your Species List Here:

The Detailed Description

(1,000 - 1,500 words)

Details, connections, function stacking, patterning, if the other sections of the design form have not allowed you to sufficiently explain these for your design, this is the section to do so.

Use this section as the capstone of how you will demonstrate the depth of your understanding of the concepts we have discussed in the course by explaining the connections and interactions which exist within your design. Describe how the design solutions proposed meet the goals for the design set out at the beginning of this process. This written portion serves as an accompaniment to the final design drawing below and also serves as the functional connection between all your other answers, maps, and data on this form. If there are loose ends, this is where you tie them up, this is where it all needs to come together.

Much of your work so far has been discussing the WHAT of your design. This section invites you to discuss the HOW and the WHY of your design work, while also presenting additional details about the site and your design in a way that will illustrate to the reader exactly what they need to understand about how that design and the systems it includes work.

1,500 words is not a hard limit, write more if you feel it is needed, but as part of making this writing a useful tool in your finished design remember that this form produces a document that should be presentable to the client, and one which serves as an aid to discussion with colleagues. In such a conversation the goal is to get the necessary concepts expressed, and move on to the rest of the conversation quickly and productively.

If you are struggling with being greatly over 1,500 words, look for details you've written in this section that might be better moved to another portion of the form so it can be omitted from the detailed description. You can also look for opportunities to remove explanations or definitions that would be needed for the client but the course staff will be more familiar with.

If you are struggling with not having enough to say in this section, think carefully about what we are asking for. If you do not have enough connections between elements and systems throughout your design to allow for you to do what we ask for in this space, you may need to increase the complexity of your design and increase the number of such designers to both understand and create interconnected interwoven systems that makes permaculture different from edible landscaping.

Add Your Detailed Description Here:

Final Drawing(s) Guidelines

Files should be in JPEG format and ideally less than 4MB in size.

This image should clearly illustrate and label mappable placement details of the design which have not yet been addressed on another map. Because of the thoroughness of your other maps, most of the important information for this one will be planting positions and the arrangement of systems. Be sure to include a clear legend for meaningful symbols used, and as with your other maps, this one may also benefit from being completed in different sections, on multiple pages, or with additional detailed drawings to show proper levels of complexity and provide you with enough space to show everything without overcrowding.

As part of making this map a useful tool, using different colours for different portions of the image will be helpful. While there is a temptation with these maps to make everything a shade of green, sometimes a different colour (or the "wrong" shade of green) will serve better so that the map is easier to parse visually.

For this map, showing individual plantings of single small plants is almost always too much, but often for all but the largest sites depicting most of the trees and shrubs at reasonable scale is possible, and will help the client understand placement well.

In the end, this map should be detailed enough to walk around the completed site and find specific species, guilds, or installations without using any of the other maps while also providing the information needed to create an estimate of how many plants are needed in the design, especially of the larger trees. If an element cannot literally be counted on the map (like the large trees) it should still be possible to calculate quantities needed by using this map and your planting descriptions or guild detail sheets to formulate exactly how many of the smaller plants will be needed for installation.

Remember:

• As a tool, this map needs to convey its visual information clearly.

• This map should be accurate and detailed enough to assist in estimating plants needed to install.

• Connections, loose ends, and interactions throughout the design more easily depicted graphically than through writing should be easily seen and understood.

• Detail drawings, which focus on a smaller portion of the overall site at a different scale may be the best way to illustrate how some systems are planted, rather than trying to fit them all on a whole-site scope map.

Do not include:

• Contour data

• Site design details which have appeared on another map.

• Redundant labels for things already labelled and visible on another map.

• Anything that makes it harder to read, find, or see, the details required for this map as described above.

Plant Quantity List

Using the total list of species you prepared here in section 4 and your final drawing which presents the placement of your living elements, quantify the plants that will need to be acquired (i.e., grown, split, propagated, purchased, moved, or otherwise sourced) in order to realise this design in reality.

Plants already in place can be counted but noted as already being on site. This does not mean you must account for every wild tree in Zone 5, bu the large mulberry (for example) in the middle of Zone 1 should be in the list and presented as "in place".

It should be noted that this is not just a place to copy/paste your species list, and you need not go into the same level of detail as in the species list. A name to differentiate each plant from the others and a quantity needed will be enough.

This is also an opportunity to format or organise this list in way that will help you later, with divisions by zone, or guild, or even categories like niche, or types of yield. Like in may other times previously on the FDE form, you are creating a tool here which can save you time later if you prepare it well today.

Think carefully before writing here that you have "all the plants needed" or present a list that is much too short. This task utilises the very same skills required to properly quote a job to a customer, and to put into correct perspective the scope of the installation task implementing the whole design will be. It behooves you to fully exercise those skills and take this final step of the FDE form seriously.

Add Your Plant Quantity List Here: