Learning Objectives -- At the end of this video you should be able to:
-Explain the role of the different zones in a permaculture design
-Identify different energy sectors that will affect zoning
-Formulate a plan for which components go in which zone
-Arrange zones in a malleable manner suited to the site
-Summarize the size ratios for each zone in a system

Brief Overview:

We design by applying our master plan in conceptual patterns, moving the energy centrally concentrated into large spaces of dispersal.

Designs start at Zone 0, or our homes, and we make them efficient. They are designed in tune with the sun and seasons to heat and cool themselves, to catch and store their own water, and to have their own waste cycles. We use renewable, natural materials when possible and make comfortable places to rest and relax.

Zone 1 is the high traffic area that surrounds our home, where we visit most often and are in most control. This area supplies the bulk of our needs. We grow kitchen crops here. We may have quiet animals, such as fish, rabbits, and composting worms. This area produces more food per square meter than anywhere else in our design. It’s our system, the human garden.

Next is Zone 2, and here things become more involved in natural processes. We assembly trees that function like food forests and require less attention. We put main crop garden for our staples and storage foods. We have noisier animals, like poultry and perhaps milking cows or goats. There might be a wood lot for coppicing fire wood, and there might be windbreaks and hedgerows.

In Zone 3, the grazing zone, components become much larger, moving into pastures, large grazing animals, our first big wind breaks, and possible major wood lots. We might even have some very hardy fruit trees with rough mulching. Zone 4, then, is more of a wild forest zone, designed for conservation or perhaps fungi or pole beams or bamboo. It gets very little attention, perhaps only occasional pruning. The last zone, Zone 5, is just wilderness, and it is used for recreation and observation.

We use “visits per year” analysis to help us place things in zones. For example, Zone 1 includes things that require daily attention. Zone 2 becomes more seasonal, 3 more inclined to yearly cycles, and Zone 4 might be decades of waiting on a large timber tree. By assessing the visits per year, and combining the effort required for those visits, we cut down significantly on our work.

Zones, too, are designed with size ratios. Zone 1 for a small family should be about a quarter of an acre (1000 sq. meters), Zone 2 only one or two acres (4000-8000 sq. meters). Zone 3 gets significantly larger with a few acres up to tens of acres, and Zone 4 could be upwards of a 100 acres. Beyond that, Zone 5, it’s limitless wilderness. Bodies of water in each zone reflect the size. These ratios are important: A large Zone 1, such an intense system, would never be finished.

Several things can affect the zone design, creating variations of spacing. We can have functional corridors, giving Zone 0 a view of nature, or Zone 3 milk cows access to Zone 1 milk barns. Other elements like slope, orientation, soils, vegetative cover, and land size can all change how we arrange our zones, or even include certain ones.

In addition to zones, we design by energy sectors. This includes midsummer and midwinter sun sectors. It could also be the direction from which wind and rain come, or an area with hot and dry—possibly fire-spreading—wind, or spot with a good view. It could be an area susceptible to noise, dust, or unpleasant smells. It could be a flood zone or a frost zone. We account for all of these energy sectors and place our elements in accordance.

Our elements can either be a means of accepting the energy or blocking it, such that they are performing functions in relation to the sectors. Each element can perform multiple functions, and for each function, there should be multiple elements attending to them. When we apply designs this way, thoughtfully addressing energy sectors, not only do we maximize our design efficiency but added advantages will reveal themselves.