A permaculture design for the Nichols family. Project Rolling Hills A permaculture design for the Nichols family.

Starting Point A 3.97 acre property in the humid subtropics, 85 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The property receives on average 44” of rain per year but could be as much as double or half of that making water harvesting and storage a top priority. Water is onsite in the form of a flood retention pond, run off from neighbors and a year round creek toward the back of the property. Erosion has been a problem from recent flooding and will need to be addressed. Most access and structure have already been installed but is overgrown and will need to be widened a bit to allow for equipment and machinery to access the development site.

Sector Analysis Considerations for summer and winter sun angles, predominant winds as well as the hot summer winds and the cold winter winds. Views, noise and fire sectors were not determined due to the limited area we had to work with. An edible privacy screen could be placed along the road frontage that would also block some noise from the street, although I’m sure the noise on your street is quite minimal.

Structure & Access Existing Structures include a home, barn, and parking area. Access consists of driveway that comes from street into parking area and a path that leads to behind the pond to an open area. Access has been planned to be widened to allow machinery through for the construction of the swales. More walk paths will also be needed and is shown in this picture.

Water Water resources are scarce on the property even though there is a decent size pond and a year round creek at the back of the property. Pond is currently setup for use as a flood control measure but it could be modified with an outlet to provide flood irrigation to swales during dry periods. This is the best use of the pond installation and should not take too much work. The creek could be used for irrigation but the quality is unknown and would take considerable infrastructure to be utilized. Rainwater collection from roof runoff is not feasible for use as an irrigation source due to the distance to the gardens and the pond being between the house and garden. However, rainwater is captured from neighbor runoff and will be soaked into the landscape via a series of swales. The pond should include a level sill to allow pacified water to overflow to the swales below it.

Gabions Gabions are a wirework component filled with riprap to slow water and prevent erosion. I have placed 2 of them on your property in order to help slow your neighbor’s runoff before hitting the swale to increase infiltration and help control erosion even further.

Existing Trees & Landscaping This is a forested site and there are many existing native trees on the property contributing to a fantastic ecosystem and one we want to disturb as little as possible. I recommend leaving all existing trees in the landscape with the exception of those that need to come down to widen access. Existing landscaping in the front yard has been untouched since I’m not sure how much production you’d like from that area. There are many beautiful edibles that are considered ornamentals by most. If you’d like, I’d be happy to include some of these in your front landscaped areas, just let me know. The best placement for the garden area would be directly behind the house, but the existing forested canopy prevents enough light from reaching the ground in that location.

Zone 1 Permaculture sections the landscape into zones for more efficient use of space. Zone 1 is the area you will spend most of your time and visit multiple times per day. Zone 1 includes the kitchen and herb garden and relaxation areas that you spend time in often. The outer edge of Zone 1 can also include small livestock that you must visit on a daily basis. In the next few slides we’ll take a closer look at each element inside your Zone 1 garden.

Herb Spiral An herb spiral is a design based on efficiency. It is about 6 wide and 3 feet tall in the center, and spiraling down to ground level as it reaches the micro pond area. This design creates many micro- climates that, in turn, allow us to plant many different types of plants together in close proximity even though they might have different growing habits. Each herb is easily reachable from any side allowing for ease of harvest and maintaining a minimal footprint. Watering is also easily achieved with a single 6 foot micro sprinkler. Herbs that prefer drier soil go on top while those that like more moist soil are planted closer to ground level. There’s a picture of my herb spiral on the next slide.

Real Life Sample of an Herb Spiral This herb spiral was just planted in April of this year and this photo was taken June. Lots of growth for only 2 months. This is not high quality soil that was installed either, just the power of micro-climates.

Herb Placement I have placed the herb spiral within a very short walking distance from your back door that will provide easy access and also allow for plenty of sun – I think, it’s hard to tell from the satellite view. This really should be placed as close to the kitchen as possible to make harvesting of these frequently used herbs easy and enjoyable. If there’s a better, more sunny spot available, we can adjust this on the plan.

Kitchen Garden The spot chosen for the kitchen garden is not really an ideal spot. In fact, I even sought advice for placement suggestions due to the fact that it’s so far from the house. However, due to the fact the pond is already where it is and the site is so heavily wooded except the front yard, this was really the only place it would work. The beds you see here will be constructed by digging out a foot path on contour and using that topsoil as the raised portion of the bed. This will allow for extra water soakage while elevating the plants in order to prevent drowning. The dugout path is filled with woodchips and each year they are added as top dressing to the beds as a fertile compost and new chips are laid in the paths. Grapes, hardy kiwi, passionfruit or any other vines can be grown in the forest just behind the kitchen garden and is a perfect natural setting for vines. Water is achieved by swale overflow but I also highly suggest flood irrigation from the pond.

Zone 2 Zone 2 is a more broad area and one that becomes more involved with the natural process. Here we have more noisy animals like chickens as well as plants that are more self stable and can take care of themselves. Things like trees and perennial shrubs. We are less involved in Zone 2 and we must only visit it daily for animals or even less than daily for the self stable plants. I have planned a swaled food forest as your Zone 2 and also a chicken coop and run. While you didn’t specifically say you wanted chickens, they are a great fertility aid to your gardens while producing fresh organic eggs and can be very little maintenance in a deep litter environment, which will give you something to do with your garden “waste” and turn it into beautiful compost.

Food Forest Here you have your Zone 2 food forest. A food forest is a system that is self stable and will continue to get better with time. Very little intervention is necessary and maintenance is only required several times per year. A food forest consists of 7 layes, possibly more or less depending on climate. You will have your overstory trees which provide stability and is usually a large nut or fruit tree followed by an understory, then a shrub layer, an herbaceous layer, ground cover, rhizome and vines. These layers are there whether or not we put them in so we do put them in to discourage unproductive species from invading. When building a food forest, we include not only productive trees but also support species that are fast growing to prouce shade for younger trees while they’re getting established and that also fix nitrogen in the soil. I have labeled your fruit trees and shrubs and have also chosen support species that will bring in beneficial insects, pollinators and help fix nitrogen in the soil. The vining and rhizome layer have not been chosen yet but we can do that after discussing further. A banana circle has also been included in this food forest. Details provided in next slide.

Banana Circle A banana circle is a way to stack functions. First, we grow bananas, great! Second, we find a place for any extra mulch and compostable material we have that we don’t have anything to do with, conveniently. A banana circle is about 6 foot in diameter and has a 3 foot pit in the center that is filled with mulch, which quickly decomposes into rich, fertile compost. There are also other plants that go into a banana circle. Lemongrass keeps out weeds and varmint. Comfrey provides nutrient accumulation. Sweet potato provides a lovely ground cover, salad greens and the sweet edible tuber. Taro also provides greens and tubers. Peas and beans can be grown in alternating seasons to provide edibles as well as fix nitrogen in the soil. A view of the recently installed banana circle at my property on the next slide.

Real example of a Banana Circle This was planted the 1st week of May, 2017 and this photo was taken just 3 months later. The growth in this type of system is absolutely amazing!

Swales, In Focus Here you can see a swale in action. A trench is dug on contour, soil laid on the down side of the trench creating an uncompacted mound. Water loving plants are grown below the flood level while acidic loving plants like blueberries are grown on the inside of mound where the soil is most acidic due to the moisture level. Ground covers are planted immediately to provide soil stability and to fix nitrogen. Fast growing species should be chosen here. Productive fruit and nut trees are grown on the top of the mound and supporting species planted within the system. Insectaries, herbs, mulch plants, nitrogen fixers and chop and drop sacrificial plants are all part of the system. Not shown here is the overflow sill, which must be completely level at each point. The swale itself is also built completely level in order to pacify the water for maximum soil infiltration.

Swales Close Up Not all design elements have been added in this picture and you will want to choose your variety of trees, but here is the example I have added for your design. I have chosen beautiful support species which flower, attracting bees and butterflies, are visually stunning and also fix nitrogen in the soil and provide nitrogen rich mulch with their falling foliage and any trimming or pruning you do throughout the year. The benefit of installing swales here is that it will slow the water, spread it out evenly and soak it into the ground rather than allowing erosion to continue. Between the swales are planted in nitrogen fixing cover crops like clover, birds foot trefoil, dandelion, plantain, wildflowers and other beneficial plants that will help improve the soil, attract pollinating insects as well as predatory insects which will help with pest management. We have found that ducks will often come and visit after rains also depositing nutrient into the swale system and helping reducing any pest insect pressure.

Zone 5 Zone 5 is Wilderness. It is undisturbed and we only enter to observe from nature and for recreation. Nature is our teacher and this is where we learn. Zone 5 consists of most of your property and is already in place, use it for your enjoyment, education & meditation. This area hosts habitat for creatures that will intermingle with your other zones. Some of these critters will need to be controlled, limiting access to the inner zones while others can be allowed to take advantage of the oasis you have created and can be enjoyed for their natural beauty and awesome behavior. Note: Zone 3 is for grazing animals and Zone 4 is for agroforestry and the like. You are not trying to graze animals or have a woodlot, so I have excluded these zones from your design, which is why you go straight from Zone 2 to Zone 5.

Whole Design An overview of your design. Now is the time for input so it can be finalized. Any questions, comments, concerns, additions, subtractions? Thank you again for this opportunity. It has been extremely fun and rewarding to design such a great property. I’m not sure what level of design you expected but I hope this met and exceeded it. Remember any of these elements can be changed, deleted or waited to install at your choice. However, this design represents whole system thinking and is meant for long term success.