P ermaculture D esign by Ar a n y a A step-by-step guide P ermaculture D esign by Ar a n y a A step-by-step guide Permanent Publications Published by Permanent Publications Hyden House Ltd The Sustainability Centre East Meon Hampshire GU32 1HR England Tel: 01730 823 311 Fax: 01730 823 322 Overseas: (international code +44 - 1730) Email: [email protected] Web: www.permaculture.co.uk Published in association with The Sustainability Centre, East Meon, Hampshire GU32 1HR Tel: 01730 823 167 Email: [email protected] Web: www.sustainability-centre.org Permaculture Association (Britain), BCM Permaculture Association, London WC1N 3XX Tel: 0845 458 1805 or + 44 0113 2307461 Email: [email protected] Web: www.permaculture.org.uk Distributed in the USA by: Chelsea Green Publishing Company PO Box 428, White River Junction, VT 05001 Web: www.chelseagreen.com © 2012 Aranya The right of Aranya to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1998 Designed by Aranya British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN PRINT 9781856230919 ISBN PDF 9781856230926 ISBN EPUB 9781856230933 ISBN MOBI 9781856230940 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, rebound or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Hyden House Limited. This project has received grant aid from: The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) funded by DEFRA and the EU. The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD): Europe investing in rural areas. Contents Foreword vii Preface viii How to use this guide ix Introduction x You’re already a designer xi PART ONE ~ Preparations Observation Skills 2 Patterns 3 An Introduction to systems 7 Spirals of erosion and degradation 11 Principles and directives 14 Summary 15 Effective Design 16 Identifying roles within the process 18 Working as part of a team 19 Inclusion 19 Conflict resolution 22 Structuring the process 23 The Action learning cycle 25 Flowcharts 26 Summary 27 PART TWO ~ The Design Process Surveying the Site 30 Maps 32 Making base and field maps 34 Create a base map from an existing map 34 A base map from your own measurements 38 Drawing your base map 46 Summary 54 Base mapping flowchart 55 Recording site information 56 Record existing site elements 57 Map access points and routes through the site 59 Identify the different zones on the site 60 Map the different sectors of the site 62 Estimating heights 69 Record water across the site 70 Take at least one soil sample 70 Identify the site’s remaining limiting factors 72 Map any site utilities 73 Identify any free or cheap resources available. 73 Creating base map overlays 75 Keeping an observation diary 76 Summary 78 Recording site information flowchart 79 The Client Interview 80 SMART goals 80 The interview 81 Working with multiple clients or community groups 85 Small community processes 85 Small to medium sized group processes 87 Wider community planning 88 Summary 90 Client interview flowchart 91 Analysis 92 Identifying functions 93 The process 93 Functions, systems and elements 94 Identifying the key functions 95 Creating your SMART goals 96 Choosing systems and elements 97 The process 97 Permaculture ethics 98 Ecological impact 98 Financial costs 102 Time limitations 102 Appropriate scale 103 Interconnectedness 103 Intrinsics 106 Comparing best options 107 Visioning and wild design 108 Summary 109 Choosing systems and elements flowchart 111 Placement 112 Around an existing main element 112 Design from patterns to details 113 Microclimates 113 Elevation planning and aspect 115 Zoning 116 Access and desire lines 116 Sectors 117 Soil type 119 Utilities 119 Visualise succession 119 Incremental design 120 The fine details… 121 The Blank Canvas 121 McHarg’s exclusion method 122 Placement flowchart 123 Integration 124 Energy cycling 124 Process flows 126 Patterns and principles 127 Edge effect 128 Guilds and companion planting 131 Putting it all together… 135 Summary 136 Integration flowchart 137 Design Proposal 138 Share your concept design early 138 Creating your final proposal 139 Mapping your ideas 139 Drawing 140 Modelling 144 Using technology 145 Additional maps 146 Further information 146 Implementation details 149 Summary 150 Design proposal flowchart 151 Implementation 152 Breaking down the task 152 Start small and work out from well-managed areas 152 Factors that influence task prioritisation 153 Least change for greatest effect 153 Design around the limiting factors 153 Resource availability 154 Dependencies (a.k.a. precedences) 154 Yeoman’s Keyline scale of permanence 154 Creating a simple implementation plan 155 Creating a project management plan 156 Critical Path Analysis 158 Overseeing a project implementation 159 Summary 161 Maintenance and Evaluation 162 Creating a maintenance plan 162 The need for ongoing evaluation 163 Summary 164 Implementation and maintenance flowchart 165 Presenting to a Client 166 Presentation flowchart 169 PART THREE ~ Beyond Land Based Design Beyond Land Design 172 Designing processes 172 Designing zone 00 176 Designing social structures 181 Reflecting on the Process 184 A Call to Action 185 Appendices 186 References 186 Full design process flowchart 187 Resources 188 Online materials 188 Recommended reading 188 Glossary 190 Acknowledgements Offering my deepest thanks seems simplest in chronological order, so I shall start with my parents Rod and Val who’ve always been there for me, even when they must have thought I’d lost the plot. I love you both dearly. Next, to Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, I thank you for pulling together the best of humanity’s vision and calling it permaculture. Like their own, this book is dedicated to Gaia and all those who sail in her... More specifically, of the early pioneers, Tanya was the first to introduce me to the ‘P’ word all those years ago. Steve Charter made sure I couldn’t escape by inviting Stephen Nutt to teach a design course at our shared house (I am most indebted that you ran the course for just four of us). Tony Wright added a whole new angle to the big picture I was getting. I thank you all. My experiential journey then began in the Emerald Isle at Tiaia, where I learned the gifts of barefooting and many other things besides. Giri and Sagara, you challenged me deeply but showed me so much in that single year. I learned from implementing there what I read in books by Robert Hart, Patrick Whitefield, Ken Fern, Masanobu Fukuoka and Robert Kourik. On my return to England I made gardens and connected into the network, learning much from many peers and mentors in those early days – Julia, Sandra, Jane, Simon, George, Pat, Sue, Ann and Phil – you’ve all played an important part. Andy, Chris and Looby, thanks for having the foresight to set up Designed Visions together and for all you have taught me along the way. A massive thank you to Andy Goldring for all he’s done at the Permaculture Association. Hannah, Peter, Klaudia, Mel B, and everyone else I’ve taught with, I love the journey. Mel C, thank you for freeing up my time to write. On to the book itself; a great big thank you Tim and Maddy for sticking your necks out and publishing my first book. Gary and Katy, thank you both for your valuable feedback on the draft. Finally, Jules. Without all your proofreading and looking after mundane tasks to free up my time, I certainly wouldn’t have got this far. Yet the greatest gift you give is your belief in me and your love. Thank you so much for being in my life and making the journey so much fun. May it be a long one. xxx Foreword by Patrick Whitefield Some people keep their tools in a higgledy-piggledy pile, chipped, blunt and uncared-for. Others keep them in perfect order in a neat toolbox, each one in its place, oiled, sharpened and ready to go. Aranya is one of the latter and this book is his tool box. Open its pages and you can put your finger right on the design tool you need, from triangulation to the enticingly- named desire lines. It’s all here. But the tool metaphor can be taken too far. Permaculture design is not a random collection of good ideas, it’s a process. It starts with the receptive stage of observing and listening, goes through the creative stage of making design decisions and leads on to implementation on the ground and to reflection on whether the odd tweak here or there might not be appropriate. Aranya takes you through the process with the same chisel-sharp clarity as he describes the individual design tools. For most people taking the permaculture design course is a major life event. It opens the door on a new way of looking at the world, a new way of being in the world. It affects you on so many levels that, however well you took notes, inevitably some of the information passes you by. That’s why I wrote The Earth Care Manual and that’s why Aranya wrote the book you have in your hands. Patrick Whitefield Permaculture designer, teacher and author Glastonbury 2012 Preface This is not just another permaculture book. There are already plenty of excellent texts† on this subject explaining the many permaculture design principles, strategies and techniques that can help make the world a better place for us all to live in. This guide is a little different. It’s been written to help those with a basic grasp of permaculture to gain more clarity about the overall design process. In my role as a teacher, I meet many students who’ve done an introductory course or read a book or two and got a basic understanding of the key concepts, yet are still unclear how to put them all together. As integration is the key to good design, this guide sets out to make sense of all this and create a useful pattern that you’ll be able to apply to your own design work. This guide started out as a series of worksheets, created to assist students on my weekend-based permaculture design courses. I’d noticed that with gaps of several weeks between course weekends, students were often forgetting important details. I wanted to provide them with a clear pathway that they could follow while going through their design practice at home. After introducing the new worksheets, student’s design work greatly improved, so as an experiment I started giving them to the design groups on my residential courses too. Feedback was again very positive. Then some students suggested that I should publish them as a book. So here it is. I hope that this guide helps to clarify the design process for you, and gives you the confidence to go out and gain the experience that will ultimately make you the accom- plished permaculture designer that you wish to be. Enjoy the journey! † See my recommended reading list in the appendices.