In the pathway: Designing your site
Permaculture zones
The spatial organisation of a site according to visit frequency and maintenance intensity, one of the founding tools of permaculture design.
Explanation
Zones structure a site from zone 0 (the home) to zone 5 (the wild). The further you move from the centre of life, the less intense the human intervention. This logic optimises movement, observation and maintenance. A tool theorised by Bill Mollison in Permaculture One (1978) and then detailed in Permaculture: A Designers' Manual (1988).
Refined definition
Zones are a spatial-planning grid that links the position of the system's elements to their need for daily attention. A plant harvested every day (basil, salad) should be 30 seconds' walk from the kitchen, zone 1. A forest visited once a year (mushroom gathering) can be 30 minutes away, zone 4. Zones are not rigid concentric circles: they follow the real flows (the path to the mailbox, access to the compost…).
Key points
Precise definition of the 6 zones (0 to 5)
ZONE 0: the home, the heart of the system, kitchen, living room, storage, workshop. ZONE 1: closest to the home, daily visit, aromatic herbs, cut-and-come-again salads, kitchen compost. ZONE 2: main vegetable garden and small fruit, frequent visits. ZONE 3: orchard, main crops (cereals, potatoes), weekly maintenance. Greenhouse, henhouse or hives go where the real frequency of care puts them, not at a fixed distance. ZONE 4: woodland, fodder, wild gathering, worked coppice, monthly to yearly visits. ZONE 5: wild, unexploited, a biodiversity refuge, observation only. Sources: Bill Mollison, Permaculture: A Designers' Manual, Tagari, 1988; David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles & Pathways, 2002.
Classic beginner mistakes
Putting the vegetable garden in zone 3 (far from the home) “because there is more sun over there”, result: you do not go there enough, the pests win. Putting the greenhouse in zone 4 “because it takes up too much room near the house”, you forget to ventilate it in summer, everything burns. Keeping zone 0 (the home) disconnected from the other zones, result: everything becomes a chore. The golden rule: what you use often must be within easy reach.
Adapting to the reality of the ground
Zones are NEVER concentric in practice. They are stretched by the paths, the relief, the solar orientation. An urban garden (50-200 m²) can fit into zones 0-1-2 with no outer zone 3+. A large property (5+ ha) deploys every zone. The real design is always a compromise between the logic of zones, that of sectors (wind, sun, water) and that of the existing land layout.
Watch out for
- • Zones are a TOOL, not a fixed truth, adapt them to your place, not the other way round.
- • Do not confuse zones (based on visit frequency) with sectors (based on external influences: sun, wind, water). The two complement each other.
Sources
- Mollison, B. & Holmgren, D. (1978). Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements. Melbourne : Transworld.
- Mollison, B. (1988). Permaculture: A Designers' Manual. Tyalgum : Tagari Publications.
- Holmgren, D. (2002). Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Hepburn : Holmgren Design Services.