Eight Acres

I got a question from a reader about where to start with a new property.  Pete and I have started two new properties and this is what we have learnt so far. Like I wrote back in this post about designing your property with permaculture , step one is "do nothing" - just observe your property for at least a year, figure out what you want from it and what it can do, then start planning one small project at a time. When it comes to figuring out what you want and what your property can do, this post about " What to do with eight acres " might give you some ideas (adjust them to fit the size property you have). If you have more than a few acres, you might find Keyline design useful as well , it helps with placement of roads, fences and water storage on larger properties, by considering the terrain (or keylines) of the landscape. I find permaculture is the best design tool, you can read my post about David Holmgren's 12 permaculture principles here: Obser...

I'm up to the 7th principle in David Holmgren's book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability , "design from patterns to details", and I think its a good time to reflect on the principles as a collective.  The first principle was " Observe and Interact ".  The first five principles after that were, more about what we want to get out of our permaculture system.  We want a system that can " Catch and Store Energy ", " Obtain a Yield ", " Apply self-regulation and accept feedback ", " Use and value renewable resources ", and " Produce no Waste ".  The next six principles are more about how to achieve these aims and come to sensible design.  This month I'll discuss "design from patterns to details", and the remaining principles are "integrate rather than segregate", "use small and slow solutions", "use and value diversity", "use edges and value ...