Site Analysis – Zones and Sectors

I’m not going to show you the actual designing we did. It’s way too wild and messy for publishing. But this is an idealised, post hoc version. And, the ideas and principles learned in rural homesteading did help get it right in less than the decade or so it took us the first time. If nothing else, it taught us that this step is worth doing.

Classic permaculture uses the language of zones and sectors to talk about designing for a site. Sectors describe external forces and factors entering and leaving a site – sun, wind, views, noise, animals, people, resources and harvests. Zones describe arranging the elements of a site so there is a synergy, so things feed into each other and there is time and motion efficiency in the arrangement.

You can do it in your head but a brilliant one-liner I heard once is that “writing is a concentrated form of thinking”, and it’s true. Somehow, by writing and drawing it on paper you find out you know a lot more about a site than you think you do.

Notes:

Sectors

To the east:

• Morning sun – the wide verge both sides of the wide road is a great buffer zone that will never be built up. The front yard has the best sun.
• Views in – the huge ornamental and weed trees along the east (front) boundary have to go. But the green wall is nice. I will miss being able to walk around in my undies if I don’t get some plants tall enough for privacy screening pretty quickly
• .Views out – sunrise sky – I’m an early morning person. Sunrise sky is important. Need to take care not to screen it out.
• Public space – space is at a premium in suburbia. Already wondering how I will fit in all the ideas. The wide verge is a real asset. Need to take care not to upset council or neighbours by interfering with other uses like foot traffic, mobility scooters, water mains, electricity lines, sewer, mail delivery.
• Traffic – it’s a quiet street but I wonder if traffic noise will be an issue, after living with only bird and koala noise for so long?
• Passers by – there’s a ready-made outlet for seeds, seedlings, cuttings, produce and information passing by every day on the way to the pub or the shopping centre.

To the north:

• Winter sun sector – pity the carport, garage and the unwindow-ed back wall of the studio have this prime aspect.
  • Narrow, concrete path down the north side – need to figure out a way to harvest all that sun hitting the north walls, with no soil. Aaagh!
  • Carport is covered in climbing rose and several kinds of non-productive vines – prime space for productive climbers doubling as hail protection.
  • Good potential for solar panels on the roof, but roof pitches east and west, not north. Studio roof pitches south but is nearly flat.
• Neighbours – neighbour, and next neighbour are both single story houses. Hopeful they won’t sell to developers.
  • Fence is falling down palings – needs replacing – opportunity for trellis fence for shared productive climber.
  • Back corner at the end of the concrete path, behind the studio, is isolated from people with tall blank walls two sides – potential for bees.

To the west:

• Afternoon sun – western wall needs shade in summer (deciduous trees and vines), and windows to let in sun in winter.
  • Lilly pillies, cheese tree, rampant coral vine and a huge tuckaroo shade the whole back yard and need to go.
• Neighbours – back neighbours are two story units throwing shade on back yard.
  • Tall wooden fence and brick wall of neighbour’s garage give a lot of privacy, for them and us.
• Water – laneway gutter runs to a storm drain but I wonder if water drains from the back yard into the laneway gutters, or vice versa?

To the south:

• Access – the lane provides valuable access to the studio and the back yard.
  • Back, south west corner has access from the lane, might be a good spot for chooks.
• Shade: Narrow very shady space along south side of house – limited for plants but maybe water tank spot?
  • Corrugated asbestos fence to the back yard needs to go, and could be replaced with trellis fence for shade lovers.
  • Stacking to the south means taller tress against the laneway fence.
• Passers by – laneway is quite private, and vacant lot at the end of the lane is a camping spot for rough sleepers – could be hungry people traffic along the lane.
• Canopy space over land – no power lines, and neighbours across the lane are double story, so potential for big trees canopy covering the lane and harvesting sunlight.

Zones:

Zone 0: House and granny flat – insulated, roof cavity ventilation, west side deck with pagola over for deciduous vines, east side trellis with deciduous vines, wood fire heating for winter, tank water, solar power and hot water, energy efficient light and appliances, greywater recycling.

Zone 1: The front yard is the best Zone 1 area. It has the best sun, most trafficked and easiest access for planting, harvesting, watering, importing soil – Best area for annual garden beds, pagola trellis, hanging baskets for herbs, and propagating area.

Zone 2: Back yard has shade from immovable features (back neighbours, granny flat), and if someone is living in the granny flat it will be less accessed. Back yard, carport, north side fence and verge are the best areas for small animals (chooks, pigeons), perennials (fruit trees, herbs), starch staples (cassava, taro, sweet potatoes, plantains), vines, climbing beans.

Zone 3: The narrow paths on the north and south sides will be less often incidentally seen or accessed. Mushrooms on innoculated logs, lower intensity perennials.

Zone 4: The back corner behind the granny flat is quite isolated and hard to access. Good spot for bees. Lots of space for large trees down the laneway, but not regularly in view and vunerable to council, vandalism and theft. Good for public access prolific yielders like mangoes.

Zone 5: Don’t encourage the brush turkeys! Landcare and dunecare.

Worth doing?

Doing the zone and sector analysis before we started making any not-easily-reversed decisions was one of the smartest things we did. It was the result of very a hard-won lesson. When we built our rural permaculture homestead, back in the late 1980’s, we made the mistake of not doing it, at least not on paper. It cost me a 30 year wait for a bathroom that actually worked. The story of that folly is here.