Planning for Permablitz

My housemates and I are finally going to permablitz our garden in April! This is my first time designing a garden and seeing the design through. I first heard about permaculture through Wellesley's Edible Forest Garden Project in 2010, where I got to help design a fruit tree 'guild' including supporting plants for the fruit tree. But I graduated before the actual planting got started. So I'm really excited to see our design made real this time!

The first step in doing a permaculture design is to incorporate the permaculture principles. The basic premise is to model natural ecological systems in the backyard/garden so that the humans can sustainably use the space for growing edibles or enjoyment. Deep Green Permaculture has a good description of the design principles and there are many books on permaculture, notably by Bill Mollison, Dave Jacke, and David Holmgren. Here's a short summary of the principles:

Design Principles

1. Relative Location – every element is placed in relationship to another so that they assist each other
   
2. Each element performs many functions
   
3. Each important function is supported by many elements
   
4. Efficient energy planning – for house and settlement (zones and sectors)
   -Zone Planning
   -Sector Planning
   -Slope
   
5. Using Biological Resources – Emphasis on the use of biological resources over fossil fuel resources
   
6. Energy Cycling – energy recycling on site (both fuel and human energy)
   
7. Small Scale Intensive Systems
   -Plant Stacking
   -Time Stacking
   
8. Accelerating Succession and Evolution – Using and accelerating natural plant succession to establish favourable sites and soils
   
9. Diversity – Polyculture and diversity of beneficial species for a productive, interactive system
   -Guilds
   
10. Edge Effect – Use of edge and natural patterns for best effect
    
11. Attitudinal Principles
    -Everything works both ways
    -Permaculture is information and imagination intensive

(source: "Introduction To Permaculture" – Bill Mollison & Reny Mia Slay)

Our garden design incorporates most of these principles. If we had oodles and oodles of time (and money), we'd do everything here and use all the space in the backyard and front yard. Imagine passionfruit growing up the fences, herbs by the kitchen window, grape vines out front! But baby steps first, especially since this is our first year living at this house and we haven't gone through all the seasons yet. It's important to get a feel for how the sun/shade hits the space and where the different microclimates are (like how the corner by the rainwater tanks might be warmer because the sun hits the tanks and bounces off).


Our backyard dimensions
Our plan for this upcoming permablitz is to build or put in the following:

1. a chicken coop. Chickens, as I've written about before, are really great for the garden for fertilizer and pest management.
   
2. a propagation table/shed. The propagation shed is a handy protected space for growing seedlings. You can use a table or even just a tray that's undercover. We might be opting for the table rather than a whole shed for simplicity.
   
3. a composting toilet. Speaks for itself, why not? We only have one bathroom in the house for 5 people, so it'd be handy to have a second bathroom. Biosolids, if treated correctly, can be really great fertilizer for the garden.
   
4. a pond. This goes back to the idea of emulating natural ecosystems. With the pond, we can attract frogs, insects, and birds, all of which help with increasing the biodiversity of our garden. It's important to have support for the pollinators and pest managers that frequent the garden.
   
5. a vegetable patch. Our main purpose! We'll be doing the no-dig technique and simply laying down newspaper, cardboard, manure/mushroom compost, and mulch to suppress the weeds before planting. The veggie patch will be in a bicycle spoke design, allowing us to rotate veggies between the 'spokes' and easily access each section.

More details to come later when we do the permablitz!