A Design Handbook for Homeowners, Featuring a Northampton Case Study

Produced by Kathleen Doherty, April 2012 University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Table of

Contents The Problem 2

The Solution: Permaculture 3

Ethics and Principles 4-5

The Design Process 6

The Case Study 7

Step One: Site A&A 8

Site A&A: Woodmont 9

Step Two: Visioning 10

Visioning: Woodmont 11

Step Three: Design 12-14

Woodmont Design 13

Woodmont Final Design 15

Design Techniques 16-17

Woodmont Planting Plans 18

Woodmont Future Design 19

Step Four: Implementation 20

Implementation Techniques 21

Implementation and Maintenance:

Resources for Northampton 22-23

Step Five: Maintenance & Evaluation 24

Further Reading 25

The Solution: Permaculture

Permaculture is a system of sustainable design that meets human needs for food, water, shelter, energy, and community, while also increasing the health of the ecosystem. Created in the 1970s by two Australian designers, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, permaculture is the answer to our current problems of fossil fuel dependence, disconnection from our food and our land, and fragmentation of our communities. Permaculture is… Grassroots! Permaculture design can be adapted to many scales and climates, as well as many skill sets and income levels. You do not have to be an expert to practice permaculture! Localized! You can meet all your needs for food, water, shelter, and energy right in your backyard! Regenerative! Permaculture has the power to heal neglected land, build relationships between people, and restore community. Optimistic! Don’t wait for a solution from on high. Start practicing permaculture today and see for yourself the power of localized, grassroots

action for change! 3

The Problem The problems plaguing our current food system can seem overwhelming:

Industrial agriculture uses dangerous and persistent pesticides and fertilizers to grow nutrient-poor, genetically-modified food.

Farmers both in the US and abroad are becoming more and more impoverished at the hands of a capricious market.

Farm equipment, delivery trucks, and refrigeration units all depend on fossil fuels to produce and distribute food.

The average consumer has become disconnected from and disinvested in the land and their food.

There seems to be no solution coming from the government or big business, but many individuals feel too disempowered or hopeless to take action. But permaculture provides an answer!

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Ethics Permaculture design follows three major ethics:

1. Care of the Earth 2. Care of People 3. Resource Share

Principles

From these ethics follow some basic permaculture design principles. Here’s a sample:

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Observe and Interact Your site conditions dictate your design decisions. For example, you may want to grow cranberries, but if your site is dry, they won’t prosper.

Catch and Store Energy Make hay while the sun shines! Capturing water from the roof or energy from the sun makes your site more sustainable in the long-term, while saving you time and energy.

Use Renewable Resources Renewable resources will never run out! For energy, use solar or wind; for water, use rainwater instead of groundwater; for food, use perennial vegetables instead of annuals.

Produce No Waste Waste not, want not! Some “waste,” like food waste, can be fed back into the system to produce rich compost.

Obtain a Yield Don’t forget to meet your own needs. A well-designed permaculture garden can produce more food, as well as a more diverse variety of food, than any conventional agricultural system.

Integrate Rather Than Segregate Each piece of the system should have multiple functions, and all pieces should work together to create a highly productive and functional system. For example, certain plants (like tomatoes and basil!) may be grown together as companions to support each other while also producing food.

Use Small and Slow Solutions Make the least change for the greatest effect. For example, rather than adding chemical fertilizers to a garden bed every year, planting a nitrogen-fixer (such as clover) can provide plants with the nutrients they need in a slow, cheap, and low-impact way.

Value Diversity Diversity increases the resilience of a system. For example, an orchard of apple trees may be decimated by one pest, but an orchard with more diversity will survive, even if the apples don’t.

Use the Edge The interface between elements of the system is often the most productive and valuable place. For example, the edge of the forest is where the most ecological interactions take place.

Relinquish Power Both in the garden and in the community, power should be decentralized. Do not micro-manage; step back, ask for help, and allow the system to maintain itself.

The Design Process

So you want to implement permaculture design in your own backyard! The following pages will walk you through the design process in a few easy steps. Permaculture design involves observing the conditions of your site and the surrounding community and working with these conditions as much as possible. The site conditions are integrated with your vision and goals to produce a final design. The design process presented here will be broken down into these steps:

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The Case Study

The Woodmont Permaculture Garden design was produced by the students of a Permaculture Design Course during the summer of 2011. The site was a large backyard shared by four neighbors in Northampton, Massachusetts. Although the design was never implemented, it is used here to illustrate each step of the design process and provide examples of some permaculture techniques. Note: Techniques used in this case study are not universally applicable; all techniques and resources applied here are specific to the climate, political situation, and resources of Northampton, Massachusetts.

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1.) Site Analysis and Assessment 2.) Goals Articulation 3.) Design 4.) Implementation 5.) Maintenance and Evaluation

Step One: Site A&A

Before you begin the design process, you must become familiar with your site by performing a site analysis and assessment.

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Site A&A: Woodmont

After using the scale of permanence to analyze each aspect of the Woodmont site, we synthesized our analysis into one map:

In our final analysis, we focused on sun/shade patterns (shown in yellow), zones of use (ranked from zone 1 to zone 4/5 with orange, green, teal, and purple, respectively), buildings (brown), water (blue), and views (pink arrow). The site is located in a temperate climate and contains both sunny and shady microclimates. Zone 1 constituted mostly roads and driveways, while Zone 2 was the area right near each of the buildings; the central, sunny area was a Zone 3 and more rarely used. One major problem on the site was flooding; with compacted soil and a stream in the southeast corner, the yard was often wet and all the basements experienced frequent flooding.

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Technique spotlight: Scale of Permanence Analyze each aspect of your site in order of most to least permanent. Arranging your site analysis by permanence will help you identify which aspects of your site may be easily changed and which are out of your control. Climate -Temperatures, annual precipitation, wind direction Landform -Elevation, steep slopes, topography Water -Water table, runoff patterns, water bodies Access and Circulation -Roads, paths, activity centers Vegetation and Wildlife -Existing plant species, habitat types Microclimate -Wind exposure, sun/shade patterns Buildings and Infrastructure -Buildings, fences, utility lines Zones of Use -Rank each area from 1 to 5, with 1 being places you visit many times a day and 5 being places you hardly ever visit. Soil -Soil type, fertility, toxins Aesthetics -Views, favorite places, beautiful/ugly spaces

Step Two: Visioning

After analyzing the conditions of your site, examine what your goals are for the site and the project in general. It may be helpful to write these goals down; start with a brainstorm, then develop it into a formal statement of your vision for the site. Some tips to help you articulate your goals:

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Visioning: Woodmont

Vision statement for the Woodmont garden: -We integrate the three properties by providing a central common space for social and agricultural purposes as well as private space for use by each resident.

-We incorporate small, sun-loving, water-loving, low-maintenance trees and shrubs to produce food and absorb excess water.

-We utilize excess water on-site and solve basement flooding problems and insect problems in a natural and efficient way.

-We preserve and enhance important viewscapes by framing them with small trees, shrubs, and herbs.

-Our landscape is low-maintenance and low-budget.

-We bring all four neighbors together to produce food, socialize, and share the harvest.

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1.) Keep it general! Depending on site conditions, you may not be able to grow certain types of vegetables, but ‘food production for me and my family’ is something you can actually achieve.

2.) Get stakeholders involved. Whether it’s your family, your neighbors, or the town, be sure to get input from everyone who might be affected by the design.

3.) Synthesize your goals and the input from stakeholders into a vision statement. Use the first person present tense to make your goal seem real and achievable.

Step Three: Design

Now it’s time to get your ideas onto paper! The actual design process may take place in stages; don’t expect to get it right the first time! Here are some tips to start out:

1.) Start with a brainstorm! Write down every potential element of your system (realistic or not!), then make them into paper ‘chits’ and move them around on a map of your site to help you envision different scenarios.

2.) Let your site analysis and assessment guide you. What are the needs of your site? What limitations and opportunities exist? Let existing conditions for microclimate, water, zones of use, etc. tell you where each element should go.

3.) Sketch out several alternatives. These preliminary designs are purely conceptual and do not need to be formally measured and drawn out.

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Woodmont Design

To begin the design process at Woodmont, we wrote out every potential design feature (greenhouse, vegetable beds, chicken coop, etc.) on chits of paper, then moved them around to imagine various design scenarios. We were trying to integrate our two major goals of producing food and bringing the neighbors together with the existing site conditions.

We determined that the central sunny area was the best place for a greenhouse, annual vegetable beds, and a social gathering space for all four neighbors. The areas close to each house would be reserved for private sitting areas and a personal kitchen garden for each neighbor. We debated among various solutions for the problem of excessive water, but we eventually decided that strategically placed rain gardens and water-loving

plants would serve to absorb excess water. 13

We based our

design decisions

on this Site A&A

map.

Step Three: Design Cont’d

Once the initial brainstorming process has been completed, you can start producing a more detailed and specific design.

4.) Select one final design. This design should integrate your goals with the limitations and conditions of the site and follow permaculture principles.

5.) Flesh out your final design into detailed planting plans. For resources about how to select plant species and where to get seeds or seedlings, see 25.

6.) Envision the future of your site. There may be some aspects of your design that are feasible to implement now, and some that may need to be phased in over time. What will your site look like next year? What about 10 years from now? 100 years?

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Woodmont Final Design

Features of the final Woodmont Garden Design included: -An orchard of fruit trees with supporting guilds surrounding a gazebo for social gatherings (northeast corner) -A system of pathways from each house meeting at a central herb spiral to draw neighbors into the backyard (central area) -Woodland edge plantings along the stream to absorb floodwater, provide habitat, and enhance aesthetics (eastern edge) -A rain garden situated at the lowest point on the site to help infiltrate water and prevent flooding (west of herb spiral)

-Private sitting areas and personal kitchen gardens near each house to allow privacy for each neighbor

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Design Techniques

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Design Techniques

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Technique spotlight: Companion Planting What do plants need? Sun, water, healthy soil, nitrogen, nutrients, pollinators, protection from pests and weeds…the list goes on and on! You can use companion planting to group plants that meet each other’s needs. For example, ordinary clover can do the work of both commercial fertilizer and mulch; it’s a highly efficient nitrogen-fixer and a great groundcover too.

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Technique spotlight: Forest Gardening Permaculture uses principles drawn from nature to meet human needs. Forest gardening takes this concept one step further by actually mimicking the structure of a forest in the garden. A forest has many layers; a canopy, low tree layer, a shrub understory, an herb layer, groundcover, and an underground layer.

You can mimic each layer in your garden by replacing forest species with edible or functional species, such as fruit trees, nitrogen-fixing shrubs, culinary herbs, and edible groundcovers and root vegetables. Other features of a forest garden might include: a patch/mosaic pattern (rather than planting in straight lines), the use of perennials rather than annuals, and a wide

diversity of species. 17

Which would you rather put in your garden to keep your tomatoes healthy: a toxic insecticide, or a delicious basil plant?

Woodmont Planting Plans

The designs for the herb spiral (top) and its surrounding plantings (bottom) both feature a wide variety of herbs and shrubs, including culinary herbs like parsley and thyme, dynamic accumulators, like comfrey, nectaries like lemon balm, and edibles like blueberries and gooseberries. 18

Woodmont Future Design

The 100-year vision for the Woodmont site includes solar panels on each house, a grain field, an animal grazing area, a mature forest garden, a wildflower meadow, a transition to all perennial vegetables, root cellars and composting toilets adjoining each house, and a farm stand.

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Step Four: Implementation

Once you have a complete design, it’s time to implement it! Every site is unique, so your implementation process may differ from this one:

1. Prepare your site. From your site analysis and assessment, you should know what your soil needs, how water moves on the site, and where problem areas are. Techniques such as sheet mulching, bioswales, and double digging can help infiltrate water, improve drainage, and improve soil aeration and nutrient content.

2. Plant with the seasons. Once your site is ready, you may need to do your initial planting in phases according to your climate and local weather, how long your plants will take to mature, and when you want to reap a harvest.

3. Don’t try to do it alone! Inviting friends, family, and neighbors to help out on a few strategically scheduled work days makes it easy to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

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Techniques: Implementation

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Technique spotlight: Sheet mulching Healthy soil is the foundation of a healthy garden. One technique you can use to build the soil before you start planting is sheet mulching. Sheet mulching is also known as ‘lasagna gardening’ because it builds the soil in layers.

The specific materials and layers you use will vary based on your site conditions, but there are three main elements: newspaper or cardboard to suppress weeds; compost to add nutrients to the soil; and mulch to hold in moisture and prevent weeds.

Resources for

Northampton

Step Five: Maintenance and

Evaluation Although the initial implementation may involve a large investment of time and money, in the long run permaculture systems often require far less maintenance than a conventional garden. Ordinary tasks such as watering and pruning are still important, but a well-designed permaculture system is more resistant to pests, diseases, weeds, droughts, and other disturbances than a conventional food production system. The important thing is to interact with the garden on a daily basis and observe what is working, what is failing, what the plants need, and what may need adjustment next year. Permaculture is dynamic; the garden will not, and should not, look the same from year-to-year. A process of constant evaluation will ensure long-term sustainability.

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Further Reading

On Permaculture Design: Books -Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for

Human Settlements—Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, Transworld Publishers, London, 1978

-Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability—David Holmgren, Holmgren Design Services 2002

-Edible Forest Gardens: Volume I and II—Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 2005

On Permaculture Design: Web -www.permacultureprinciples.com -www.permacultureusa.org On Specific Techniques: -Greywater: www.greywateraction.org -Compost: www.howtocompost.org -Companion Planting: Rodale, J.I., ed. 1978. The

Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press.

-Backyard animals: www.backyardchickens.com

-Solar power: http://www.pvsquared.coop/

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