Picture this: you wake up in the morning, and go to the kitchen to make some tea. You decide you want fresh herbs, so you open up the door to your patio and cut some fresh mint and chamomile. You go back to the kitchen to make your tea and then take your tea to enjoy it on the porch. As you’re watching the sun rise under the arbor of grapes, you can see the greenhouse next to the driveway, the barn in the distance with the goats outside, and even further away, you can see the fruit and nut trees beginning to change color in the cool fall air. You sip your tea, enjoying the view of your permaculture zones in action.
In this article, I am going to let you in on the magic of permaculture zones and how to use them. In my studies, I’ve learned about many sustainable agriculture techniques, including those in the school of permaculture design. I’m excited to share this knowledge with you!
What are the Permaculture Zones?
In permaculture, we use zones to help us organize the landscape we’re designing. There are six zones in total, each one getting further away from the house we’re designing around. Zone 0 is inside the house, zone 1 is immediately around the house, zone two is just beyond that, and so on until we get the to zone that’s furthest away, zone 5. The crops, animals, and structures in each of these zones get higher maintenance as you move toward the home and less maintenance as you move away.
Why Use the Permaculture Zones?
When we use the permaculture zones to organize which elements go where, we create efficiency across the landscape. The house is our home base. When we leave the house to do work in the gardens, we would make our lives more difficult to put the highest maintenance plants and animals far away, difficult to access. If we know tomatoes need a lot of attention, it’s smarter to put the tomatoes somewhere where we can get to them easily and quickly. And plants that don’t require hardly any attention like chestnut trees can go much further away. By assessing what care different elements need and then using the zones to place them, we make growing food a lot easier for us. That means we have more energy to do more things!
How to Use the Permaculture Zones
Before placing different elements in the different zones in your landscape, it’s important to understand a couple of things first. To begin, we have to know which elements we want on the landscape. What kinds of trees do we wish to grow? Which animals do we wish to raise? Do we want a manure composting area or just a regular compost? Do we want to grow grains? etc. Then, we have to know what kind of care each of those elements needs. If we want apple trees, how much water do they require? How many times per year do we need to prune them? What will we do with the drop apples, should we have the pigs nearby so we can easily give the drops to the pigs? And so on.
Once we have this understanding, we also need to understand the landscape and the different sectors of the property. For instance, if we want to grow water-loving plants like willows and irises, do we have streams or other natural water sources we can plant them near? Where are the sunniest areas on the property? Which areas receive the most wind in the winter? When we have an understanding of the elements we want to include and the natural elements in the landscape, we can then begin organizing the elements into different zones.
Remember, the permaculture zones aren’t meant to be perfect circles at perfect distances from the house. The zones are permeable, jagged, and flexible. They will bleed into each other and change from year to year. And the zones are organized by convenience to access, not necessarily by measurable distances.
Zone 0: Inside the Home
| YIELDS | snacks, easy-access medicines, herbs, and greens |
| STRUCTURES | root cellar, drying room, pantry, window sill gardens, and planters |
| CROPS | microgreens, sprouts, potted trees like lemons, medicinal house plants like aloe vera, indoor herb garden, root cellar, pantry |
| CARE | protection from weather and temperature, frequent watering |
| WATER | household tap |
| ANIMALS | pets, crickets |
Zone 0 is the zone inside the home. In this zone, you don’t have to leave your house to collect your harvest! Here’s what you may find in zone 0: indoor herb hardens, microgreens, sprouts, storage crops you’ve put away in the cellar, etc. Especially if you live in colder climates, you can get really creative in this zone. Do you have big south-facing windows? Try putting some edible and medicinal houseplants on the window sills. There are so many edible and medicinal plants that grow well indoors: aloe vera, lemons, limes, figs, rosemary, culinary herbs, etc.
Zone 1: The Most Intensive Care Crops
| YIELDS | daily food, flowers, and herbs; beauty; home microclimates |
| STRUCTURES | potted plants, arbor, deck, trellises, bird baths and houses, shed, wood shop, wood storage |
| CROPS | salad greens and vegetables, fresh herbs, lawn, trees, and shrubs for beauty and microclimate |
| CARE | intensive, daily weeding, mulching, pruning, deadheading, watering |
| WATER | rain barrels, grey water, house well or tap |
| ANIMALS | small-scale poultry like chickens, rabbits, worms, crickets |
Zone 1 is the area immediately around your home. This zone is all about beauty, microclimates, and easy-access crops. Herb spirals, salad greens, tomatoes, strawberries–anything you get real quick if you need it in the kitchen. When I wake up in the morning, it’s nice to be able to walk outside in my slippers, harvest some chamomile, and make fresh tea. Or, if I’m making a salad for lunch, I like to be able to go outside and harvest the supplies without having to walk too far.
Not only do we plant crops we want on hand in this zone, but we plant high-maintenance crops here, too. Pruning and harvesting tomatoes, for instance, can feel like a big chore. However, if your tomatoes are growing right beside the patio where you spend a lot of time, working on them will be much more feasible.
Because this zone is immediately around the house, it’s important that this zone helps to beautify your home (if that’s important to you!). The native or non-invasive flowering plants and shrubs you want to grow should be in this zone. You can also plant flowers and shrubs that will attract butterflies, hummingbirds, or whatever else you’re interested in.
Zone 2: Semi-intensive Care and Market Crops
| YIELDS | food for the home, storage crops, market crops, seeding and propagation, bird and insect habitat |
| STRUCTURES | greenhouse, prop house, tool shed, barn, compost bins |
| CROPS | canning, drying, crafting, and storage crops, fruit from bushes and small trees, some nuts |
| CARE | weekly weeding, some mulching, cover cropping, seasonal pruning |
| WATER | well, ponds, tanks, greywater, irrigation |
| ANIMALS | poultry, rabbits, pigs |
In zone 2, we grow the bulk of our storage and home crops as well as some food for the market. This zone contains our large garden beds, greenhouses, prop house, barn, tool shed, and compost. If you are growing veggies for market, this zone will be very active. This is also the area where the bulk of our sustenance crops are grown, including small fruit and nut trees that require seasonal attention. The plants in zone 2 require weekly attention but may go a few days without weeding. In this zone, we are also using irrigation and automatic watering systems versus hand watering as we do in zone 1.
Zone 3: Low-intensity Care and Production Farm Crops
| YIELDS | cash crops, pasture, orchards, vineyards, large fruit and nut trees, wildlife habitat |
| STRUCTURES | animal feeders, vineyards |
| CROPS | cash crops, large fruit and nut trees, vineyard plants |
| CARE | cover cropping, light pruning, moveable fences |
| WATER | ponds, streams, swales |
| ANIMALS | goats, horses, cows, sheep, other large animals, production poultry |
Zone 3 is reserved for large-scale production crops and grazing animals. In this zone, we don’t venture out very often except on special occasions. This is the zone where our large fruit and nut tree orchards are as well as our vineyards. In different parts of the year, we go to the orchards and vineyards to prune, harvest, and do some light maintenance. This is also where our large animals graze. Therefore, we need to move fencing around in the growing season and do some pasture maintenance throughout the year, too. In some cases, people will use this zone for firewood and lumber production, but that’s mostly reserved for zone 4.
Zone 4: Minimal Care and Forage Crops
| YIELDS | hunting, foraging, fishing, grazing, wildlife habitat |
| STRUCTURES | animal feeders, mushroom logs |
| CROPS | firewood, timber, cultivated mushrooms, foraged crops |
| CARE | pasturing and selective forestry |
| WATER | ponds, streams, rivers |
| ANIMALS | pasture animals |
We don’t do much to zone 4, but it can still provide us with a lot of yields! This is the minimal care zone. In this zone, plants are free to grow on their own and only see some selective forestry from us. Zone 4 is where we harvest our firewood and timber. Therefore, this zone may see heavy handling only a couple of times per year. This is also the zone for wildcrafting, wild cultivation, and foraging. If you’re interested in cultivating wild crops like ginseng, mushrooms, or ramps, this is the zone to do it. In the case of silvopasture, you can also allow your grazing animals to forage here.
Zone 5: Unmanaged Wild Area
| YIELDS | wildlife sanctuary, inspiration, strolling, some foraging |
| STRUCTURES | none |
| CROPS | foraged crops, mushrooms |
| CARE | habitat restoration, wildcrafting |
| WATER | natural sources |
| ANIMALS | wild animals |
Zone 5 is critical to permaculture design. This is the wild, unmanaged area. In this zone, we let plants and wildlife exist without human disruption. Every thriving ecosystem requires zones where insects, birds, and wildlife are allowed to live peacefully. By creating these wild areas, we welcome biodiversity onto the landscape which in turn helps our crops and soil thrive. Even on small, suburban properties, hedgerows, wildflower gardens, etc. are really important. Foraging in the wild areas of our permaculture zones is ok on occasion, but these areas should largely be left alone.
The Free Permaculture Visioning Workbook
If you’re interested in creating your own permaculture designs, check out the free visioning workbook. Visioning, the second step in the permaculture design process, is arguably the most fun and creative. With this guide, you’ll get prompts and lists of elements that will help you dream up your perfect design. Type your email above and get the guide in your inbox now!
Summary: Permaculture Zones
When sipping your morning tea on the porch of your permaculture oasis, you can sit back and enjoy the beauty of your permaculture zones in action! You can appreciate how you’ve designed the landscape for efficiency and high production. In each of the 6 zones, you know there is and abundance of food for you and your family to enjoy.
Are you designing a permaculture landscape? Or are you dreaming of it? Let me know in the comments how the permaculture zones have helped you, I would love to read about your experience!
Thanks for stopping by and happy gardening!
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