Picture this: a landscape with orchards, pasture, a stunning vegetable garden, rain barrels, and solar panels. Imagine a landscape full of abundance, color, and life. A landscape where all of the plants, animals, and people who live there work in harmony with each other–where everyone is supported. On this landscape, you put a few hours of work in every day and are provided with more food than you can imagine. Plus, the environment is healing around you because of your wonderful gardens. This landscape is possible–and it starts with permaculture zones and sectors.
In this article, we will learn about the ways sustainable landscape designers organize a landscape. In my experience as someone with a lot of background in sustainable agriculture, the permaculture zones and sectors are some of the best tools to begin a permaculture design. We’re going to discuss the zones, the sectors, and how you can use them in your own designs to create these lush oases. Let’s get into it!
What is the Permaculture Zones and Sectors Method?
The permaculture zones and sectors method is a way of organizing and categorizing the landscape. When we use zones and sectors, we are creating areas where different types of elements should be placed depending on their support needs. Using this method, we create areas for high-maintenance crops, zero-maintenance crops, and everything in between to ensure their needs are met in an efficient way. We also create areas for elements with particular needs for environmental interactions. By identifying sunny areas in the winter, for example, we can plant crops that need that winter sun there. This system of categorization allows for efficiency and resilience across the landscape.
Why Use the Permaculture Zones and Sectors Method?
When we use the permaculture zones and sectors 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, and 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. Therefore, we use the permaculture zones to place them in appropriate proximities to the home.
Every element has different needs and sensitivities. Some elements are more sensitive to the winter winds and some are more sensitive to the hot, direct sun in the summer. By identifying sectors, we can place elements on the landscape where they will best thrive. Plus, when we identify areas with ugly views, that are prone to flooding, or that are near a busy road, we can use our design to compensate for those things. The sector method helps us out there.
The Permaculture Zones and Sectors Method
Permaculture zones and sectors are two different methods that work in tandem with each other. To understand how they work together, we first have to understand them on their own.
The Zones Method
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.
Zone 0: Inside the Home
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 ou 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
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 Crops
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 vegies 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-intensive Care and Production Crops
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
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
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 Sector Method
There are many different kinds of sectors we can define on a site. Below are eight examples of sectors you could look at for your landscape design. However, don’t feel limited by these options! When assessing your site, get creative and think about all of the elements that may be interacting with that particular site.
The Wind Sector
On the landscape you’re designing on, where does the wind typically come from, and in which direction does it go? Where does the wind blow in the summer? Where does it blow in the winter? Understanding the wind sector throughout the seasons is really important for a couple of reasons. We may want to design the landscape to either prevent or promote wind in different areas. For instance, maybe we want the wind to blow on the patio in the summer to keep it cool and keep the bugs away. And in the winter, we want to prevent the cold winds from blowing on the house.
The Sun Sector
The sun sector is one of the most important. And it changes dramatically depending on the season. Not only is the sun in the sky longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, but trees also lose their leaves in the winter which can influence where the sun lands. This light assessment determines what kinds of plants should go where for resilience and sustainability. To assess for light on your property, you can use this sunlight calculation tool. By toggling the dates, you can see where the sun rises and sets on your property at different times of the year plus how high in the sky the sun gets.
The Shade Sector
Similarly, it’s also important to know where the shady areas on the property are at different times of the year. In the shade sectors, we want to grow shade-loving plants and avoid growing full-sun plants. It’s also really important to know where the shade sectors are in the winter because those areas will get colder than areas that get sun. For instance, the north side of the house will get colder than the south side. Are there things we can do to keep that area warmer? Not only do we want to assess where the shade is now but also where it will be. If we plant oaks in an area, the ground around them will be completely shaded out in the summertime five years from now.
The View Sector
Are the ugly views you want to hide? Are there beautiful views you want to emphasize? Do you have neighbors close by and need privacy? By assessing the views of the landscape, we can create designs that hide ugly views, frame beautiful views, and create privacy from the neighbors and public spaces like the road.
The Fire and Flood Sectors
Is your site at risk of natural disasters like flooding and fires? When doing our site assessments, it’s important to note which areas of the property are at risk of getting damaged. If there are low areas of the property prone to flooding, what elements could you introduce to prevent floods or redirect that flood water? If you are in an area that’s at risk of fire, which direction is it likely to come from? What can you include in the design to prevent fires? Can you introduce flood and fire-resistant plants in those areas?
The Wildlife Sector
Even if you’re designing in the city, there are areas on every site where wildlife likes to come and go. This sector can be manipulated to attract wildlife we’d like to see on the property while preventing that wildlife from causing serious damage to the plants and animals on the site. For example, by planting our apple orchard away from our vegetable gardens, we can attract deer onto the property while distracting them from our veggies.
The Pollution Sector
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to avoid pollutants in this day and age. However, there are ways we can mitigate it. By identifying potential sources of pollutants, we can add elements to our permaculture design to lessen their impact. Examples of potential sources of pollution include nearby farms, power plants, highways, etc. Remember, pollution doesn’t just include chemical pollutants, but also light, sound, and smells.
The Neighbor and Public Sectors
Not all of us have the luxury of designing a permaculture oasis completely away from the view of a street or a neighbor’s house. By identifying privacy sectors, we can create designs that protect our privacy and protect us from potential crime. For example, if we are designing for a property next to an alley in the city, we can create structures that prevent people from entering the property.
How to Use the Permaculture Zones and Sectors
Now that you understand the permaculture zones and sectors, let’s get into how to actually use them.
Using 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.
Using the Permaculture Sectors
To use the permaculture sectors, we have to assess the site we’re designing for. When doing this assessment, it’s important to observe a site for at least a year (if we can) before creating a design. In this year of observation, it’s important to note how different outside elements are interacting with the site in every season of the year. This is because the sunlight, wind, rain, noise, floods, and fires all shift dramatically from season to season. Once you have these observations, you can assign sectors to the property and being designing.
To design using the permaculture sectors, we have to understand the elements we’re introducing. First, make a list of all of the elements you wish to include in your design (trees, buildings, animals, etc.). Then, think about all of the care and needs of those elements. Once you have that list, you can begin placing the elements in the sectors. For example, if I want to grow paw paws, I know that they are sensitive to the cold and snow. Therefore, I am going to avoid placing those trees in areas of the site that are more impacted by the winter (north of the house, for example) and plant them where they’ll get lots of warmth from the winter sun.
The Free Guide to the Permaculture Zones
If you’re interested in permaculture design, you should check out the free visioning workbook. In this guide, you’ll learn about the second step in the permaculture design process: visioning (arguably the most fun and creative step). Type in your email above and get the workbook sent right to your inbox.
Summary
Living in a landscape full of resilience, abundance, and life is possible. When creating permaculture landscape designs, designers begin with the zones and sectors method to organize and categorized areas on the land. By doing this, we are able to place elements in proper relationship to us, each other, and the surrounding environment. All while creating opportunities for all elements to thrive and to take care of our mother earth. If you’d like to learn more about permaculture, check out my article on the permaculture design process.
Have any questions about the permaculture zones and sectors? Have anything to add? Leave your thoughts in the comments, I would love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading and happy designing!
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