Permaculture Zones

The term ‘Zones’ in Permaculture are simply labels for areas that are grouped together reflecting specific activities and characteristics.

The zones are used to make sustainable design easy and ensure that each area is efficient, low maintenance, produces good results and integrates smoothly with other zones.

The zones are:

Zone 0 – Where you live, or where you spend most of your time in relation to the place of your Permaculture Project (ie. it could be your office or shop)

Zone 1 – Vegetable Patch and close plantings to your house (or office or shop)

Zone 2 – The “Food Forest” or Orchard

Zone 3 – The Farming Area (whether it be crops or animals – often for commercial use)

Zone 4 – Harvest Forests

Zone 5 – Natural Forests or Conservation Areas

Imagine the different zones as circles heading out from Zone 0. And then each zone requires less and less resources in the form of maintenance and water, etc. as the zone number gets higher. The reasoning behind this is efficiency and time management. For example, you wouldn’t want to have to tramp all the way through a natural forest (Zone 5) from your house (Zone 0) just to get to a handful of Zucchinis in your Vegetable Garden (Zone 1). That simply wouldn’t be efficient.

Some plots only cater for Zones 0, 1 and 2, due to lack of space, or simply because the owner has no desire for anything further – and that’s just fine.

Let’s look at each zone independently over the next few articles:

Zone 0 – Your Home

Out of all of the zones, Zone 0 is where the most human activity is… and unfortunately, also where the most amount of pollution, water and over-consumption of non-renewable resouces takes place.

Imagine if you could make Zone 0 so environmentally friendly that in relation to pollution and consumption, it was on par with Zone 5 (Natural Forest). Wow! It’s possible – and it’s being done in different parts of the world right at this moment.

You could easily be on the same path…

• Use sustainable building products, fixtures and fittings – recycled ones as well as recyclable ones would be ideal. Consider quality when looking to buy. Buying cheap that is ‘trumpety’ and will break in no time simply isn’t sustainable. Buying quality ensures a longer life span – and therefore only product needing to be manufactured – not three or four.
• Get a rainwater tank that suits your water consumption needs. Don’t make the mistake of buying too small a tank. You’d be surprised at the number of people who lament, “I wish we’d gotten a bigger tank”. This is why planning is so very important. Don’t just suddenly decide you want a water tank and go out and buy the cheapest one. Work out what your requirements are – and don’t be afraid to ask the water tank manufacturer or supplier for advice.
• When putting together your house plans look at using one resource to support another. For example, heating of rooms can be achieved by sending the used hot shower/bath water through pipes in the walls throughout the house. Then that water could be fed through mulch and delivered to your vegetable garden and orchard.
• You could set up alternative energy systems making use of natural elements, eg. the sun and wind.
• Design your home to take advantage of breezes through the hotter months of the year and sun position for the cooler months.
• Use ‘green walls’ or ‘living walls’ to create micro-climates and keep areas cool. (We’ll discuss these a bit more in a later article).
• Make use of insulation to keep your house warm.
• Be smart with your cleaning. Use a broom instead of a vacuum cleaner where possible. 
• Be imaginative and come up with alternatives to electrical appliance use. Read a book or magazine rather than watching TV. Use a Solar Cooker instead of a Stove Top (more about Solar Cooking in a later article too!). Hang your clothes out to dry in the sun rather than use a Clothes Dryer. Opening your windows and allowing fresh clean air through your home is a much healthier alternative to an electric fan.
• Use environmentally friendly cleaning products.
• Make your home and office as ‘paper consumer-less’ as possible.
• Set up recycling bins throughout your shop or workplace (or home) and encourage people to use them.
• Organise a ‘scrap bin’ or maybe even a ‘Bokashi Bucket’ for scraps from lunches and cooking, that can be later added to the compost bin.

We’ll look at the other Zones in more detail shortly.