维克农庄的朴門设计方案

Our Permaculture Design 维克农庄的朴門设计方案

01. History

In the early 1800’s, this area was logged for Red Cedar and Turpentine. The original grant was subdivided in 1880 (see below) and the blocks haven’t changed too much since then. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, this property was probably an orchard, like most farms in this area. In the mid 1980s, most of the land was still cleared, according to a previous owner. Later in the 1980s, the owners of Lots 3, 4, 5 and 6, subdivided into 3 blocks. Our property is the largest of these blocks (approx 4 acres).

02. Climate

Lisarow is close to the coast and the climate is therefore sub-tropical.

Chill units/hours: 700 (medium chill)

03. Constraints

03.01 Existing “problems”

Most of the property was still cleared 30 years ago. Due to neglect, some weeds have taken over:

Coral trees (all cut now but stumps are still alive)
Privet (good for stakes, toxic to goats)
Lantana (soil builder, wildlife habitat)
Morning glory.
Wandering jew (good chicken food)

03.02 Legal constraints

The property is zoned 7a for conservation. This means that agriculture is not officially allowed.

The property is not officially prone to landslide, although some neighbouring properties on the Southern side of the hill are.

As most acreage properties on the hills, this one is prone to bushfire.

04. Personal objectives

Self-reliance for vegies, fruits, poultry
Trade excess food at FIG, LETS…
No large animals (except goats, sheeps)
Keep visible areas tidy and aesthetically pleasing
Aquaculture system around the dam
Potential home business: Bed & Breakfast, natural therapy practice, niche food market…
New 3-space garage for extra-storage

05. Major desired elements

Kitchen garden
Chicken coops
Food forest
Aquaculture in and around the dam
More storage area
Bee hives
Compost
Outdoor living area(s)
Outdoor cooking area(s)
Walking tracks

06. Site Analysis

06.01 Areas

06.02 Structures

Note: the old house is out of scope and considered as a separate system

House
Garage
Open shed
Goat shelter
Chicken coops

06.03 Topography

06.04 Water

Town water

The old house is connected to town water.
The water meter is as the bottom of the driveway, under the juniper. There’s a tap between the driveway and the “no-man’s land”.

Tank water

The new house is supplied exclusively by tank water.

The roof feeds the 2 concrete water tanks.

Water is pumped back to the house with an electric water pump. This means that during a power blackout, there’s no running water in the house.

06.05 Access

07. Sector Analysis

08. Zones

Zone I

Kitchen garden on terraces behind the house (South) for intensive annual veggies

Perennial veggies in the garden beds, West of the house

Perennial veggies and citrus in garden bed, North of the house

Zone II

Improve the existing “orchard” to create a food forest on swales

Build a new chicken coop for layers, between the Zone I and Zone II, for pest control and easier egg collection.

Zone III

Rotate goats on a monthly basis between West paddock, North paddock and Horse paddock

Rotate the chicken tractor after the goats rotated

Swale in North paddock overflowing into the dam

Zone IV

Shelterbelt to protect from winds and fire danger from W-NW

Native tree forest for firewood, timber … And maybe nut trees.

Zone V

Mostly in SE area (very shaded and contaminated with rubbish)

Corridors around the property.

09. Proposed Design – Stage 1 (2012-2013)

09.01 New water tank(s)

Water supply to the house

Instead of pumping collected rainwater back to the house, we’ll install a Header Tank on top of the hill and feed water back to the house by gravity. We may install a small pump to provide extra water pressure for showers.

Rainwater collection

We have 2 options:

Collect rainwater in the 2 existing concrete tanks

Build a new collection tank behind the house (possible additional use for retaining) or in the West paddock.
Split collection between new tank and old tanks or spread the load?

09.02 Kitchen garden

The slope behind the house is currently retained with a few large tree logs that are now very rotten and may collapse at any time.

We will add 3 tiers of terraces to retain the hill, provide garden beds and a pleasant sitting area.

Features:

The lowest terrace will be supported by the existing sealed brick wall.
The new terraces will be supported by dry stone walls, 0.6m high (batter not drawn below)
Access:
- Ramp at the bottom, 1m wide
- Ramp at top near the new chicken coop and food forest, 1m wide
Path : 0.9 cm wide to easily move a wheelbarrow around

09.03 Food Forest

We will improve the existing orchard to make it a resilient food forest.
The perimeter will be fenced off to keep wallabies, bandicoots, rabbits, goats, etc out, and to keep chickens in.
The 3 paths leading to the food forest will have a basic gate.
We will build a new chicken coop at the edge of the food forest and the kitchen garden. Sheltered behind the coop will be a plant propagation area.
New trees will be netted to keep birds out.
Irrigation polypipe will be connected to the Header tank and provide water in very dry weather.

Top swale:

Located between wattle and 2nd gum tree

No dig (poor shallow soil). The mound will be built with recycled green waste.

Spillway on the North West end, to overflow into the terrace

Trees: Mediterranean (dry tolerant) dwarf trees. E.g. Olive, Blueberry

Terrace:

Located between the macadamia (uphill) and the 11th fence post (West paddock).

Dining area with pergola behind the macadamia.

If possible, level all the way. If not, slightly raise the dining area.

Retained by a dry stone wall on the North West side.

Filled with recycled green waste.

Access:

Stairs along the West paddock fence

Path from the kitchen garden to the pergola

Path from the bottom of the hill, along the South end of the food forest.

Spillway into the Hugelkultur

Trees: Temperate dwarf trees

Hugelkultur:

Stack logs and branches of (avoid allelopathic trees) on contour and over with recycled green waste

Located between the Ice cream bean next to the mango and the lychee.

Spillway on the South side into the bottom swale.

Trees: subtropical dwarf trees

Bottom swale:

Located near the blue gum tree (a few meters away) and the bird of paradise.

Dig by hand or with a 5-ton excavator

Spillway on the North side into the existing garden bed.

Trees: subtropical dwarf trees (wind resistant species on North side)

09.04 New garage

A new 3-car space will be built in front of the existing open shed, either on a suspended slab or on filled land. Ideally, it will have a single door at least 2.3m high.
The gutters will fill either the existing concrete water tanks or a new water tank.
The driveway in front of this new garage will be level to allow easy parking of the trailer boat. The rest of the driveway does not need to be perfectly level.

The existing open shed will be knocked down and replaced with a 1:3 batter but the existing guava tree will be retained.

The retaining wall behind the water tanks and the existing garage will be reinforced to stop it moving further.

The existing garage may be renovated once the new garage is built.

We may install an off-the-grid solar panel system on one of the garages.

09.05 Other small structures

Beehives

We’ve built a terrace under the big blue gum next to the orchard. One beehive will sit on the big stump and another one will sit next to it on the terrace.

Firewood shed

We’ve built a 3.5×2.5m shed between the 2 blue gum trees, next to the orchard, to safely store firewood away from the house.

We’ll install gutters and harvest water in a 44-gallon drum.

09.06 Zone 0: the house

Solar hot water system.
Cladding on West wall: to reflect the hot afternoon sun and to protect in case of bushfire.
Curtains on all windows

09.07 Shelterbelt

We need to protect the house from W-NW winds and potential bushfire.

We will plant a dense strip of wind-resistant and fire-resistant plants on the edge of the North forest and the West paddock. Plants will be as much as possible native and/or edible.

Canopy (up to 30m): Silver wattle, Plum pine (Illawarra plum), Scrub beefwood

Understory (up to 15m): Mulberry, Lilly Pilly, Sweet pittosporum, Cheese tree, Gosford wattle

Shrubs: Breynia (Coffee bush), Sandpaper fig, native guava, banana

Herbs: native ginger, pigface, native wandering jew

10. Proposed design – Stage 2 (2014-)

Aquaculture in and around the dam

Ducks

Fish?

Rice?

Aquatic edible plants

Swale between the shelterbelt and the dam

Low maintenance food forest

Fire resistant semi-dwarf fruit trees

Fodder trees

Food forest in East paddock