La Boca Permaculture Plan Overview

Permaculture Design Patterns

Permaculture Design is a holistic pattern science organized to help us thoughtfully design life affirming ways to live in community with each other and the Earth. A Permaculture Design Plan is a conscious design effort to join the Heart of the Land and the Heart of the People for sustainable, regenerative living. Permaculture design principles extend from the position that "The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children" - Bill Mollision

Throughout the ages it has been the quiet, patient understanding of those connected via the Heart that have cooperated as stewards and caretakers within the natural order, creating structure, and beauty in partnership with Nature. It is time once more as conscious designers to do our part to remember our roots, to cherish and care for that which sustains us, to honor that which animates us and gives us Being.

The La Boca Permaculture Design Project has us consider how we can consciously design our ways of living, our means of livelihood, and our ways of relating such that we can be co-creators of the Global Vision set forth by the La Boca founders:

Hisatsinom pitcher

Pueblo Bonita
Hisatsinom bowl

La Boca Outline of Vision - The global perspective

A world where cultural and biological diversity are sustained and enhanced, communication between individuals and nations is non-violent, pollution is minimal and waste is transformed ; where the needs of people are met without compromising future generations or the integrity of planetary ecosystems.

The La Boca Permaculture Design Project will provide us with a living road map to fulfill the La Boca mission stated as:

La Boca Mission

Create an atmosphere that nurtures curiosity and inspires creativity and compassion in human beings and integrates respect and responsibility toward the natural world; shaping the balance essential to sustain healthy ecosystems and human communities.

With good design, we can put processes in place designed to meet our goals:

La Boca Goals

Propagate biological and genetic diversity in agricultural systems.
Utilize local sustainable sources of energy, food, fiber and building materials and support the community of local and regional suppliers.
Work for the protection of local watersheds.
Cultivate ecological literacy.
Nurture and reawaken the connection between human beings and the natural world.
Help individuals connect with their own personal potential.
Research and design systems that provide for economic viability, have environmental integrity and social stability
Integrate art into daily life. Art...."for the people by the people"

Ultimately support sustainability as defined by La Boca: the ability of people to meet their needs without compromising the needs of future generations or planetary ecosystems; leading to sustained or enhanced bio-diversity and minimal and transformed pollution and waste.

Just as each and every individual has a unique life plan and contribution to make so does each organization. Permaculture Design brings together the supporting living systems to enable us at La Boca implement our specific path...

Corn

Ute Encampment

Corn

La Boca - Our Path: fulfilling our mission, meeting our goals

Using sustainable practices La Boca will produce food, material and energy while supporting and enhancing cultural and biological diversity, community and the integrity of the land. La Boca will designate riparian areas, wetlands and other natural areas as habitat and corridors for wildlife.
Experiential education and learner led learning - Learning is the result of the innate curiosity in human beings. La Boca will provide opportunities for people to be intricately involved in the creation of ongoing projects and experiences. We strive to eliminate the hierarchy present in traditional teaching systems to allow room for connection to oneself and ones own true desires and talents. We embrace an environment open to change and directions unknown.
Research - Recognizing the importance of inquiry and investigation in the ongoing process of discovery; La Boca is developing monitoring systems to study the effectiveness and usefulness of our various systems. Intricate connection to the land is maintained through continual exploration and study of the ecosystems at work on La Boca property.
Synthesis and social change - La Boca looks across cultures and socio-economic classes, throughout time and within nature for wisdom on the journey to sustainability. People from all walks of life will be assembled as advisors and activists to create a broad range of experiences and interests from which to form, and more fully understand the questions to be asked regarding a sustainable future; to then act in good faith toward that means.
Community Fit - As an education and research center for local, sustainable agriculture.

D&S RR

La Boca Blding

Processes and Elements of the La Boca Permaculture Master Plan

The planning process is a synthesis of many wholes into mutually supporting patterns of design. Specific planning steps will include such process steps as to:

Describe vision, mission, and goals along with noting available resources and assets.
Base Plan ~ draw up a scale plan of everything that is on the land we are working with. This includes all structures, paths, vegetation, power lines & boundary. Leave a good - sized margin for the recording of the sector analysis (step 4).
"Listening to the Land". Observe & record. In this step we observe and discover what the land is doing and what it wants to do.
In this step we continue observation by watching for the comings & goings of birds & insects. When are they around? What are they doing? Identify them & find out about their life cycles. This info will aid us greatly to design in good biological balance.
Look at the weeds/plants/trees. Wind shearing indicates strong prevailing wind. They can also tell us of soil types & moisture levels. Light levels & microclimates. Plants won't grow where it doesn't suit them!
Look more closely at the structures we have mapped. What resources do they provide? Water catchment, shelter from wind, thermal mass, light reflection, greywater, kitchen scraps? What microclimates do they provide?
Check out the resources we can find within & without the boundaries of our land. List them all. For example lupin bush, gorse & broom provide nutrients & can be cut before flowering & laid as mulch around trees & shrubs or composted in a slow composting system. Rocks, bricks, tin, wood, lawn clippings, branches to prune are all resources. Off site ~ materials from the verges (includes propagation material), organic material from cafés, restaurants, sawmills, gardening business', organizations for shredded organic material, people for help in various ways, markets for income.
Sector Analysis (centers/wholes) ~ record all the incoming & out going energies affecting the land ~ winds (are they strong & cold bringing rain/ hail or hot & drying?) & what direction they come from & when. Maori peoples used the Ti tree to tell them which direction the wind was blowing. They saw how her hair was parted by it. You may remember which windows are rain spattered or have hail beating on them. Remember that there can also be benefits from some winds as they bring rain. How does the sun move from season to season? How water moves on &/or off the land. Which direction would fires/floods come from? How does the surrounding landscape affect our plot? Do we have rain shadows, steep slopes which speed the winds up? Where are the views &/or noise pollution coming from? Are there any existing wildlife corridors? This knowledge enables us to harness, modify or enhance the energies. It also helps us to plan zone placement & the placement of many elements.
Elevational planning looks at our site in profile which is useful when assessing slope & aspect which affect airflows & can aid the flow of energies including ours.
Data overlay is where we use a technique such as laying transparent sheets of paper over the base map/sector analysis on which are mapped the info on soils & microclimates we collect. It is a way of building up a picture of our plot. Aerial/topographic/cadastral maps can be useful too especially if we have a large area as they can, at a glance, give options not easily seen from the ground. They do lack detail & conditions may have changed since they were made e.g. pollution, erosion.
Microclimates: identify the small climates we find within our plot. There will be many differences. Here's an exercise we can do to gather info about the various microclimates. Go to different areas of the land & close eyes. Use all of our senses. Our skin will pick up subtle temperature changes & air movements. Feel the soil beneath us for moisture, texture, mulch & temperature. Squat as well as stand & move around. Plants can be smaller than we are! This info will enable us to use these areas & enhance/modify them if necessary.
Soils: take a spade & go over our plot digging down to the spades depth. This will give us a basic idea of some of the different soil types we will be working with. We need at least 30cm of good topsoil to enable healthy plants to grow. Some deeper rooted plants/trees/shrubs will require more. We will like to take advantage of a soil analysis, especially since we are considering commercial ventures and wanting to grow plants which require specific soil types &/or minerals.
Analysis. This tool enables us to create the beneficial relationships that are central to good Permaculture design. It leads to a great deal of creation! These relationships echo those we find in Nature. The principles of "co-operation not competition" & "observe & interact" apply here. Take an element that we want in our design. Look at all its needs & what it gives ~ eg. a pond needs: shelter from wind, some sun, a water source/catchment, plants, fish, and aeration. It provides extra humidity & light to the area surrounding it, moisture to the edges, thermal mass (holds heat & radiates it out in the evening), food & beauty. Its needs will be met, if placed in good relationship to other elements & in return their needs will be met by it. Look at other elements that we have or need, in the same way & see how we can place them so that their needs & yields are met by each other. Cycles of energy are enhanced & created this way.
Deductions from nature or gardening by analogy. Here we look at nature to gain various ideas for strategies. How can we imitate nature? For example ~microclimates in nature. Native plants on a windy site will have various ways to survive those conditions such as small leaves to reduce moisture loss. We can choose plants with similar characteristics for our windbreaks. We can look for differences & ask ourself "why"? Look at forest edges on windward & sheltered sides. What are the differences in the types of plants that grow there? How are they placed in relationship to each other? This will help with windbreak design. Shady gullies ~ what are the plants, soils like here? Look at disturbed areas & the changes that occur over time. How does this happen? What prepares the way for the next succession? What did it provide?
Zone planning (centers/wholes). Even on a small section all zones from 0~5 can be included. Zones are about creating & placing areas of activity in good relationship to their needs & yields. Eg zone 1 is traditionally placed as close to the house (zone 0) as possible, as it needs lots of visits to care for & harvest from it. We can see ourself as a yield of zone 0! The orchard or food forest needs less & is tended to on a more seasonal basis & so can be placed further away. Look at how the needs & yields of each of these zones can be met by each other & zone 0. Good placement once again enhances energy cycles & creates energy efficiency. Zones are concepts, their boundaries blur as they are designed to ours & the land's needs & develop & change over time.
Flow diagrams. Look at how we move across the land. How could this change when our design is implemented? Make the pathways multi - functional. We are a flow of energy in a Permaculture system! eg. We leave the house with the compost bucket & a basket & on the way back from the compost we can collect the eggs, & pick some herbs/veges & maybe grab a few pieces of wood or kindling from the woodpile. In the house look at, for example the steps we take to prepare a meal. Place the various workspaces & storage spaces so that the work flows & your energy is saved.
Guild Design. Next we take the elements and resources we have collected and look at how we can beneficially relate them together in Guilds. This results in sets of patterns we will use to create combinations of elements that mutually cooperate and support each other.

Permaculture Master Plan

When we have completed our steps above, we will collate the results of our efforts in the La Boca Permaculture Design Plan document and website so we can refer to this living document as we begin the sequences of our implementation of the plan.

La Boca Permaculture Master Design Plan Report

Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 CLIENTS

1.2 SITE DESCRIPTION

1.3 COMMUNITY

2.0 DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1 NUTRIENT CYCLES

2.2 SHELTER

2.3 ACCESS

2.4 ENERGY

2.5 WATER

2.6 COMMUNITY

2.7 ECONOMICS

2.7.1 BUDGET AND NARRATIVE

2.8 CONSIDERATIONS

2.9 STAGING

YEAR I:

YEAR II:

YEAR III:

YEAR IV:

YEAR V:

3.0 APPENDICES