#36 Revealing my permaculture design plans

Permaculture means working with nature, not against it. Therefore, the land will have three main functions: It will provide a living area, where we will also teach knowledge of sustainable living, it will provide food for us, guests and possibly others and it will provide a natural habitat for wildlife and nature. The three functions work hand in hand and restore the circle of nature. Now it is time for the reveal of my current masterplan.

You can support this project by sponsoring one of our trees or becoming a member:

[marzupalami]

Awesome work so far, thanks for the update and keep it up!

[leoreodcinn]

First video of yours I have seen, and I am already excited to see the plan unfold! Video layout, presentation and quality is excellent!

[nicole-slowliving]

Vielen Dank für die tollen Infos, bald lebe ich in der gleichen Gegend und freue mich jetzt schon einen Workshop zu besuchen ☺️. Alles Gute 🙏 Nicole

[pongop]

Amazing land and vision! Every day will be a magical adventure!

[xenoclassical]

I am doing your same thing but in Puglia in Italy! Still struggling with the building of the house, and I am still studying the land deciding what to do! I hope you will wenjoy your journey! :)

[PanhurstFarmsMorocco]

So cool! Well done! Love from our homestead here in Morocco to yours 🇲🇦

[hannesssss]

i am impressed by your courage and see the value of your mission, just a few things i observed and wanted to share, so maybe it could help you: i recommend a composting system inside the reach of the chicken scratcing and also near the veg.garden- so based only on the map i would recommend the veg. garden to be on the north of the house (there you could play with the shadow from the house, maybe its beneficial in your climate?) and the compost right on the other side of the wall (if the black line is a wall?) so the pigpen could benefit the composting too. also it looks like the outdoor shower is quite far away?

[pepe]

Amazing plans! PS: Careful on getting farm pink pigs as they get sunburned

[SeekingBeautifulDesign]

A cautionary tale from a similar endeavour:
On my permaculture property, there was a 20' high maple privacy hedge underneath the power lines. The maples had maxed out in height and weren't close to the lines. But, without my knowledge, the contractor for the power company came and shredded a decade or so of growth.

So, the OPM (Other People's Money) principle might be helpful for you. The power company doesn't have much incentive to respect nor understanding of your plans. It looks like you've wisely avoided trees near the power lines, but just because the regulations say one thing, the inspector of the day may interpret them differently and then the contractors do a 3rd thing. And even if they stick reasonably to the regulations, the heavy equipment can destroy other parts of your property they may see as weeds while also compacting your hard won soil.

So, my best guess is to double the severity of the legal regulations and stay beyond the doubling to avoid any machinery or destruction on your property. Even if you have a great relationship with your current inspector, much changes in 20 years of government, while your trees must stay where they are.

Now, not all is doom and gloom. My privacy hedge must be under the power lines, so I'm allowing the Amur maple stumps to grow back as coppice (deer defence). As well hazelnuts are going in as well. Hazelnuts actually thrive on coppice, so if I don't cut them about every decade, having the power company cut them isn't the end of the world. Of course, I've put in steel stakes to make any contractors think twice about shredding everything, and used markings that hopefully will last a generation. Ideally I can intercept the next round of this, but if I don't, the system is designed to handle it. I suspect in your more arid climate, none of this will happen.

P.S. I'm sure you've thought of it, but if you collect and store your rainwater at roof height, you can gravity feed to toilets and for irrigation. Probably simpler to have a single huge underground cistern with a pump, but maybe a hybrid? Storing water high would allow you to pump water from the cistern to the high storage with excess solar. The water can then be used without battery or solar requirements.

P.P.S. Worldwide, increasing electrical transmission (the grid) capability is a big thing to support growth and new renewable generation. Hopefully sunny Spain goes with mostly distributed energy generation (like rooftop solar), but if not, more power lines will need to be built. Do you have risk of your land being taken if new lines are built next to the existing ones? Some places call this "eminent domain".

[nkemalyan]

I think you might give the dog a little bit more credit. He's active, curious and seems to range all over the property. Guard dog might be the wrong title. A dog who tries to run off every creature that isn't well known to him won't be very good for the visitors you anticipate. However, if he knows the boundaries of his "domain", he'll naturally alert you to encroachment, like when the sheep come over the wall. He seems like a great mascot to me! (full disclosure-I've rarely met a dog I didn't like!)

[mitchellbrown]

Fantastic video Scarlett! I enjoyed seeing your plans for the land. I am certain you have updated it a number of times but it helps to visualize the property. Will you be planting pistachio trees? Will they grow in your climate?

[rolfwelsch]

Hallo Scarlet, Vielen Dank für die Einladung! Wo erfährt man denn wie man dahin findet und die Details was man braucht um bei Dir zu arbeiten?

[Max-vgmg]

Great video! Which software did you use to draw your property? Thank you:)

[agostinopeta]

How will you create the biopool? With synthetic materials or purenature?😊

[mechanicsall]

worm bin compost not much sign, pond, miriaky shd be priority, as ultimately self watering, good luck❤❤❤❤❤💘💘💘💘

[defoe]

Any concern re wildfire for the part left to nature?