Here are a set of design strategies based on the study of natural principles to create your gardening or farming space.
1- Observe. Use a thoughtful evaluation process which carefully takes into account of the site in several contexts and in a year round analysis
2-Connect. Use relative location to create multiple connections which create useful relationships among the various components.
3-Catch and store energy. this involves having understandings of various types of energy and resource flows within your landscape, and then using strategies to change the rates, usually slow, these rates in order to capture their useful capacities
4- Stacking functions. Elements perform multiple functions within the system. Example a shade tree can provide shade but can also provide you with a favorite fruit or nut
5- Functions are supported by multiple elements.. Use multiple elements to create synergies and use redundant elements to ensure backups for important functions
6-Least change for greatest effect. Understand your system well enough to identify leverage points where you can make adjustments that require the least work for the greatest positive change.
7-Chunking- Use small scale intensive systems that start perhaps at your doorstep and move outwards. First perfect small areas near your door and then move further outward in stages
8- Optimize edge-Intersection of two distinct environments is the most diverse space within a system where energy and materials accumulate and are translated into other distinct systems
9-Collaborate with succession- Living systems tend to evolve from immature to mature systems. Mature systems are more diverse and productive than younger system, Collaborating with the evolution as opposed to fighting it will save the gardener from wasted effort
10-Use biological and renewable resources- Renewable resources, usually living beings and their products, reproduce and build over time.
B-Principles based on attitudes
11- Turn problems into solutions- constraints can inspire creative solutions
12- Get a yield Design for both immediate and long term returns for your efforts
13-Biggest limitation is that of creativity.
14- Mistakes are tools for learning. Evaluate your trials and learn from your mistakes
Natural design principles are a series of design strategies which attempt to incorporate and enhance natural systems in the effort to get needs and yields from your garden
Technical site evaluation uses a series of tools which basically incorporate the first rule in the natural design technique which is 'to observe.' Observations at some point will be incorporated with understandings such as how "succession' or the evolution of the garden will progress in time to create a comprehensive plan
Climate zone will generally refer to the zones designated by Sunset magazine and the USDA. The main criteria being precipitation and temperature. Napa is USDA zone 8 and Sunset zone 14 for the most part. These zones are useful since many publications will refer to these zones when describing individual species or varieties of plants ability to adapt in various zones
Maps-Base maps are usually referred to as elevation maps which show the elevation of the land, but there are other types of maps that account for the angles of the sun, wind patterns, soil types, and even plants and trees
Soil tests are usually done by labs, but there are some techniques that can be done by individuals themselves. Lab tests can test for soil PH, various nutrients, mixture of silt and clay particles, compaction, chemical pollutants, overall microbial activity as well as bacterial to fungi ratio
Micro climates can include things like the special climates that occur under large trees, at the bottom of hillsides, along rivers and water, along south facing walls of buildings, etc
Understanding succession- This is basically understanding that nature tends to move from degraded or primitive landscapes towards more mature ones over time. therefore a successful landscape designer accounts for these tendencies by planning in space and time
Raised beds, sunken beds of Southwest
1- Observe. Use a thoughtful evaluation process which carefully takes into account of the site in several contexts and in a year round analysis
2-Connect. Use relative location to create multiple connections which create useful relationships among the various components.
3-Catch and store energy. this involves having understandings of various types of energy and resource flows within your landscape, and then using strategies to change the rates, usually slow, these rates in order to capture their useful capacities
4- Stacking functions. Elements perform multiple functions within the system. Example a shade tree can provide shade but can also provide you with a favorite fruit or nut
5- Functions are supported by multiple elements.. Use multiple elements to create synergies and use redundant elements to ensure backups for important functions
6-Least change for greatest effect. Understand your system well enough to identify leverage points where you can make adjustments that require the least work for the greatest positive change.
7-Chunking- Use small scale intensive systems that start perhaps at your doorstep and move outwards. First perfect small areas near your door and then move further outward in stages
8- Optimize edge-Intersection of two distinct environments is the most diverse space within a system where energy and materials accumulate and are translated into other distinct systems
9-Collaborate with succession- Living systems tend to evolve from immature to mature systems. Mature systems are more diverse and productive than younger system, Collaborating with the evolution as opposed to fighting it will save the gardener from wasted effort
10-Use biological and renewable resources- Renewable resources, usually living beings and their products, reproduce and build over time.
B-Principles based on attitudes
11- Turn problems into solutions- constraints can inspire creative solutions
12- Get a yield Design for both immediate and long term returns for your efforts
13-Biggest limitation is that of creativity.
14- Mistakes are tools for learning. Evaluate your trials and learn from your mistakes
Natural design principles are a series of design strategies which attempt to incorporate and enhance natural systems in the effort to get needs and yields from your garden
Technical site evaluation uses a series of tools which basically incorporate the first rule in the natural design technique which is 'to observe.' Observations at some point will be incorporated with understandings such as how "succession' or the evolution of the garden will progress in time to create a comprehensive plan
Climate zone will generally refer to the zones designated by Sunset magazine and the USDA. The main criteria being precipitation and temperature. Napa is USDA zone 8 and Sunset zone 14 for the most part. These zones are useful since many publications will refer to these zones when describing individual species or varieties of plants ability to adapt in various zones
Maps-Base maps are usually referred to as elevation maps which show the elevation of the land, but there are other types of maps that account for the angles of the sun, wind patterns, soil types, and even plants and trees
Soil tests are usually done by labs, but there are some techniques that can be done by individuals themselves. Lab tests can test for soil PH, various nutrients, mixture of silt and clay particles, compaction, chemical pollutants, overall microbial activity as well as bacterial to fungi ratio
Micro climates can include things like the special climates that occur under large trees, at the bottom of hillsides, along rivers and water, along south facing walls of buildings, etc
Understanding succession- This is basically understanding that nature tends to move from degraded or primitive landscapes towards more mature ones over time. therefore a successful landscape designer accounts for these tendencies by planning in space and time
Raised beds, sunken beds of Southwest