In addition to Zones (5 zones in permaculture), permaculture also designs around what are called Sectors. Sectors are forces that come from outside your garden that should to be taken into account when designing. Planning around Sectors can either mitigate or promote the effects of the external force, depending on your design goals (Growing Up Unschooling with Jayn Coburn).

Here are examples of Sectors that would be good to design for:

• The pattern of the sun as it travels across your yard at different times of the year.
• Paths that animals (Design Gardens with Nature's Systems for Health), such as deer, travel through your yard.
• The direction of water runoff, as well as where it pools up.
• Noise pollution from a nearby road or highway.
• A neighbor's uptairs bedroom window that peeks over the fence into your yard.
• Your neighborhood's HOA requirements.
• The direction that a fire could come from.
• Winter vs. Summer wind patterns

Each one of these elements should be mapped out and planned for holistically (Functional medicine focuses on uncovering the root cause) during the design phase. Combined with Zones, Sectors increase the opportunity to implement a clever multi-function (Ecological gardens thrive on element interactions) solution.

Perhaps a hedge in a well thought out spot could simultaneously block deer, the view from the neighbor's window and dampen a particularly biting northern Winter wind.

Citations

#permaculture #toolong