"You start with your nose,
then your hands ... your back door, your doorstep" -
you get all that right,
then everything is right. If all that's wrong, nothing can ever be right.
Say
you're working for a big overseas aid organization. You can't leave home in a
Mercedes Benz,
travel 80 kilometers to work in a great concrete structure where
there are diesel engines
thundering in the basement just to keep it cool enough
for you to work in, and plan mud huts for Africa!
You can't get the mud huts
right if you haven't got things right where you are." Bill Mollison Interview
Holistic systems such as a permaculture systems require
observation and seasonal re-evaluation to meet objectives.
- Is there maximum water flow right throughout the system?
- How much responsibility is taken for capturing and retaining
the water required for the system by the system? Is at least 10% of the
site dedicated to storing water?
- How clean is the water that leaves the system? Is there a filter
process?
- How clean is the air, are there filter plants and appropriate food
species that will not concentrate toxins.
- How is solar access managed, do any parts of the system suffer
from too little or too much sun?
- How solar passive is the home and work areas. Is there a good use of
natural light and heating?
- Has there been a lasting reduction in imported energy (electricity,
gas, water, fuel)
- How is wind controlled, is it deflected from fragile areas,
is it used for reducing work?
- How well is the site prepared for catastrophe? Fire generated
from outside the system or from within the system.
- Has there been a plan for future needs including the next generation,
aging of people and the system?
- Is the system now self reliant in terms of mulch, seed, feed,
and fertilizing material?
- How much of the system provides the families needs?
- Has the families lifestyle been enhanced by the system?
- Were the species planted suited to the area? Is there maximum diversity
and incorporation of rare breeds?
- Are the animals in the system enjoyed, well positioned to
harvest and clear, providing on site fertilizer and supplying
eggs or meat?
- Are pests managed by an integrated system? Have numbers dropped?
- Wildlife species - how much has this increased in number and
in species diversity? Include insects, worms, birds, reptiles, mammals
as well as larger species.
- Does each major element of the design show oppurtunity for multiple
function?
- Has the system used trees as condensation traps, frost, sunburn,
erosion control and shelter for intensive garden beds?
- Has the rubbish material put aside for municipal waste disposal
dropped dramatically?
- Has the finances of the residents changed in focus, with more
money invested in procreative wealth?
- Has there been increased opportunity for use of alternative banking
systems, ethical investment, barter and sharing of surplus?
Drawing the plan is important to help you web the complex ideas. Adhering
to the plan allows you to assess it well later. It can be very difficult
to redesign if you forget the objectives OR get set into a design OR do
not remember the original plan.
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