Why?

I've known Gerry for years, a family friend and a great community activist in many contexts. I was humbled to be asked if I could work on a permaculture design for the Social Farm which he runs at his farm in Roscommon. He said he was a gardener, and needed a designer! Gerry had already employed a landscape designer who had put in place some of the existing infrastructure and was looking for another viewpoint to compliment that.

Gerry offerred to pay me for the work but we didn't agree a price – not that we disagreed but it was my first ever permaculure design contract and I had no idea how long it would take, how good it would be or how much was reasonable to ask!

Process

I used C.E.A.P, I don't remember why. I think I just wanted to try it.

Tools used:

C: Site visit & survey, Client questionnaires,

E: Resources & Boundaries assessment, Zoning, Wild design, Brainstorming functions for systems & elements, Maps, Sketching,

A: Brainstorming.... intuitive application!

P: Random assembly, Base mapping, overlays, zones & sectors, Process of elimination/pmi (but not intentionally)

(e): 4 action learning questions.....

Collecting Information:

Client meeting & Site walk, 11/11/2010

First Impresssions: I wanted to do gentle yet effecive a design which would support the existing energy & infrasructure of the place. To help me do this I recorded my first impressions which fell outside of the categories for the more formal site survey.

Following this, I enlisted Patrick Whitefields 'Earthcare Manual' to give le some ideas '(and a checklist) for what information I would need from both the site & the people.

Observe & Interact: Listening to the people-scape was minimum effort for maximum effect – letting nature do the work.

Client Questionnaire: From this I devised two client questionaires, one for the 'decision makers' -those involved in running the garden (Gerrry & family members, plus other businesses onsite), & a simpler version for the users of the garden (men who are employed there).

Gerry & I chatted through the questionnaire together and I did the same with the men, the others filled in relevant parts of the questionnaire when they had time & I collected them when they were ready.

As you can imagine, this resulted in some diverse responses which needed integrating into the original vision!

I collated this information in some posters; 'VISION' ''NEEDS & WANTS' 'BOUNDARIES & RESOURCES' (images below)

Evaluation:

I considered sectors & zones of the site as well as desire lines.

I had already begun evaluating in the client quesitonnaire by asking pretty clear quesions around different kinds of resources & boundaries. I collated this in to a poster BOUNDARIES & RESOURCES and added in any relevant information collected from my own site survey. I divided it into categories for people & land/space. Out of this I identified lots of FUNCTIONS for the design -probably too many & I could have prioritised at this stage. There were lots of big sheets of paper floating around & hings were starting to get a bit chaotic. How could I organise this better?

The main function was to improve the overal efficiency of the site, with more specific regard to

Water: collection & storage, sources, heating & usage usage,

Trees: More food producing trees onsite, trees for fuel, timber & shelter, aswell as the art/aesthetic/spiritual aspects and in particular the potential for stories & ledgends to be held in landscape (through trees)

Energy: Sources & storage including:

Buildings: Heat, Hot water,

Garden: Composting

Community resources, ammenity,

I focussed on each function and brainstormed ideas about how they could be fullfilled, DESIGN POSSIBILITIES, I asked anybody who happenned to be passing for ideas,

I wanted to use the resources, & if possible use the limiting factors, to contain the leaks, -or redirect them, and supply the clients' wants & needs. EASY!!

More collecting info..... I realised I neeeded more information so i turned up at the garden again with some more questions. I also began to feel a little bogged down, overwhelmed, inadequatley skilled, & stuck at this point and I was longing for a design partner! As a result I procrastinated and it was only Gerry ringing me more than once asking for the design that spurred things on...

APPLYING PRINCIPLES

In this design the use of the principles (& ethics) was a bit vague. I lost sight of the design process a little bit after all the surveying & went abou brainstorming ideas before referencing the principles. I had idenified some principles which could be of particular relevance & although they did inform the design (by referring to hem now & again) it was somewhat haphazard and not very thoroughly applied. The nature of the design brief & the client meant that the final design did end up being quite 'permaculture' despite this.

The main principles I did identify & consider in one way or another were: (details to come!)

Energy cycling & Catching & Storing Energy:

With support from

Multiple functions

& Multiple sources

And

Work with, rather than against Nature

Least change for the maximum effect

Unlimited yield

The Problem is the Solution

PLANNING

Solutions: I used brainstorming, random assembly & relative location to finalise the design.

Main solutions: (see design map & docs below)

Presentation to the client: The final package which I gave to Gerry included:

The design map (copy of) -with a key referring each part/element to an explaination in the Design Recommendations
Design Recommendations- A document including the above, plus an implementation plan, a maintenance plan, and an estimated costings assessment.
Design Sketches - some simple illustrations of some of the key elements suggested in the recommendations such as forest garden, raised beds, chicken/rabbit tractor, pond & chicken heated greenhouse.
Additional Info/Appendices - I also included technical & inspirational documents on some aspects of the design such as the Jean Pain water heating system.

Gerry & I looked through the plan together, he was quite happy with the design, he appreciated the thought behind integration in the whole plan. He also had some other comments & questions (see client feedback below) which I took into account and later on I updated the design for him by adding another overlay map with some ammendments to the design along with a document -'Design Ammendments'- outlining the details of these changes.

I also included a simple invoice with these final documents.

Evaluation:

Imges show initial CLIENT FEEDBACK

and

MY EVALUATIONS soon after....

What went well?

What was challenging?

& What could I do differently next time?

I considered these questions in terms of process & content.

plus -to come- COSTINGS: for the implementation, & for the design prcess: timings, etc

Client feedback

What went well?

What was challenging?

Sunflower Social Farm

Concept Plan

Roscommon

December 2010

'A community resource of learning, acceptance & peace,

living & relaxing in communion with nature'

Reflections 2 years on....

Plus I am delighed that Gerry implemented the major parts of the design -pond, forest garden planting, (Will get photos & feedback next time I visit)

It was a great opportunity to just go for it & apply a permaculture design approach somwhere where the person was totally up for it. I appreciated the chance to use typical permaculture patterns such as the forest garden, and focus on overall concepts more so than details, in that sense it was an ideal project for my first client design.

Minus I'm remembering how much time & effort I put into not just the designing but the map making, drawing & presentation, I still don't have the skills & technologies to do this quickly electronically and on the computer, and that's been something that has been on my list of things to learn for a while now. It doesn't sound very enticing to me which is why it has been avoided thus far!

The design process itself lost it's way at a couple of points especially around applying the principles. Although they did inform my design solutions I didn't apply them very thoroughly. I came up with solutions then looked at the principles, which is fine but I think it could have been a tigher & better design if I also worked the other way around, -applying the principles directly to the 'problems' (or functions)

As for the quality of the finished design, I think the basic patterns I applied worked well but some of the detail was a bit sketchy, both in process & content. The it was a big design with many faces, energy, plants, people, structures...; no exactly starting small! That aspectwas a plus in terms of learning, but possibly a minus in terms of the final quality of the design.

It's a shame I didn't take photos of things as I went along, the random assembly part is missing, and also the permaculture ethics & principles sheet which I can't seem to find!!!

Interesting The client-designer relationship was interesting. Because I had always had alot of respect -even reverence!- for Gerry I felt very hesitant suggesting ideas to him. My self confidence in the work really came into it, in a way making me more thorough especially in he presentation stage, and in another way making me a little too conservative in my ideas.

I think it could have been really interesting to work together on the design because of the wealth of knowledge this man has! I can imagine (I'm assuming) that would have entailed me spending more time onsite which would have been helpfull, but even less cost efficient.....

Another option would have been to give more importance to communication at least in the earlier stages of the design process.

Overall I am a happy enough with this design, I think it looks well, the basic patterns work well in place, and the lessons learnt were helpfull in my next design for a client which came along soon after this.

Site survey

Base map: I spent a whole day on site mapping & observing the space.

Gerry couldn't find a map of the garden so I made a BASE MAP by pacing the site. After I brought if home & spent a long time drawing it up to scale the original map was found! The good news was my map was remarkably spot on.

I had included questions about sectors in the client quesionnaire as Gerry & his family have years of experience of living & working at the site.

So I had an idea about aspect, sun, wind, water (flooding) and frost patterns.

I verified these as much as I could in one day, and identified some ZONES & desire lines around the place.

I also observed the site through the lens of ctaegories such as: Water, Interactions, Boundaries, Onsite resources, Access, Soil, Views, Beauty, Microclimate,

I feel like even though my site survey was quite extensive I could have arranged it a bit easier,using larger categories & then breaking them down, eg: Ierosion/leaks, was a big category which never really got much attention whereas visible things got more attention.

My survey was a little too one dimensional, I didn't do any soil tests either.