Zones in Permaculture both revolutionary, ancient, and simple. The thought of having things in places based on how often you need to tend them is great. No more tomato plants in the back corner of the yard hidden in the corner. Now they can be right beside you as you are sitting on the sun on the patio.

Our property is set up in sections that compliment the permaculture zones very well. There is a kitchen garden or balcony type space, a small backyard space, a large plot space, a pasture space, and of course a wild space. It is almost as though the examples of each zone are already there just waiting to be used in a permaculture fashion. Keep checking back for the All Sorts Acre Zones and what is in them!

Summary of permaculture zones

(from Wikipedia)

• ZONE 0 — The house, or home centre. Here permaculture principles would be applied in terms of aiming to reduce energy and water needs, harnessing natural resources such as sunlight, and generally creating a harmonious, sustainable environment in which to live, work and relax
• ZONE 1 — The zone nearest to the house, the location for those elements in the system that require frequent attention, or that need to be visited often, such as salad crops, herb plants, soft fruit like strawberries or raspberries, greenhouse and cold frames, propagation area, worm compost bin for kitchen waste, and so on.
• ZONE 2 — This area is used for siting perennial plants that require less frequent maintenance, such as occasional weed control (preferably through natural methods such as spot-mulching) or pruning, including currant bushes and orchards. This would also be a good place for beehives, larger scale home composting bins, and so on.
• ZONE 3 — The area where maincrops are grown, both for domestic use and for trade purposes. After establishment, care and maintenance required are fairly minimal (provided mulches and similar things are used), such as watering or weed control once a week or so.
• ZONE 4 — A semi-wild area. This zone is mainly used for forage and collecting wild food as well as timber production. An example might be coppice-managed woodland.
• ZONE 5 — A wild area. There is no human intervention in zone 5 apart from the observation of natural eco-systems and cycles. Here is where the most important lessons of the first permaculture principle of working with, rather than against, nature are learned.