Energy is not unlimited, and proximity to the home is a resource. Place what needs daily attention close; let the far edges care for themselves.
The Zone System
Zones organize a landscape according to how frequently an area is visited or used. The key insight: energy is not unlimited, and proximity to the home is a resource. Place what needs daily attention close; let the far edges care for themselves.
| Zone | Description |
|---|---|
| Zone 0 | The house. The design begins here — passive solar, rainwater catchment, thermal mass, indoor food (sprouts, microgreens, ferments). |
| Zone 1 | Daily harvest zone. Culinary herbs, salad greens, sprouting beds, compost bins. Visited multiple times a day. Intensive care, intensive yield. |
| Zone 2 | Weekly care zone. Fruit trees, berry bushes, main vegetable garden, perennial vegetables, small livestock (chickens, rabbits). |
| Zone 3 | Seasonal management. Main crops, orchard, larger livestock (goats, sheep). Visited a few times per week at peak season. |
| Zone 4 | Semi-wild systems. Managed woodland, forage crops, coppice. Minimal intervention — system mostly manages itself. |
| Zone 5 | Wilderness. No management. The wild edge that feeds the whole system with biodiversity, seed stock, and natural predators. |
The zones are not concentric circles on a map — they are functional groupings. Your Zone 1 might wrap the south wall of the kitchen and reappear in a sun-warmed corner by the back door. Your Zone 5 might be the wooded ravine at the bottom of the property and a single old apple tree the deer love. The point is to honour how often you actually go there, not to draw neat shapes.