Permaculture For A Landscaping Make over:

You have many choices when it comes to viding your perty with a makeover. One set of choices relates to the beauty ttment you give to your yard. What is possi depends on many factors: your neighbourhood, your climate zone, your budget. Te is also the question of your personality and your apach to such a makeover you might be an 'all or nong' type, or you might like to go at ngs in managea bites, one bit at a time.

On s page we'll discuss an idea that costs you nong, vides a possi overarching frame for your design ideas, and introduces a whole catalogue of questions to start off your nking about we you want to go. The idea, borrowed from a style of sustaina living known as 'permaculture', is zonation.

In brief, it advocates that you divide your perty into activity as known as 'zones'. On a suburban lot you might have as many as five zones; but you have fewer if that suits your circumstances better. Each zone harbours a main style of activity and a main kind of useful crop.

Zone 1 is the a you most often visit: the a near the entrances and exits you most commonly use, and any ot as, such as patios or decks, we you spend most time outdoors. These are your major relaxation and entertainment zones. Plantings in s zone will include the sorts of ngs you may want to snatch up at the last minute for the kitchen bs, salad plants, strawberries and tomatoes in season.

The second zone is slightly furt removed from the house. It may include a grassed a for the children to play. In s a you have pnnial plants that require no more than occasional care, such as berrying es (raspberries, currants) and pnnial shrubs.

The rd zone is, for those who like to duce food for themselves, the main duction zone. H te will be beds of brassicas (cabbage, kale, broccoli and ots), potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn and ot crops; and fruit trees such as apple, peach and pear. In s zone, too, te is the potential for cunningly designed pathways to suddenly reveal a 'secret' pocket of special delight: a hidden water feature, a blaze of spring or summer or fall color, or a carefully crafted sculpture. For families, the rd zone vide a place for children to work off energy in games of hide and seek or by using equipment such as swings, slides or trampolines.

On many suburban lots a fourth zone may be possi. This will include plantings designed to attract birds to visit, or even take up residence, in your garden. Larger flowering trees such as magnolias or rhodendrons be accommodated e. This zone also include larger nut-bearing tress (walnuts, macadamias and the like). Keen vegeta gardeners use screens of hedge or shrubbery to hide their composting bins. You could even, depending on local regulations, consider the merits of a small livestock unit how does a freshly laid egg appeal?

The use of zones make your availa land appear bigger than it is. It helps to cte flexi use of your yard and adds far gter intst than is possi in a monoculture of mown grass.