Starting a permaculture design: surveying and sketch maps

Posted by Hedvig Murray on February 1, 2012 · 1 Comment 

Knowing where to start a permaculture design can be tricky.  With this design I am going to take you through the steps of the process.  My preferred permaculture design process for land based design is SADIM: Survey, Analyse, Design, Implement, Maintain.  So let’s begin at the beginning: surveying.  My main aims for the survey stage is to work out what is there and what is wanted.  So a bit of context about this design: I live next door to a church.  I was approached by the vicar to see if I would be interested in developing a design for a piece of land that is church property.  It isn’t really used at present.

So to start surveying, I normally check it out on a map (often because I need to know how to get there).  This time I reckon I can get there.

 Snap shot of google map

Today I went in there mainly to observe and to draw up a sketch map.  A sketch map is a rough drawing with the boundaries and significant other features.  It provides the outline and is helpful when recording with data like accurate measurements.  To draw my sketch map I paced the area, tried to get a feel of the proportion and then drew an outline.  I add the north point to the sketch map. My next step is to measure it up accurately with a tape measure.  I then add the measurements on to the sketch up and add in any significant features in this case large trees, windows, gates (and which direction it opens).

Sketch map

I also did three soil samples.  I just did a simple soil sample.  I took a few old jars filled with water to the garden.  Each jar was labelled with a number.  I dug a hole and added some soil into a jar.  Then repeated this for a few different areas on site.  I am particularly looking for rough quantities of sand and clary.  I noted where I did the soil samples with numbers of the map.  The numbers relate the stickers on each sample.

I also did a little bit of sun mapping.  I use sun mapping a lot, and find it a really useful tool.  I take photos from the space point on a space over a day (morning, mid morning, midday, mid afternoon, afternoon, evening) to see how the sun moves through the space.  Today I didn’t take all the photos but just took one.

Sun photo

That is as far as I got with my surveying today.  One of my next steps will be to draw up an accurate base map, another will be to go back and survey some of the plants that are there, and particularly if they give me any hints of the climate and soil structure.

Filed under Growing, Permaculture Consultancy, Permaculture Diploma 2, St Luke's Prestonville Community Garden · Tagged with Brighton, community building, community garden, design, food, garden, growing, pattern to detail, permaculture, Prestonville, SADIM, survey