Permaculture Design for Those With Difficulties

I'm writing a blog post on this, but could really use some help figuring out all the variables. Below is what I have so far. I plan to include a link to this section of the forums in the blog post.

Permaculture is a system of agriculture and living that is sustainable in the long run, good for the environment, and good for people. The system works with nature to produce food and the necessities of life instead of trying to control every detail. It replaces the orchard with the food forest, the field with the food savanna, and the typical garden with an atypical garden. It uses animals instincts to both feed the animals and perform tasks. It shapes the landscape in a way that manages the hydrology of the site. It builds soil en situ instead of trucking it in. It is cheap to do. It takes a lot of work to start and very little to maintain. You may actually have great difficulty trying to stop it from working once it is established. You can completely neglect a food forest for years and it will still be productive when you get around to working in it.

The foundational thing about it is design. It's all in the design.  Let's think about what the needs of a mentally ill person are in regards to a small farm of 2-5 acres, so we can design the optimal system. I consider 2 acres to be the minimum size for a farm that will support 2 people. My own farm is 2 acres.

I'm having trouble deciding what variables and symptoms are general enough that they should be included. I suppose lethargy is the biggest concern. What do you all think?

A lot of the info I have actually came from answers to my question of how to have a homestead and a chronic illness, I'm just trying to figure out what I should include on my blog.

Ryan: are you looking for physical or mental variables? I run into both....

:D

Pearl Sutton wrote:Ryan: are you looking for physical or mental variables? I run into both....

:D

Mostly mental, but also the physical ones caused by the mental ones. So for example, bad anxiety gives you heart palpitations. Depression wears you out. That sort of thing.

My worst is overwhelm and fear locking me up into inert-ness.

Depression very commonly accompanies just about any kind of chronic ailment, because it is hard not to be able to do things, whether they need to be done, or are wants rather than needs.  It is also depressing to be in pain all the time.  Depression can cause other problems such as lethargy and apathy.  One of the best remedies for depression is getting outdoors and being active, so I think it is essential to plan and organize a property to make getting outdoors and doing things not only easy, but difficult to avoid.  At the same time, you can’t make the work be too much for a person with health problems and physical challenges.

Possible solutions might include:  moving to a climate conducive to being outdoors as much as possible (will vary depending on what kind of climate each individual prefers).

Designing living quarters that both include the outdoors, and encourage being outdoors (an outhouse, multiple buildings, courtyards, covered decks and patios, outdoor summer kitchens, gazebos, wrap-around porches, and so on).

Make it easy to work outdoors, with level paths, good spacing for passage between beds and plants, water and power where needed, low-maintenance everything, good views and things to attract the eye, the nose, a touch (you can make good views even on a city lot by the way you arrange walkways and plantings).  

Personally, if I am going to be outdoors, I want privacy - I don’t like to have strangers looking at me.  So if I lived where there was a lot of traffic past my place, foot or car, I would want some kind of hedge or fence - or a ‘fedge’ - before I would feel comfortable in my own yard.  

There are undoubtedly other considerations that didn’t come to mind, but this would be a start.

Depression, fatigue, chronic pain, anxiety

For me, it can be with decision making.

I try not to be indecisive, but sometimes the littlest hurtles trip me up. It is always good to have someone to bounce ideas off from, because they can say, "don't you think you should do this", and then it makes perfect sense.

Lethargy
inert-ness
fear of being watched, add barriers to being seen
need to be outside daily, outdoor living space
least dangerous work, meds may impair
easy to decide what to do, maybe routines will fix

Do I have this right?

Ryan Hobbs wrote:Lethargy
inert-ness
fear of being watched, add barriers to being seen
need to be outside daily, outdoor living space
least dangerous work, meds may impair
easy to decide what to do, maybe routines will fix

Do I have this right?

Yes, that looks good.  One thing that forces me to get outside is having animals to take care of, but it is important to make it as easy and convenient as possible - water close to point of use, don’t have to carry heavy feed too far, and so on.  I have a yard wagon to help with the carrying.  

Ryan Hobbs wrote:Lethargy
inert-ness
fear of being watched, add barriers to being seen
need to be outside daily, outdoor living space
least dangerous work, meds may impair
easy to decide what to do, maybe routines will fix

Do I have this right?

I'd add
planning well to keep future problems minimal (not sure how to word it...)