What is your permaculture/homestead/food forest Vision & Mission?

I believe that before we start planning and designing our homestead/food forest, it might be a really good idea to get clarity about our mission, vision and values.
This way, we'll make our dreams come true quicker and easier...

Before we started planning and designing our own food forest (that was 6 years ago) we asked ourselves these seven questions:

What are the values we want our food forest to embody?

What do we want or need from our food forest?

What does the landscape need?

How should the end result feel?

What will we do there?

What kind of produce we’d like to have?

What will be the overall theme or function of our food forest?

With the answers to these questions, we were a lot clearer about the mission, vision and values of our food forest, which helped us tremendously in making it happen quicker, easier, and closer to our ideal picture.

This is a never-ending process, and we keep asking ourselves the same questions once every year.
As we do that we notice how empowering this process is, how much it focuses us, and also we can see our progress much clearer.

I would like to offer this post as a space of inspiration for all of us, by inviting you to share your own answers to (some or all of) these questions.

Can't wait to learn from you and get inspired.

Make it an awesome day.

So let me be the first to answer by sharing our own answers to these 7 questions, from the week after we purchased our land in Tenerife, about 6 years ago:

1. Our Food Forest Values
Sustainability, biodiversity, abundance, Garden of Eden, connection to nature, co-creation with nature, role model for holistic, sustainable living, joy, harmony, beauty, silence, love, sensuality, health and wellness…

2. What Do We Want and Need from Our Food Forest

A place of beauty, tranquility, inspiration, energizing.

A place to connect to something bigger, older and wiser.

A meeting place between plants, animals & humans.

Providing 80% of our fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, herbs and honey – year round.

Throughout the year the land will be covered with the flowers and flowering trees and bushes for honey bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Medicinal herbs garden.

Edible mushroom garden.

Tropical garden filled with ferns and orchids – a habitat for birds, insects and amphibians

Privacy from south and north neighbors.

2 new ponds to collect rainwater and create humid microclimates as habitat for birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians and  fish.

Wetlands to collect greywater.

Greenhouse for sensitive vegetables, sprouting seeds and growing cuts.

A sauna.

Storage place for firewood.

Flat playground.

Meditation/sanctuary.

Hammock(s) between shade trees.

Benches under shade trees.

Aviary for small seed-eating birds, with jungle-like feeling.

Beehives producing honey, wax, propolis and pollen.

3. What do the landscape and area need?

The soil everywhere needs rejuvenation, using either compost, deep mulching or preferably green manure cover.

Some trees are dying & need to be healed.

The barranco (ravine) needs to come back to its glory days of running water (during the rainy season) and green, shady, cool, wet microclimate.

The west barranco side should become a fire-barrier.

The north garden could benefit from a few tall, shade giving trees.

The original pond needs shade to reduce the rate of water evaporation.

The pond needs water movement and filtering, so the water contains more oxygen and are clearer.

The very south patch in between the wooden fence and the neighbors needs to become alive again.

Everywhere we could use more humidity in the soil.

4. How should the new landscape feel?
A combination of a forest feeling and a subtropical Garden of Eden, with several small special microclimates and sanctuaries (even a bench will do)

5. What will we do there?

We see the place as a place where we work, meditate, relax, enjoy chilling out with friends, learn from nature, get inspired…

We love the visioning and strategic planning part.

We love the DAILY strolling down the patches and checking on the growth of everything.

We like pruning and grafting (need to learn how to do those correctly).

We love sprouting seeds and propagating plants from cuts.

We love harvesting the fruits and vegetables.

We love taking care of small animals (birds in the aviary, fish in the ponds, turtles, guinea-pigs, chickens, etc…)

We see ourselves working in the garden for 1-2 hours a day.

We love sitting in different corners and enjoy the peace and sounds and smells, meditating and reflecting… allowing creativity, imagination and dreaming to take place.

We love falling asleep on warm days on hammocks between shade trees.

We love having friends coming for outdoor meals and enjoying sunsets and star gazing over a good bottle of wine warmed up by outside fire.

We don’t plan to do the more demanding physical work ourselves (earthworks, digging, heavy lifting, etc…), but we plan to have a small team doing these jobs once or twice a month.

6. What kind of produce would we like to have?

Fruits (local, citrus, tropical)

Berries

Nuts

Perennial and annual vegetables

Edible and medicinal herbs

Medicinal trees and plants

Edible mushrooms

Honey

7. What will be the overall theme or function?

Self-reliant living

Sanctuary

Playground

Healing space

Looking forward to learn from you, and get inspired...

I really appreciated this & your other recent post (what's your why). I spend some time working through these questions for my six acres in northern Wisconsin, near the shore of Lake Superior. The land is mostly wooded and high above the water table. I put in a small garden last year (three small beds) with plans to expand. My little flock of hens has already produced more than 24 dozen eggs in their first season. But we have been here for less than two years, so I am just getting started.

Values:
Stewardship, Generosity, Learning

What we want or need from the land:
Sanctuary, Nourishment, Healing

What does the landscape need:
Culling (problematic species, overcrowding)
Soil building (soil is rocky & sandy)
Water (rain barrels? pond? groundcover/mulch to reduce evap?)

How should the end result feel:
Cohesive and flowing (replace abrupt and jarring changes from woods/clearings/drive to more gradual transitions; create meandering but functional pathways; systems work together)
Peaceful and playful, beautiful (not just a working landscape; not overly tidy, a bit wild)

What will we do here:
Rest, play, learn, take care of each other.
More practically - raise food and medicine, harvest firewood, run a household.

What kind of produce we’d like to have:
Our local native foods - blueberries, grapes, wild plums, sunchokes, hazelnuts, strawberries (if we can expand by acquiring the adjacent low land with creek, wild rice)
Our traditional crops - corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, greens, etc
Wild medicines (some are present in the woods, some must be added to garden)
Maple syrup (sugar maples in the yard are productive, but need to identify large red maples in the surrounding woods & make trails, acquire sled for hauling sap)
Chicken eggs for now - would be nice to add dairy, honey bees (can get meat from neighbors)

Overall theme:
Living in relationship with the land

p.s. I hadn't considered cultivating mushrooms, but now I will look into it.

Marisa Lee wrote:I spend some time working through these questions for my six acres in northern Wisconsin, near the shore of Lake Superior.

Thank you sharing your vision and values, Marisa.
It's very inspiring...

I loved how you divided the produce into local native foods, traditional foods, wild medicine...
It makes so much sense, and it clearly communicate your "why".

Make it an awesome day, in your own Garden of Eden...

(PS. I would love to see some photos, to get a feel of your place...)

I love this post, N. Neta.  Time to throw some pie!

Even if others (myself included) may be shy to chime in and share, the questions here are worth their salt to any backyard designer or professional, even if it takes some time to think through.

I used to teach time management workshops, and I always tried to tie-in what we intend to do with our time, with the level above it of where we are going...our vision, dreams, and long term goals.  And the level above that is who we are, and what our values are.  It's much easier to accomplish tasks and long term projects if we explicitly know they align with the things we cherish most and what we value.

I love the idea of a landscape expressing the designer's values.  The landscape then becomes an extension of the designer's very being.  And when the designer is gone some day, then landscape can remain as a testament to who they were/are, and what they believe in.  Beautiful.

I currently garden and plant trees on about a 1/2 acre, but we'll be inheriting the adjacent acreage that's currently 80% lawn. My husband and I have discussed a few times what we'll do with the land, because we have no intention of keeping it as just lawn to mow. We haven't reached a conclusion, so these were interesting questions to consider.

What are the values we want our food forest to embody?
Sustainability, diversity, sharing, fostering curiosity

What do we want or need from our food forest?
Wildlife sanctuary, easier maintenance, food and other usable resources

What does the landscape need?
Soil building, intentional microclimates, plant diversity

How should the end result feel?
Peaceful, playful, intriguing

What will we do there?
Rest, harvest/eat, observe, pray, meditate, fellowship, play

What kind of produce we’d like to have?
Edible and medicinal herbs, plants, trees, and mushrooms. Cutting flowers. Native plants. Deer food.

What will be the overall theme or function of our food forest?
Tamed, functional chaos...cleaned up but not too tidy.

This was a marvellous thought experiment, thank you. My answers are below. They're a bit tied up to the structures we plan for the property, but it brings more meaning to me that way. We are on over 2 hectares in the jungle in SE Asia. Just starting the journey and got at least 10 years of work cut out for us here.

What are the values we want our food forest to embody?
Respect and appreciation for biology the way nature intended. Diversity, abundance, security, sustainability, stability, conservation, peace. Safe places for all creatures and life forms.

What do we want or need from our food forest?
Biodiversity, edible trees and plants, relaxing atmosphere, low maintenance, varied canopy layers, cooled air, stability, privacy, freedom, a small slice of the jungle.

• Lower level: native jungle plants - cool, dark, protected, tranquil, alive
• Steep level: fruit tree guilds galore - a place to forage and collect
• Mid level, workshop (zone 2): mini farm and focus of activity - access to all the tools. Includes workshop, chicken compost system, goat pasture, parking. Space for coffee processing & roasting, milking, honey collection, compost & mulch production, woodworking, repairing, loading supplies.
• Mid level, restaurant: a destination among the durian treetops - the hub for visitors. Main building with large kitchen, laundry & parking, outdoor kitchen with cob oven & fire pit, sitting platforms dotted about, accommodation building, greywater banana circle, indoor tree garden, hammocks, kitchen garden beds, lemongrass & and other herbs to repel mosquitos.
• Mid level, wild: steep forage pasture for goats and a place for nature to let loose. Legume trees. Palms. Beehives here.
• Top level, home (zone 1): our retreat, our base - areas to relax, regenerate and live. Kitchen garden of foods needed fresh (lemon, tomato, herbs, leafies, beans, capsicum, cucumber, society garlic, spinach, chili, peas). Tropical water garden at centre. Greywater banana circle. Shortcut to workshop.
• Top level, bungalows: top of the world with views to match - 3 private bungalows with lush gardens separating each. Careful choice of trees to not block the views. Coconuts and pineapples lining the gravel road. Some exotic fruits (manggis?). Flowers and large-leafed ornamentals.
• Singkong land: final development, possibly main crop or market garden. Lower corner left more wild. Mosquito attracting plants like cacao. Maybe later a pond and ducks.

What does the landscape need?
Erosion control, bird habitat, better pathways for water, mulch, groundcover, deep rooted plants, shade, more topsoil.

How should the end result feel?
Like a natural jungle to forage in and explore. Cooler than the surrounds with an earthy smell. Protective and dense below, airy and open above.

What will we do there?
Pick fruits, forage mushrooms, prune trees, climb trees, watch the sunset, observe the wildlife, bathe in the spring water, graze the goats, feed the chickens, plant seeds, harvest leaves & seeds & roots, process coffee, enjoy the cool air.

What kind of produce we’d like to have?
All the tropical fruits we can get our hands on. Nutritious seeds as grain alternatives. Local vegetables plus capsicum and small beans. Heirloom tomatoes. Luffas. Oyster mushrooms. Coconut & sawit for oil sources. Breadfruit, jackfruit, sweet potato and cassava for starches. Legumes for protein. Lots of herbs. Teas and coffee and cacao. Firewood. Honeybees. Dairy from the goats and eggs & meat from the chickens.

What will be the overall theme or function of our food forest?
The abundant tropical jungle. A place where (almost) everything we need is grown locally. A local example of how to increase yields, increase diversity and live sustainably.