Homestead design / balancing long term design with short term wins

Justin - welcome back to permies and thanks for your book giveaway

This question is for you (or anyone so this is perennial),

I've been on my site a few years but am just now finishing my house build. Changes had to be made to the site to accommodate the build including removing a couple trees, thinning others and similar. While I know overall sun and wind patterns, I also know that I've made changes that will affect those things along with water flow, where heat and cool collects and I need to figure the new patterns out.

I know best practice is to observe and chart things for a year first. Then make big plans and add design features before adding gardens and things. I know that is logical but I also desperately want to plant some veggies this year. How do I balance the longer term rational planning and omg, I need veggies now? Is there a way to have a quick win that I hopefully won't have to completely redo next year?

I only have a small suggestion that I'm sure you've considered and probably already done, which is to assume that you will have a kitchen garden next to the house and then use that space as efficiently as possible, maybe vertical if you can too, until you know where your main gardens will go. I would really, really use that space as much as possible. I personally don't mind putting a big potato and/or squash-and-beans garden in anywhere, knowing it may not stay there because this is relatively low effort where I live at present, and I can move it or use it for other things easily, or even let it go to grass. If I had to work the soil a lot for this, I would not be so cavalier about it.

I'm looking forward to responses to your question too; I think a lot of us have this dilemma.

How to balance long term design with short term wins?  

I'll borrow some wisdom gleaned from Joel Salatin (and Justin Rhodes, too!) here:

1. Mobile infrastructure.  With skiddable structures, such as portable paddock pens or moveable outbuildings, along with portable fencing solutions (electric netting, rock-jack fencing, easily removable T-posts, etc.) your farm can go just about anywhere!  e.g. Don't like where the outhouse is located?  Drag it away downwind!  Too many weeds near the neighbors?  Time to rotate the goats' fencing!  (Examples of Wheaton Labs skiddable structures can be found here.)

2. Modularity.  

a) Have a multipurpose mindset for everything from the get go!  That way, you aren't stuck with single-purpose elements and systems.  The utility of an element is limited only by one's imagination, whether that element is a building, a pond, a fence, a power tool, or a bicycle.  Wedding dances or workshops alike can happen under a barn roof if designed well from the get-go.  That pond that housed the ducks can irrigate the field if it is put in the right spot.  The useful permaculture principle of one thing doing multiple diverse operations is often called "stacking functions".  

b) Modular and renewable materials.  If items are designed for disassembly (bolts and screws vs nails), or repurposing (eg Makerpipe), or even biodegradation, then they are less likely to create waste or pose a persistent problem.  For example, some folks in cold climates use square straw bales  to make the sides of veggie cold frames, rather than building dedicated ones.  Then the straw bales become mulch. So if you know you need something, whether in short or long term, consider how it could be morphed into something new by you or others and choose appropriate materials.  

3. Prototyping.  Rather than attempting to build or do something awesome straight from the get-go, consider thinking of your system as "rough draft" that you know will be upgraded.  (Designers do this all the time with paper and cardboard instead of more expensive plastic or metal.)  Rapidly fail and rapidly learn.  Designing for incremental expansion or improvement helps, too.  I think (might be wrong) that Mollison called this the Golden Rule for design: start small, then expand on successes.  The benefit of this is it encourages wild creativity!

Lastly, don't forget the "Scale of Permanence".  There are a few, but here is my favorite from Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier:

Edible Forest Gardens page 193, Jacke & Toensmeier wrote: wrote:Climate
Landform
Water
Legal issues
Access and circulation
Vegetation and wildlife
Microclimates
Buildings and infrastructure
Zones of use
Soil (fertility and management)
Aesthetics

There are some elements and systems that are harder or near impossible to change than others, once a course of action has been chosen.  Other things can be altered easily.  An annual veggie garden can easily be relocated up, but an orchard...not so much.  So it is usually best to think about the big things first, and fill in the small stuff around it.  Life is like that: get the big stuff figured out, and the rest settles in well.

I've had similar thoughts around here -- before I took a Permaculture course I'd just stick anything anywhere and hope for the best. Now I know about stacking the different functions etc, and I end up in a bit of paralysis because I feel there's probably a better solution or place for each thing. There comes a point where I just have to jump in and start, otherwise I'll be planning for the rest of time

There are many things I'd redo on our property if I could start from scratch again, but I'm not sure I'd know of the better ways to do things if I didn't make the mistakes in the first place. I agree with George re:prototyping -- I doubt there are many folks who have completed a PDC and have gone out and made a perfect design on their property from the start. Needs grow and change over time.

Through all that, my suggestion is to just get started. Don't concrete anything into the ground, but you've spent time observing your property, so go off that. Yeah, you'll probably want to change layout or positioning etc, but you won't know that until you put it in the "wrong" place to begin with!

I am glad to hear that your building project is coming to the end.

What I am reading is that this is what you now want to achieve:

I know that is logical but I also desperately want to plant some veggies this year. How do I balance the longer term rational planning and omg, I need veggies now?

Sonja, I like to have a garden that a placed close to the back door or that has an easy access to the kitchen.

Where is your kitchen in relationship to the east and south side of your house?

For a first-year garden, a person might want to do some container gardening until they can plan how to best proceed.

A small kitchen garden with favorite veggies would also be a good first-year garden.

Thank you all for your great responses! I feel very encouraged. :)

Unfortunately, right at this moment, I still have a lot of unknowns with how the roof downspouts will drain and exactly where / how the fire vehicle turnaround will look (required by code where I live) and those things will affect where I can put even things like containers and whether a true kitchen garden is feasible. It sounds so lovely though!

However, I've been keeping all your suggestions in mind as I look at what I have and where I think things will be and I have a tentative short term first year plan.