Personality as Essential Design Sector

If I ever get more that the teeny, shady urban garden I have, I will have to remember that by personality I am a low-energy and contemplative type of gardener. The maps in the John Seymour books are so beautiful, and I wish that I would do all those things described, but...I won't.  I can't. It's just not in me to run a vast, multi-being system 24/7, and I know it. Sad but true.

This got me to thinking today about one of my favorite topics: human minds. Personality traits and habits can affect a gardener's every decision for organization of garden and lifestyle systems. I know myself as a gardener now from these four years gardening on my urban property, and I must not mourn my weaknesses but always play to my strengths.

Currently I am reading Liz Zorab's second book, The Seasoned Gardener in which she describes how she has had to factor in her severe SAD to her garden plans. Once she stopped fighting it, and worked with it/around it, things were better and made more sense for her life. Similar to the challenges of SAD, I suspect that each of us has personality factors that will make or break our Permaculture designs, and ignoring them is likely very perilous!

OK, This sounds fun!

so according to Wikipedia there are Big Five personality traits:
openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious): so that might mean you are more or less happy with experimenting with different plants and growing styles.
conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs.extravagant/careless): whether you like organised or chaotic gardening
extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved): gardening alone or with friends/as a team
agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/judgmental): not sure about this? how likely you are to want to share your produce and plants or grow the biggest cucumber?
neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident): this is a bit similar to openness, but more to do with fear and calmness so how likely you are to panic over spots on your rose leaves perhaps.
This doesn't take into account other constraints such as time and space for gardening. I'm certainly one for biting off more than I can chew. Luckily I'm a laid back non competitive gardener, so I can live with a bit of chaos!

I'd rather do the big stuff, make beds, build arbors, plant all the plants... than maintain them (watering)  (pull weeds!) or even harvest them. In my dream world I have someone who likes to keep things going, while I move on to the next fun thing to design and make real.

This is why I want perennial plants, I can walk away from them easier.