Hi everyone. I`ve been sporadically reading this forum for a couple years but have never actively participated since i don’t have much real experience in anything permaculture related (even though i've read quite a lot).
My family and I live in Chile (southamerica) and decided a couple years ago we would move to the countryside. Therefore, we just bought a 5100 sqm (1,3 acre) lot in the outskirts of a town (Santa María).
The local hardiness zone would be around 9a and the average rainfall is around 250 mm a year (most of it in winter). It’s an arid climate, but we're just by the Andes mountains and get water from the snowmelt all year round, so it’s not hard to grow most temperate climate species. There are a couple of frost events in winter and I would say there’s a high risk of fire (due to the arid conditions).
The site is 102 meters long and 50 meters wide. There are 2 entries: the principal one y though the roadway on the south, and the secondary one y on the eastern side of the site. There is a 0,8 meter wide water way on the southern border. The terrain is highest on the northeastern side and it has a slope of around 4%. The surrounding land is fully planted with vineyards and on the other side of the road there are a couple houses.
The idea is to have a low management ecosystem that allows us to be as self-sufficient as possible. We also expect the garden to be a nice place for elders and children to enjoy (my mother will be moving in with us along with my partner and our baby boy).
The rough zoning concept would be:
Z0) 500 sqm that would accomodate two 80 sqm houses, a common deck and a couple parking lots.
Z1) 500 sqm that would include an intensively managed garden with either raised beds or hugelkultur. Also a shaded corner for fungi growth, a compost pile, a storage room and a chicken coop.
Z2) A 2000 sqm forest garden that also incorporates a chicken pasture of around 20 individuals.
Z3) 500 sqm with an aquaculture pond and a beehive.
Z4) 500 sqm planted with drought resistant species
Also, for meat we’ve been thinking about raising rabbits, but we’d like them to be as free as possible without causing much damage. (Maybe we would have to make a tractor and run it on the Zone 1 raised beds)
The land has been naked for around a year or two (there were vineyards in there before), so we’ve decided to grow dynamic accumulators for a year or two. We’ve been thinking about local species such as Taraxacum officinale (dandelions), Medicago sativa (alfalfa), Mentha piperita (mint), Trifolium repens (white clover) and Stellaria Media (chickweed). (We would love to plant symphytum officinale but we don’t know if we can find it here)
I’d love to hear what you think about this… it’s a rough idea and we’ve never done anything like this before! (just grown some vegetables in pots on our balcony)
Thank you so much!
PS: sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes! English is not my native lenguage.
