Jen West

How should we determine zones on a property with multiple structures? Our land covers 2 hectares and will have a main home, a workshop, guest bungalows, an eco lodge with several rooms and a small restaurant / kitchen / lounge building. The distance between the home and restaurant is about a 5 minute walk with workshop and lodge in between. We would be frequenting both buildings multiple times a day. Which is considered zone 1? In addition, the driveway in snakes through a large area of the property before reaching the house. While we already know where the structures will be built, I'm trying to figure out zoning to help decide what we should be planting where. Would you just call most of it zone 2?

I recently moved to Ketambe, Sumatra with my husband Safar after many years of waiting and saving. We have over 2 hectares of very steep land in a valley between two mountain ranges. The views are incredible but it makes for an extremely difficult working and building environment. We just took our first plunge into preparing the land by bringing in an excavator. Over the space of a week they created surface for a road over 400m long (it had to be very windy to get up an almost 45 degree slope!) and created several terraces that we later plan to build on. It was a pretty full on experience bringing mixed emotions. On the one hand it was awesome seeing the progress, on the other it was painful watching good soil being lost and many small trees being taken down. But I guess we can't have it both ways and starting with a clean slate now will set us in the right direction to regenerate properly from here. We wouldn't have been able to do much without vehicle access.

Besides a long driveway, future structures we plan to build will include a workshop, our small home, a series of bungalows, an ecolodge with several rooms, outdoor kitchen with cob oven, and cafe & restaurant. These will almost all be built with earthbags / superadobe using local labour (plus ourselves of course). We're also creating a natural plunge pool from the spring water and river rocks.

The land has spectacular views up and down the river and valley in all directions, 9 huge durian trees, lots of bananas & palms, a natural spring, 2 resident eagles and lots of dragonflies and frogs. Ultimately, the goal is a huge food forest, native tree jungle and permaculture garden with goats, chickens and maybe some ducks or geese later on. Safar has already planted over 1000 trees and plants - but I'll go into more of that with another post later!

When (or if) tourism ever comes back here we hope to invite people to stay and experience our place. Ketambe is a pretty unique village as it's one of the only places left to see truly wild orangutans in an amazing old growth rainforest, so in the past that's attracted travellers from all over the world.

It's going to be a very long process and family and friends want me to keep them up to date, so I decided to start documenting everything from the start. I didn't find a whole lot of info here regarding dealing with very steep slopes in tropical climates so thought it might be useful to share here too!

Full post here:
https://sumatrajungle.com/off-grid-earthworks/

Or skip to the video here:

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.