The complete permaculture planning process — from observation to bed

Most gardens don't fail for lack of effort. They fail because of the order. Someone buys a tray of tomato plants in April, then looks for a spot, digs a bed, waters too little, harvests brown fruit — and concludes from that that they don't have a green thumb. The failure wasn't you. The system was missing.

Permaculture isn't a gardening style, it's a design system. And a design system has an order: first observe, then analyse, then design, then build, then maintain, then adapt. Whoever keeps to that order makes decisions right once instead of wrong three times. This article walks through the complete process chronologically — seven phases, each with its steps. For every phase it spells out: which permaculture principle sits behind it, and at which point the Garden Planner takes the work off your hands.

At the end you'll find the whole thing as a fillable template to download — so you can run the process cleanly even without the tool.

First: the principles we'll be referring to

David Holmgren framed permaculture in 12 principles, Bill Mollison contributed the concept of zones and sectors. We won't list them abstractly in a block, but name them where they bite in the process. Three keep coming up, so here they are upfront:

• Observe and interact — before you change anything, understand what's already there.
• Design from patterns to details — first the big picture (climate, water, sun), then the edge of the bed.
• Integrate rather than segregate — elements that support each other belong together.

Phase 1 — Observe & clarify your goals

Principle: Observe and interact · Obtain a yield.

Permaculture doesn't begin with the spade, it begins with the notebook. The classic teaching says: observe your plot for a whole year before you design. That's right — and unrealistic for most people. The compromise: observe as much as you can, and derive the rest from data.

Step 1.1 — Observe what's already there

Where does the sun stand in the morning, where in the evening? Where does water collect after rain, where does the frost linger longest? Which direction does the wind that really bothers you come from? Which wild plants are already growing — they reveal the soil. Take notes over weeks, not over minutes.

Step 1.2 — Define your goals and needs

Before you plan what grows, clarify what for. How many people should get how much self-sufficiency? How much time do you realistically have per week? A garden for two working professionals looks different from one for a family on parental leave. The principle Obtain a yield means: plan for a real, defined benefit — not for some idealised nursery picture.

Phase 2 — Analyse the site

Principle: Design from patterns to details · Observe and interact.

Now impressions become a data sheet. Six dimensions determine what is even possible on your plot. The order is deliberate — climate frames everything, soil and water decide the method, surroundings and topography the finer points.

Step 2.1 — Climate & hardiness zone

The USDA zone (from the average of the coldest days) tells you what is winter-hardy at all. Plus rainfall, frost-free months, growing degree days.

Step 2.2 — Sun & shade

How many hours of direct sun does each corner get? Where do the house, a hedge or a neighbour's tree cast shade — and at what time of day and year?

Step 2.3 — Soil

Sand, loam, clay or humus? pH? That decides the method (such as hügelkultur on sandy soil) and the acid-loving special cases like blueberries. The hand test takes a minute and beats any guess.

Step 2.4 — Water & rainfall

How much rain falls, how spread across the year? Where are the dry weeks? From that follows your storage need — the basis of the principle Catch and store energy.

Step 2.5 — Wind

Prevailing direction and strength. Wind-exposed sites need protection before they yield — often a hedge on the weather side.

Step 2.6 — Topography & surroundings

Slope, frost pockets, drainage direction. Plus: what lies around you — buildings, woodland, road, neighbouring trees? They shape wind, shade and root competition along the edges.

Phase 3 — Set sectors & zones

Principle: Design from patterns to details · Relative location (what belongs next to what).

Now the plot is made legible. Two tools that Mollison introduced:

Step 3.1 — Map the sectors

Sectors are energies that hit the plot from outside: where the sun comes from, where the cold wind, where noise or a flood. They determine where something stands sheltered or exposed. A greenhouse wants the sun sector, a hedge the wind sector.

Step 3.2 — Assign zones 0 to 5

Zones rank by frequency of visits, measured from the house (zone 0). What you need daily comes close (herbs, salad — zone 1). What rarely wants attention goes far (fruit trees, wild edge — zones 4 and 5). The full logic is in the article Permaculture zones Z1 to Z5.

Phase 4 — The design: what, how much, where

Principle: Integrate rather than segregate · Use and value diversity · Each element serves several functions · Catch and store energy · Use the edges.

This is the heart of the planning — and the phase that holds the most permaculture intelligence. Six steps, in this order:

Step 4.1 — Set the quantities (allocation)

How much area does each plant family get? That follows your need (phase 1), not whim. Grow everything in equal amounts and you'll harvest a tonne of salad and three beans.

Step 4.2 — Build guilds (companion planting)

Plants that support each other come together — the principle Integrate rather than segregate in its purest form. Beans feed squash, tomatoes shade salad, onions confuse the carrot fly. Classics like the Three Sisters guild are tried over millennia.

Step 4.3 — Plan the crop rotation

Across the years no family may return to the same bed too quickly — otherwise soil fatigue and disease set in. The principle Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: the soil gives feedback, the rotation anticipates it. How that works without bookkeeping is in Model B.

Step 4.4 — Water infrastructure

Storage belongs planned before beds take the space — because Catch and store energy is foundation, not accessory. Barrel, cistern or pond size themselves to roof area and dry weeks from phase 2. And since the water update the terrain is part of it: swales on the contour line, a rain garden for flat plots, the pond site chosen by slope and sink, the overflow chain down to infiltration on your own ground. Water gets planned first — it's the one element that doesn't negotiate.

Step 4.5 — Perennial layers

Fruit trees, berry bushes, herb spiral — the permanent elements that use diversity and edges. They stand for decades, so they go in before the annual beds.

Step 4.6 — Put it all on the map

Last comes placement: every element in its zone and sector spot, without overlap, with paths and clear root zones.

Phase 5 — Build it

Principle: Use small and slow solutions · Produce no waste · Obtain a yield.

Now the spade comes out — but here too the order matters. Build the beds first and then notice the cistern no longer fits, and you'll dig twice.

Step 5.1 — Build in the right order

First the immovable and large: the water earthworks (swales, pond), water storage, trees, greenhouse. Earthwork on a slope and larger ponds you clear professionally and with the authorities first (details in How the Garden Planner plans). Then the beds. Then the small gap-fillers. The planner uses exactly this order when placing too — it's no accident, it's bin-packing.

Step 5.2 — Build soil up rather than dig it over

Hügelkultur, mulch, compost — build layers up rather than destroy the soil. Small and slow solutions: a bed that ripens slowly bears longer than one forced up with chemistry. Watch out in the first year: fresh hügelkultur beds need the right first planting because of nitrogen lock-up.

Step 5.3 — First planting & year-1 strategy

In the first year green manure and quick crops (salad, beans) bind the soil while the structure ripens. Obtain a yield also means: have something on the plate already in year one, or you'll lose the motivation.

Phase 6 — Maintain & observe

Principle: Self-regulation and feedback · Use renewable resources.

A permaculture garden isn't finished once laid out, it's set up. The maintenance is deliberately low — but regular.

Step 6.1 — Follow the schedule

Sow, plant, mulch, harvest — month after month. Not all at once, but spread out. Keep observing: what works, what doesn't?

Step 6.2 — Close the loops

Kitchen scraps into the compost, compost onto the bed, rainwater into the barrel, barrel onto the bed. Renewable resources means: buy in as little as possible from outside, cycle as much as possible within the garden.

Phase 7 — Review & develop further

Principle: Creatively use and respond to change.

After the first season you know things no data source knew. That's not failure, that's the plan: permaculture design is a loop, not a straight line.

Step 7.1 — Review the harvest honestly

What was too much, what too little? Where was it too dry, too shady? Adjust the quantities for next year — and move what stood in the wrong place.

Step 7.2 — Let the garden mature

The rotation moves on, berry bushes bear from year 2 to 3, trees from year 4 to 5. What you laid out in year 1 pays off over decades — if you tune it each year rather than let it drift.

The thread that runs through it

Observe, analyse, design, build, maintain, review, develop. Each phase builds on the last — which is why whoever starts with the tomato tray in April fails. The Garden Planner condenses the design phases, which take weeks by hand, into minutes. But the observation at the start and the doing in the middle stay yours. The tool thinks the plan. The human builds it.