Zones and Sectors
(Compiled by Jude Hobbs, December 1995)
Zones: What you bring to the site: best location for each element
Sectors: What is already existing; the energy flowing through the site
The elements of a design are placed with respect to sectors to manage incoming energy,
and by zone to optimize the connections between the elements.
Analysis --- Reading the landscape --- Time efficiency
Zone 0: Humans-House-Village
buying practices - precycle - recycle - conserving
home improvement for efficiency: insulation, gray water, appropriate technology ,
nutrition - education - fix your pets
live simply so other may simply live and on and on
Woven into each Zones I, II, III, IV
• Water collection holding tanks, dry well, dams, ponds
• Appropriate technology: sun, wind, /1ydropowe
• Building soil fertility, composting, mulch
• Plant layering, use of vertical spaces, wind breaks and shelterbelts
• Wildlife attracting, sacred spaces
Zone I: Most intensive, closest to house
Structures: Greenhouse-storage-work shop
Plants: Kitchen garden-small or dwarf varieties, compost
Plant stacking-bird attracting-compost
House climate
Nutrient recycling of gray water
Zone II: Intensively cultivated
Structures: greenhouse- barns, tool shed, shop, wood storage, and other Plants:
Large garden, orchards, fire retardant plants, propagation, seasonal pruning
Large compost areas
Water: Catchment systems, well, bird bath, pond for reflection, gray /yellow
water, irrigation, fire control
Animals: rabbits, fish, bats, poultry
Zone III: Farm Zone
Structures: feed storage, field shelters
Plants: main crops, plants for grazing animals, forage, trees as shelter for animals,
selected seedling for grafting
Water: Dams, swales, storage in soil
Animals: Large, cows, horses, sheep, goat
Zone IV: Minimal Care
Plants: Extensive tree culture, minimal care
Forestry-woodlot, building material
Forage pasture
Water: dams-swales-ponds
Animals: large
Zone V: Natural unmanagedForaging, recreation, spiritual needs. Zone 5 provides the "instruction manual" for
human systems.
Sectors
Sectors are Wild Energies: Influences from outside the system
To show sectors, diagram a ground plan that illustrates where these energies originate,
and locate appropriate plants and structures in each sector. Design elements should be
moved through the sector until they best govern the energies in the sector. Elements can:
1) block or screen out an incoming energy or view; 2) channel energy for use (deflectorscollectors); 3) open up the sector for optimal use
Examples of Sectors:
Sun: Winter and summer sun angles, reflection from ponds
Wind: Cold, hot, salty, dusty deflectors-collectors
Fog
Flood-prone areas and rain flow
Wildfire
Wildlife corridors
Land forms: Slope, sunken areas
Pollution: Site, sound, smell, electro-magnetic energies
View: both good (a sweeping vista) and bad (a neighbor's dilapidated garage)
A design component is well placed when it optimally interacts with both zone and sector
energies.