Every good homestead begins the same way: not with a shovel, but with a long, patient look. Before you plant a tree or place a house, learn how the sun, water and wind already move across your land.
Permaculture is a way of designing a home place so it works like a healthy natural system: each part supports the others, little is wasted, and the land grows richer over time. Its first principle is simply observe and interact. Many designers suggest watching a piece of land through a full year of seasons before making big changes. You can start today, even in a backyard.
- 1Track the sun through the seasons and predict where shadows fall.
- 2Read how water moves across land, and find where it gathers.
- 3Spot the wind's direction and plan shelter from it.
- 4Measure slope and find a level contour line with a simple tool.
- 5Draw a base map and start a land journal.
Care for the land
Leave the soil, water and living things healthier than you found them.
Care for people
Design for the family and neighbors who live from the land.
Share the surplus
Take what you need, and return the extra to the land and to others.
Sun: the energy behind everything
The sun drives the garden, warms the house, and powers the solar panels. But it moves. In summer it rises in the northeast, climbs high and sets in the northwest. In winter it rises in the southeast, stays low in the southern sky, and sets in the southwest. (In the Southern Hemisphere, flip north and south.)
Why the winter sun matters most
A tree that shades nothing in July can shade a whole garden bed in December. When you place a greenhouse, a winter garden, solar panels or a south-facing window, check them against the low winter sun, not the summer one.
How long is the noon shadow?
Examples: Mount Shasta 41.3 · Sacramento 38.6 · Boise 43.6 · Nashville 36.2 · Austin 30.3 · Asheville 35.6. Find yours by long-pressing a spot in a map app.
| Season | Noon sun height | Shadow length |
|---|
Noon sun height = 90° − latitude ± 23.4° for the solstices. Shadow = height ÷ tan(sun height). Mornings and evenings cast longer shadows still.
Microclimates: small places with their own weather
A south-facing wall
Soaks up sun and gives back heat at night. The place for tomatoes, figs and early greens.
The north side
Shaded most of the year. Good for summer lettuce, storage and shade-loving plants.
Low spots
Cold air flows downhill like water and pools in hollows, making frost pockets. Keep tender plants out.
Ridges and hilltops
Windy and dry, with wide views. Often best for trees and shelter, not tender gardens.
Water: where it lands, flows and rests
Water shapes land more than anything else. Your goal is to slow it, spread it and let it soak in, instead of letting it rush off and carry your soil away. First, you have to see it.
How to read water on your land
- Walk in the rain. Put on boots during a good storm and follow the water. Where does it sheet off the roof, run down the drive, pool in the yard? It's the single best hour of observation you'll ever spend.
- Look for the traces. Gullies, bare soil, piles of leaves and sticks at the bottom of a slope, and darker soil all show where water has been.
- Read the plants. Rushes, sedges, willows and bright green patches in a dry season mean water is near the surface.
- Find the high and low points. Water enters at the top of your land and leaves at the bottom. Everything in between is a chance to catch it.
The wet spot that's a nuisance today might be your future pond, rain garden or willow grove. The bare, dry slope might become an orchard once you catch the water running past it. We'll design those water features in Lesson 4.
Wind: the invisible force
Wind dries out soil and plants, chills a house in winter and, in fire country, drives wildfires. A gentle summer breeze is welcome. A winter storm wind or a hot, dry fall wind is not, and they often come from different directions.
- Trees leaning or growing branches on one side (flagging)
- Snow drifts and leaf piles on one side of objects
- Where dust and dry soil blow off first
- Ask neighbors where the big storms come from
- Tie ribbons on stakes and check them through the seasons
A row of trees and shrubs slows the wind for a distance of about 10 to 15 times its height downwind. A 20 ft hedge can shelter a garden 200 ft long. The best windbreaks let some wind through (about half): a solid wall creates swirling turbulence behind it.
Slope: reading the shape of the land
Slope decides where water runs, where cold air settles, where it's easy to build, and where paths and garden beds should go. Steep ground isn't bad; it just asks for different uses.
How steep is it?
Measure with a string line and a level: stretch the string level from the high point, measure its length (run) and the drop to the ground at the far end (rise). Slope % = rise ÷ run × 100.
Finding a contour line
A contour line is a line across the slope where every point is at the same height. Garden beds, paths and water-catching ditches built on contour hold water instead of shedding it. You can find one with a tool your family builds in an hour.
Facing direction (aspect) matters too. In the Northern Hemisphere, a south-facing slope is warmer and drier and wakes up earlier in spring. A north-facing slope stays cooler and moister, which can be a blessing in hot summers.
What's already there
The land is already growing something. What's thriving now tells you a lot about the soil, the water and what will grow easily.
| If you see… | It often means… |
|---|---|
| Rushes, sedges, horsetail | Wet ground, water close to the surface |
| Thick, healthy clover | Soil low in nitrogen; clover is adding it |
| Dandelions and plantain | Compacted soil, often from foot or vehicle traffic |
| Moss on open ground | Shade, damp and often acidic soil |
| Tall, lush native grasses | Deep, healthy soil worth protecting |
| Bare, crusted patches | Erosion or overgrazing; this soil needs cover and care |
These are clues, not proof. The soil test in Lesson 3 gives you the real numbers. For a free head start, look up your land in the USDA Web Soil Survey.
Make your base map and land journal
Choose a piece of land you can visit often: your yard, a relative's property, a community garden, or a park. You'll draw a simple map of it, then return each month to watch it change. This map becomes the starting point for every lesson in this course.
You'll need
- Graph paper and a clipboard
- A compass (or a phone compass)
- A tape measure or a measured length of string
- A straight stick about 3 ft long and a few small stones
- Ribbons and stakes
- For the A-frame: three straight boards or poles, screws or twine, string and a stone
- A notebook for the land journal
Do it together
- Draw the outline. Pace or measure the edges and draw them to scale. Mark north, buildings, trees, paths and fences.
- Track the sun. Push the stick upright in an open spot. Place a stone at the tip of its shadow at 9, 12 and 3 o'clock. Mark sunny and shady areas on the map.
- Follow the water. Walk the land after rain (or run a hose at the high point) and draw arrows where water flows and circles where it pools.
- Flag the wind. Tie ribbons on stakes in three places and note which way they blow each visit.
- Build the A-frame and stake one contour line across the slope.
- Start the journal. Write the date, the weather, and three things you noticed. Come back next month and compare.
Little observers
- Place the stones at the shadow tips and see how they move
- Draw the water arrows and the puddles
- Make a "sit spot": sit quietly for five minutes and draw what you see and hear
Older observers
- Measure the stick and shadow and work out the sun's height with the calculator
- Use the A-frame and string line to measure the slope in percent
- Draw the map to scale and add a legend
Keep the map in a folder or a page protector. You'll draw on it again in every lesson.
Slow down to see
It's tempting to start digging the first weekend. But the families who build the most beautiful places almost always took the time to watch first. A season of patient observation saves years of moving things that were put in the wrong place.
Next, we'll take everything you've noticed and use it to decide where everything belongs: the house, the garden, the chickens and the orchard, using zones and sectors.
Your Lesson 1 worksheet
Work through these together. Your answers save on this device as you type, and print cleanly for your records.
Progress record
What this lesson practices:
- SciencePatterns of daily and seasonal changes in shadows and the sun's position (NGSS 5-ESS1-2); weather and water movement (MS-ESS2-4).
- MathRatios, percent and slope as rise over run (Common Core 7.RP.A.3, 8.EE.B.5); scale drawing (7.G.A.1).
- GeographyMaking maps with direction, scale and a legend; reading contour lines.
- WritingRecording observations over time in a journal (Common Core W.5.8).
Standards mapping is a draft. If you use charter or ESA funds, confirm it with your education specialist.
Sources for this lesson
- Deep Green Permaculture — guide to David Holmgren's permaculture principles
- USDA National Agroforestry Center — windbreaks protect 10 to 15 times their height
- USDA NRCS — windbreak and shelterbelt technical note
- NOAA — solar position calculator
- USDA NRCS — Web Soil Survey
- California Department of Education — NGSS 5-ESS1-2