PASER - a cheatsheet for permaculture lots: Plants, Animals, Structures, Events, Resources

in #permaculture8 years ago (edited)

PASER is a sheet which will help you to narrow your expectations and reveal hidden consequences.

Why to start with PASER sheet?

For more information what is the role of PASER sheet in planning process, you can read our article Brainstorm Before Building Your (Not Only) Garden.

Briefly, it is like with everything in life - before you start something, you might want to observe what you have and what are your expectations from future actions.

And if you are going to build a home or garden, it is the pretty same situation, something like a brainstorming before you create a business plan!

PASER sheets allows you to dream of your future. All the things you would love to do and have have their own place in PASER sheet.

Plants

Think about all the plants you would like to have in your garden, whether they are decorative, attracting pollinators and other useful insects or they will be used to produce food for your family and/or commercial production. The best is to make it as specific as you can - name them. It will help you later to find out details about each of them, such as required care and allelopathy.

Animals

Animals are vital part of every environment. Which animals would you like to have and why? Is it a dog as a friend and gatekeeper? Is is a cat as a mouse-catcher? Is it a goat as milk provider and natural sewing machine?
Or cow to produce milk, cheese and ancestors? Or hens to produce eggs and meat? All animals need their own place, have their own inputs and outputs. Listing them will help you to find out all the inputs and outputs later.

Structures

What are the first things which might pop out? A home, workshop, greenhouse, barn, warehouse.. but also outdoor fireplace, ground fridge, utility systems, home for your dog, hen, cow.. and it will grow up as other parts of the PARSE sheet will grow up.

Events

What would you like to do here? And what others? Outdoor cooking, woodwork, meditation, singing, dancing, but also commercial production is kind of event - it will help you realize that for example kitchen and preparation room will have to meet some regulations if you are going to sell cheese and vegetables, as well as you will realize you will need a warehouse for all the stuff waiting to be sold.

Resources

Think of your own resources and resources on the lot/in close neighborhood. If you have a lot of stones, then you can use them for stone walls. If you have a lot of good clay, you can use it as well. Important to know - is water source present? Constant wind to be converted into electricity? The more resources you find from start, the more FIAT currency you can use somewhere else. 

PASER sheet must be filled up by all potential users of the lot. Do not hesitate and even go and visit your neighbor to consult it - maybe the neighbour will have problems with your plans and it can save a lot of frustration from the very start.

Once you think PASER sheet is done, it is time to make a thoroughful input-output analysis of EVERY EACH ITEM and stay assured that PASER sheet will grow up again as you will realize hidden consequences.

It will help you to narrow your expectations and prevent misconceptions. It is a good starting point to think about your permaculture lot design.


Edit: Thanks to @pfunk and abuse team for over-voting serial flagger.
The downvoting mustard still does have a lot of fun.

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This is a nice rubric for garden design. Simpler to get started with than zone/sector or I/O analysis.

I like the sound of PASER (like LASER). I noticed you typed it PARSE in one place (under "Structures"), was that a typo or an alternative acronym?

Either way, thanks for the organic food for thought!

I'm saving this for about a year down the road, when I hope to plan a garden of my own! Thanks for posting it!