SBP_Design by nature

  (1) The starting point - lawn with shallow topsoil. (2) Layers built up and mulched. (3) Organic matter breaking down showing mycelium growth. (4) Same area only 6 months after planting.  The importance of a solid base should never be underestimated. This goes for most contexts and can include anything from knowledge to fitness. Also, in the case of living systems the base is of supreme importance. A tonne of funds can be spent on plants only to find that few things thrive or that a high level of maintenance is required to make plants survive. Generally challenges for a site have something to do with the soil. Whatever space is taken over for the budding gardener or permaculturist, modern practises have generally left spaces worse for wear. Lifestyle blocks may be subdivided sections from hard run large scale commercial operations and suburban neighbourhoods are built on bulldozed land where any attention to a decent layer of productive topsoil is a long abandoned afterthoug...