Permaculture Zone Calculator
Design your permaculture property layout with optimal zone sizing based on property size and family needs.
About this calculator
Permaculture zone design organizes a property into concentric rings by how often you need to visit them -- Zone 1 nearest the house for daily-tended intensive garden and herbs, out through Zone 5 for wild or conservation land you rarely enter -- and this calculator sizes those rings as percentages of your usable land. It starts from Property Size, subtracts a Zone 0 house footprint (capped at 10% of total area so an oversized House Footprint entry can't consume the whole property), and splits the remainder across zones 1-5. Zone 1 and Zone 2 scale with Family Size, since a larger household needs more intensive garden and orchard/main-crop area to meet its own food needs, while Zones 3-5 are fixed percentages of the remaining land (25%, 20%, and whatever is left over, respectively) regardless of household size.
Productive Acres totals Zones 1 through 3 -- the portion of the property in active cultivation -- as a single figure useful for comparing against typical homestead food-production targets. Water Source Distance and Average Slope are collected as siting context but do not currently change the calculated zone sizes: real permaculture design would use them to decide zone placement (e.g. siting water-hungry Zone 1 beds close to the water source, or routing water-catching swales along contour on sloped land), but this calculator only computes area totals, not a spatial layout, so treat those two fields as reminders of what to consider when you lay the zones out on your actual property rather than inputs that reshape the numbers above.
Inputs
Results
Zone 1 (Kitchen Garden)
9,418 sq ft
≈ 3 tennis courts
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter your total property size in acres and the footprint of your house in square feet (Zone 0).
- Enter your family size — larger households need larger productive zones to meet food needs.
- Enter the distance from your house to the main water source (well, pond, etc.) and the average slope percentage of your land.
- Review the recommended Zone 1 (Kitchen Garden) through Zone 5 (Wild/Conservation) areas in square feet.
- Use the Productive Acres figure to plan the intensive cultivation and orchard areas on your homestead.
How the result changes with Property Size
| Property Size | Zone 1 (Kitchen Garden) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4,627 sq ft |
| 1.5 | 7,022 sq ft |
| 3 | 14,210 sq ft |
| 5 | 23,793 sq ft |
What each input means
- Property Size
- Total property size in acres.
- House Footprint
- Floor area of the house (Zone 0).
- Family Size
- Number of people to feed. Larger families need bigger productive zones.
- Water Source Distance
- Distance from house to main water source (well, pond, etc.).
- Average Slope
- Average slope percentage of the property.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters5 parametersProperty Size = 2, House Footprint = 1500, Family Size = 4, Water Source Distance = 50, Average Slope = 5 = 5 input(s) provided
- Calculate Zone 1Zone 19418 = 9418
- Calculate Zone 2Zone 215412 = 15412
- Calculate Zone 3Zone 321405 = 21405
Engine last updated . Checked against 3 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don't Water Source Distance and Average Slope change any of the zone size results?
This calculator computes how much area each zone should occupy, not where on your property to put it -- Water Source Distance and Average Slope are real considerations for zone placement (keep intensive Zone 1 beds near water, route drainage along contour on sloped ground) but don't currently factor into the square- footage math. Use them as siting reminders when you walk your property and lay the zones out, not as levers that change the numbers here.
Why does Zone 1 grow with Family Size but Zone 4 and Zone 5 don't?
Zone 1 and Zone 2 hold the intensive garden, herbs, and main crop/orchard area that directly feeds the household, so this calculator scales them up as Family Size grows -- more people need more actively cultivated area. Zones 3 through 5 (main crops/pasture, semi-wild land, and wild/conservation) are set as fixed shares of the remaining property regardless of household size, reflecting that those zones aren't primarily sized around daily food needs.
Why is House Footprint capped at 10% of my property size?
This calculator caps how much of Total property area the House Footprint entry can subtract out, at 10% of the total. This keeps an unusually large House Footprint entry (or a data-entry mistake) from consuming an implausible share of a small property and leaving little or nothing for the productive zones -- it does not mean your actual house occupies exactly 10% of your land.
What does Productive Acres actually represent?
Productive Acres sums Zone 1 (intensive garden), Zone 2 (orchard/main crops), and Zone 3 (main crops/pasture) and converts the total from square feet back to acres. It excludes Zone 4 (semi-wild) and Zone 5 (wild/conservation) since those are not under active cultivation, so use it as a quick check against typical homestead food-production acreage targets for your family size.
Can I use this calculator to lay out where each zone goes on my property?
Not directly -- it calculates how much area each zone should occupy based on your property size and family needs, but it does not produce a map or layout. You'll still need to walk your property and place the zones yourself, using real siting factors like Water Source Distance and Average Slope to decide where Zone 1 belongs relative to your house, water source, and terrain.
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