Two-Acre Residential Permaculture Design

This two-acre design was for a brand-new property with no buildings on it. It was actually a former pineapple field. One of the challenges on a site like this is the soil.

The couple that own the property have two young children and this is their forever home. The husband and wife are very different people. The husband is a personal chef and the wife has an online business selling high end fashion design. They both had different desires from the space.

We really wanted to design a place that they both could hang out together, even though they had really different interests. on two acres, you can do all that you can have an orchard you can have a banana patch, you can have a formal vegetable garden, you can have an outdoor kitchen, you can have your beautiful ornamental entryway, and we really want to look at how do we, you know, give the family a whole embrace for the family that really includes everybody.

Click below to hear the back-story from Jenny Pell or scroll down to read about this design.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

We were hired to do a two-acre design on a brand-new property that actually has no buildings on it. And it’s a former pineapple field. One of the challenges on a site like that is that the soil is really depleted. They use layers and layers and layers of plastic in the soil. So, you have to figure out how to deal with that.

This couple has two very young children, and it’s their forever home. They have the architectural drawings already done. And the husband and wife are very different people. The husband is a personal chef. He does catered weddings and for small groups, and he does all kinds of really high-end culinary work on Maui. And he wanted a garden that he could glean from for his chef business. It’s not a commercial business and is not going to take anything to Market. But he does want to have the high end freshest, small things, the herbs and some fruit and some very specific things he wanted in his garden, and he loves to work in the garden.

The wife has an online business selling high end fashion design. And she doesn’t want to do any work in the garden ever. So, I really wanted to design a place that they both could hang out together, even though they had really different interests.

They have left the house and the swimming pool. And we designed this beautiful wide sweeping path that takes you down to a terrorist garden that cuts across the contour of the property. And when you walk down these gorgeous flagstone steps, the middle part has an umbrella with a cushion seat built into the terrace and a place to put your feet up and a place to drink margaritas. And to have a fire pit and entertain your friends so that she can be there, keeping him company.

And then they did very formal raised beds that were just wonderful to walk around inside this terrace swath. So, he could be puttering around in the garden. And in that central gathering area, he could be bringing the harvest and he could be, you know, hanging out with her and the kids could have a place to run around.

That then continued down into the lower part of the garden where we designed a rainwater pond. So, the whole site is sloping, and the water comes off the roof and it goes down this natural swallow that’s already built in and we designed a sort of an ephemeral stream, dry creek rock bed that when it rains, it runs through this beautiful rock bed.

Then there’s a pond at the bottom. At the front, she wanted a very formal ornamental entryway, we designed that for her. And then as you moved around the size of the property, there was a small orchard there was a coconut grove, but it was all very tidy.

And so it was just a really interesting combination of her tastes and his tastes. And the pool wanted a grassy area for the kids to run around. So, on two acres, you can do all that you can have an orchard you can have a banana patch, you can have a formal vegetable garden, you can have an outdoor kitchen, you can have your beautiful ornamental entryway, and we really want to look at how do we, you know, give the family a whole embrace for the family that really includes everybody.