Yes, that is right. My partner and myself recently acquired a property a few minutes drive north of Todos Santos, a ‘Pueblo Magico’ in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our plan is to develop this land according to permaculture principles, and turn it into our little paradise; a space designed and developed to meet our needs and wants, whilst living in harmony with nature.

The Property
The lot measures 50m by 100m, forming a perfect rectangle of 5000m². The land slopes very gently towards the South-West, where it faces the pacific ocean, with the beach less than 600m away. The public road runs along the South-Eastern boundary.
Currently the property is undeveloped, and completely off-grid. The planned development of the area is quite extensive, but this may take many years to become reality. For now, we are in the middle of nowhere, with only a handful of ‘neighbours’ dotted around the landscape.
The land is predominantly shrub-land, with all sorts of cacti growing amongst the bushes. Our favourite feature so far are the massive cardones, or more commonly known as the Mexican giant cactus, of which there are quite a few on the property. They are beautiful!

Why Permaculture?
It provides a design system focussed on working with nature, instead of against it. This is something we regard as incredibly important, especially when settling into an environment that is very fragile and easy to damage.
By following the ethics and principles on which permaculture is based, we are able to make the most suitable and responsible decisions regarding the development of our property and our way of life on it, and within the surrounding landscape.

Next Steps
Before we start any of the developments, we will be creating a suitable design for the property. This requires diligent research and planning. As we are currently still living in Spain, the next few months will be dedicated to this task. I will dedicate my time and energy towards designing the property, the buildings and the systems we intend to implement here.
I will also document the process and explain my thoughts, ideas and reasoning. In doing so I hope to provide a behind-the-scenes look at what it is that we as permaculture designers do, how we do it and why we do it. Perhaps my work will be found by others who have plans to settle in this magnificent place, and in doing so they may be inspired to adopt some of the ideas and systems onto their properties as well, and thereby reduce the negative effects that often accompany the rapid development in areas such as this.
My hope is that the massive future development that this area (and others like it) is expecting, will be done in a more responsible, sensible and caring manner, so that we may integrate into the landscape in a harmonious way, rather than forcing ourselves onto it and causing more of the environmental nightmares witnessed all around the globe.

Thank you very much for reading my thoughts, and I hope to see you on the next one.