I have a dream

[Ionel]

Hi everybody

My name is Ionel and live in Romania.
I have a dream (a crazy one to some).
I dream to move to the countryside and live amidst lush vegetation with my family.
Over here most people's life desire is to have a house (vs. a home) that's as close to the city (the larger ones) and have as little a garden as possible.
Well, me and the family are different.
We want an edible forest garden, lake(s), children and animal playgrounds, a large greenhouse, a strawbale house that uses AGS (annualized geo solar) for heat storage, composting toilets, greywater processing and recycling, compost generated heat leverage, some wind and sun power capture, etc. and all this by our own DIY means.

Well, yeah, we are "nuts" according to many of our own, but we like it this way.
Now, we only need to find a suitable piece of land ...

That's going to take a while ...

[Michaelangelica]

Welcome Ionel
A lot have that dream here, and a lot have taken the first step, and others are well along the road
Welcome to the forums:)
How much does land cost In Romania, and what is your climate like?

[Ionel]

Hi Michaelangelica

The cost of the land ... well, that's a whole book.
But the short version is: between 1200 and 15000 Eu/ha (this is agricultural land, the buildable land, multiply by 10 to 150).
The price has nothing to do with the intrinsics of the site like soil quality, water table depth, risk of flooding and whatnot but rather with the proximity to a major city.
I can't imagine why guaranteed floodplains and ex marshes have such high demands ...

The region is this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=timisoara&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=52.152749,114.169922&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Timisoara,+Timis,+Romania&ll=45.751714,21.282578&spn=0.362692,1.153564&t=h&z=11

There are 2 major (flooding) rivers and lots of (also flooding) creeks.
Most settlements are small and usually placed terribly close to the water banks (hence the flooding).
Climate is zone 6. Tropical summers for 2 months. Warm from april to september/october.
Winters mostly at or a few degrees above freezing (maybe more than 10 deg) with a few weeks at -6 -7, a few days at -10, and rarely at -20.
Rain is 650mm/year mostly during autumn/spring with spring bringing also snow melt and major deluge.
And because of this the water table in the majority of cases is high. If during summer it is deeper than 2-4m in spring it can get below 0.5m.
Soil is cernozems, aluvial, clayey, leached and little vertisol.
Much of the land is flat with some hills north-east.

The issue is that we want a large edible forest garden with lots of trees. We want to grow just about anything that is capable of growing in our climate (especially if it is fruiting).
Problem is the high water table. Trees don't like wet feet and can't evapotranspirate the water table because they are dormant when it counts ...
Most info i've seen till now involve some form of tropical or dry land. It's easier to keep water than to get rid of it especially if you're on flat land.
So how do i lower the water table ?
Where do i drain it if the whole area has excess ?
Swales don't help ...
Is there anything to be done on such land or should we just go the extra effort and expense and find a piece of land without water table problems ?
Should i open a new topic on this issue ?
Any help is tremendously appreciated.

[Toose]

Hello Ione,
Welcome to the forum and Its really a nice meeting with you here..I read your post and what you are dreaming about must be achieved if you will motivate yourself for it to make it happen in real...
Just you have to take a first step and other will start following you as other member suggested you above.. :)

[9anda1f]

Hi Ionel and welcome!

You might read this thread for some ideas on how to proceed with an existing wetland area: http://forums.permaculture.org.au/showthread.php?8385-A-Flooding-basement-and-what-to-do-about-it.&highlight=wetland

Looking forward to hearing your updates and plans!
Bill

[Ionel]

Bill,

That's something i've pondered too.
What if your slope is minimum, let's say less than 0.5m in 500m (the last property i've visited was so) ?
It's not much but it's something i guess.

My line of thinking was something like this:
-find the lowest spot
-dig a large area, deep (3-4m maybe) hole/pond
-make drainage ditches to it

Now this will definitely drain but what about infiltration from the water table ?
Won't it fill the pond ?
Won't the infiltration erode the pond walls ?
I know clay is good at keeping water in (as in compression) but what of the reverse ?
I ask these since i'm no geoengineer ...