how to garden in flood zone, can't dig deep

hi everyone,

i am currently living in ho chi minh city, vietnam and have a great back yard! the problem is, during the rainy season the water can get up to 1m high and even come into the house! there is no possibility to dig very deep as the septic tank is under a foot beneath the ground and some parts are also covered in cement.

i wanted to build raised garden beds though i'm not sure if this would help with flooding or if the beds could withstand the flooding. i know rain catchment might help as well...

i have been getting into permaculture a lot this past year and finally i have a space to play and experiment. if anyone has suggestions on what i can do by simple means that would be super appreciated!

thank you!
d

dona nham wrote:hi everyone,

i am currently living in ho chi minh city, vietnam and have a great back yard! the problem is, during the rainy season the water can get up to 1m high and even come into the house! there is no possibility to dig very deep as the septic tank is under a foot beneath the ground and some parts are also covered in cement.

i wanted to build raised garden beds though i'm not sure if this would help with flooding or if the beds could withstand the flooding. i know rain catchment might help as well...

i have been getting into permaculture a lot this past year and finally i have a space to play and experiment. if anyone has suggestions on what i can do by simple means that would be super appreciated!

thank you!
d

You should go check out Geoff Lawton's video on flooding: http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/77036-flat-land-flash-floods

Is this flooding seasonal ? regular ?

David

hi everyone.

thanks for the responses.

flooding is seasonal. happens every time during rainy season and our house is definitely not the only one. the roads get pretty flooded too...the city is a bit behind on making proper infrastructure to help against floods.

anyways i watched the lawton video and i'm not sure how those principles can be applied to the type of space and the amount of space i have. i am going to attach a photo and it's the backyard.

the first photo is the backyard...all three walls block it in. then the water will flow out towards the frontyard shown in the second photo with the motobikes...and water comes into the house from there.

what do y'all think?

With over land flooding like you're experiencing, you are likely to get pollution from neighboring properties as well as your own.

You need to make use of your verticals space. This will keep the products of your labor from being contaminated by water which may contain sewage and other pollutants.

 Grow things that can climb up on a vine. Vining crops such as cucumbers grapes, squashes and beans can all be grown in raised beds. Prune off the lower flowers,  so that all fruits are produced well above the dirty water.

In addition to Dale's suggestion about growing climbers, you might think about building vertical beds. Pallets can be turned into planters that can be put right up against your wallsusing little horizontal space and getting your plants up above the flood waters.

Without a much bigger picture view of where your floodwaters come from and how they get both on and off your proprty it is very hard to make any suggestions regarding actual management of the floods.

I love Dales suggestion on going vertical!

If you wanted to incorporate fruit trees without shading out all your other plantings you could look into espalier? You could train the tree along wires on one of those walls, remove lower branches below the flood line and even use the espaliered tree as a climbing frame for other annual climbers out of season. Stacking function

I really love the large wall in the front yard.
I am thinking two liter pop bottle garden here.
I am also thinking growing down instead of growing up.
First you have to figure out what materials you have to work with in regards to plant containers.
I am thinking you can get two liter pop bottles, five gallon plastic buckets, bamboo, and fifty five gallon barrels.
All of these can be used as containers.
From your pictures it seems that you also have access to some good river rocks that are nice and flat.
You are also likely to have access to pallets.
So you can produce some type of terrace system for the front yard wall.
Now if you mix the terrace and growing containers you can likely create a system of areas above your flood zone.
Once you have such a system it would be easy to add a drip irrigation or just simple water systems to water flows from top containers to bottom containers.

So with such a system you now can put in your plants.
In your case you can have tomatoes that grow down. You can have egg plant that grow out. You can use wire, rope, etc. to grow yardlong beans and other vines out from the wall to the house.
In fact if you plan it right you can grow increased shading for a given area.

As I said I just love that front yard wall and the opportunity is presents for a terrace system or vertical garden.
You can find a great deal of information about these systems on the internet.

Yep,I agree, vertical. I saw a product where ppl grow hanging strawberries. I'll be doing some of that, too. .. same process, add some different plants as well. Can y'all tell I'm new to this? Good luck to you