Mihai Buldus

Thanks again for all the replies!

Iv made a first attempt on designing the layout of the trees and shrubs.(See atached Photo)
The valey runs from the top of the hill side West, to the lake east.(West = left side of my Photo)

The Red exetrior lines are the property boarders and the red lines crossing through the property are swales.
I assume that the water supply around the swales is the highest and that the area beeing the distance 3/4 between 2 swales the driest.
This is just an asumption, correct me if im wrong.

The areas between southern fence and northern "tree line" will be my legume garden.

The Trees/Shrubs are as follows:
1.Hazelnut
2.Walnut
3.Apple(Semi Dwarf)
4.Oak(Missing from sketch)
5.Quince
6.Sequoia Giganteum
7.Sweet Cherry(Semi Dwarf)
8.Elderberry
9.Fig Tree
10.Plum(Semi Dwarf)
11.Lindens
12.Grape Vine
13.Hop Vine

I wanted to share this with you guys before i start designing the other layers and guilds in case iv made mistakes at this stage.

Info: The east side is not occupied cause im planning to build my house there.
Everything in the sketch is scaled, so the dimension ratios are as seen in the png.

Feel free to modify my design, id love me some good feedback!

Thanks again for taking your time to read this.

Hey there guys, thanks alot for your replies...it sure is alot of information to dig in, im gonna go through all the ideeas you guys shared with me and see what works best and come back with a design.

Yesterday i moved in some concrete poles in, 150 to be precise, my back is now recovering from all the carrying.

It was a adventrure, called in a truck to carry them from the seller and on to my land, after 4 hours of piling the poles on wooden pallets so we could load them on a truck. After loading them up using the trucks crane (aprox. 6 tons) we went to my property where the acces road is a muddy path created by tractors...the 14 ton truck got stuck and we had to run trough the village to find someone to toe us out... But, the poles got almost to the destination, they are now 1 km away from the property waiting to become a fence. Ill keep you guys posted on the progress.

And hopefully share a design with you pretty soon!


Thanks alot friends!
Have a awesome weekend.

Thanks for the tips Mark, ill start designing the layout soon and share it with you guys.

Mark, if you woudnt mind sharing your design i wouls be veey happy. It seems your forest garden is on a pretty similar site.

Hey there Michelle, thanks for your reply!

I woul love to start designing it but its hard to do if i dont make a decision on the land works in gonna do, im still undecided, thats why i asked for help here.

Should i try and level out 3 slopes in the hillside?
Should i make 3-4 swales, one before each planting "region"? I still dont know which one would work best.


Thank you too Mark for your reply!
You are exactly right, you have a good eye, the property is located in northen Transilvania(Romania) near Cluj-Napoca city.
Thanks for identifing the trees/shrubs, im pretty set on keeping them there, i feel like i would take the soul away by replacing them with something els.

Berries, the place was full of them last autumn when i first got here.

I dont think ill be able to use the lake water, my property stops 15 meters to the shore, but im planning on digging a well and making a small pond later on.

Some more information on the layout, ita about 130 meters long and 17 meters wide, the short side beeing paralel to the lake.

Im really glad about all the information i got till now, thanks again!

Thanks alot for the replies guys!

I cant plant right away since the nearby shepards graze everything down with theyr sheep, even small trees, i first have to setup my fence.
Thats gonna take me 2/3 Monts from now onwards.

My plans were actualy to split the land into 3x30 meters(90 feet) teraces as to retains as much water as posible since it gets really dry in summer and all the water flows down to the lake.
The slope is around 7 degrees, my plan might be too abitious tough, the surface area is pretty big and im planning to do this with a showel and some friends.

I was thinking about tilling the field one last time and seeding some cover crops to build soil fertility till the land is ready to plant.

Maybe i could set up some earth mounds where i could plant trees that would later support the edges of the teraces, i dont know if this is doable tought,is it?

What do you guys think?

Hello everyone,

First of all thanks for taking your time to read my post.
Iv recently aquired some land and am planing to start a food forest, sadly for the last years its been abused by over grasing and soil disturbance and the only things that ar growing at the moment are Spear Thistle, some dog rose shurbs and 1-2 unidentified trees in some little depressions that i assume are some water loving species.
(Ill attach some photos)

Considering the poor condition the soil is in im pretty sure its not ready to plant a food forest.

My hope is that you guys could help me guide me on the right first step.

I have a few ideeas in my head but i would like to keep them to my self as not to influence the suggestions.

Thanks in advance,
Your PurpleClover.