I have an acre that is very wet and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. I ran across an ancient Central American technique called Chinampa that involves raised beds surrounded by canals. This is reported to be the most productive of all agriculture systems and fed hundreds of thousands in the valley that is now Mexico City.
This is a short video of the area I’m looking at doing some Chinampas.
For me to convert this area to Chinampas would involve digging canals and pilling the dirt to make raised beds. This would be a considerable amount of work by hand so I would need to get a piece of equipment in there. I might have to wait until the ground freezes to support a backhoe or excavator.
You can read about someone working on this at http://permaculturenews.org/2013/05/28/chinampas-2-0-an-elegant-technology-from-the-past-to-save-the-future/