moving to Hungary soon

Welcome on Expat.com anns

Thanks you for your presentation!

Dear Anns,

Welcome to the forum, and by extension, Hungary!

Renovating an old building is going to cost you a lot, so I'm predicting more legal work in your near future than painting... But I'm sure it's going to be worth it in the long term.

Good luck with everything!

thank you
fortunately the house I am moving to is in very good condition I just need to throw some paint on the walls and give it my own look.
The garden is something else though and I will probably have to employ someone to stop it becoming a jungle. . I thionk there are some rules and regulations relating to this
best wishes Anns

anns wrote:

Hi ,
my name is Anns and I am planning to move to Hungary very soon.
I work in Dorset and I have just purchased a former botanical garden near Hatvan.... .

Welcome to Hungary.

Your name is rather unusual. Is it Ann S or really Anns?

Are you planning to renovate the botanical garden? What kind of plants/trees are you planning?

Not being nosey, just interested in unusual plants/trees that might actually grow in Hungary. I've tried some plants in HU from milder climates (actually the UK) and they don't survive the winters. I'd like colour all year. I'm finding Hungary looks very brown and dead at the moment (ever seen/read the movie/book "The Road"?) although I see buds on the bushes there's not enough green to really show yet.

Hi
thanks for your interest >
I used to have a garden but have not had one in my current home so I am looking forwards to getting back to nature haha
The previous owner designed and set out a botanical garden so sad to say I saw it under thick snow in January  so will not see it properly until I visit again in April. . He has left some photos for me  with my friend so I will have a better idea in a few weeks time.
I was told we can be fined if we dont keep the verges tidy  and lawns cut let me know if you know anything about this bylaw
regards Anns

Hi,

There is a theoretical possibility to issue a fine for allowing excessive ragweed growth on your property.

First of all, it's not in "bloom" until June, so noone should care until then.

Second, an established culture of local plants will not admit too much ragweed anyway: It's an aggressive pioneer pant, the first to inhabit new or disturbed soil.

Third, I've never heard of anyone actually getting such a fine.

A lot of people are agress

Hi

Welcome to Hungary or soon to be in Hungary. We moved here 5 years ago and are planting up a permaculture food forest. It is true you can get fined for ragweed but if you are growing other flowers, crops or just ground cover then you will be OK. We live in a small vilage near Pecs and we are growing Phacelia which is a green manure. This grows to a height of about 500mm then we chop and drop or just let it die over winter. It has created some curiosity in the village probably because we live between the Mayor's office and the Mayor's house so we are in the spotlight. So far we have no objections. We are now in the process of planting fruit trees. Veggies will follow next. I say we but it is really my Wifes project and I help where possible. Not that green fingered really but I can build things.

I am looking for an Allen scythe at the moment,anyone know where I can get one in Hungary.

Good luck with your garden.

markru wrote:

I am looking for an Allen scythe at the moment,anyone know where I can get one in Hungary.

Look on www.expressz.hu and search for Kasza (Scythe in Hungarian). I saw quite a few motorised ones on there. Cool bit of kit if you have heavy grass cutting needs.

Ugh, this "Allen scythe" thing looks more like a lawnmower to me (albeit a Wallace and Gromit variant...) I've never seen one of those, probably because they need perfectly level ground anyway.

The closest thing I have seen are hedge trimmers (sövénynyíró).

Under "motoros kasza" you are more likely to find the horribly noisy and dangerous string-spinning grasscutters. Yuck.

I'm saving up to buy a new regular scythe, as I have managed to ruin my first one in multiple ways last season.

fluffy2560 wrote:

markru wrote:

I am looking for an Allen scythe at the moment,anyone know where I can get one in Hungary.

Look on www.expressz.hu and search for Kasza (Scythe in Hungarian). I saw quite a few motorised ones on there. Cool bit of kit if you have heavy grass cutting needs.

Hi

Had a look at the site and I should be able to buy one from here. Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

szocske wrote:

.....new regular scythe,.....

Be careful you don't accidently stand at the end of the street dressed in a black hodded robe with a ghost mask on. You might give the neighbours a scare...

well, maybe you could stand outside at Halloween...

Dear Markru,
Yes I am interested in gardening and growing things. I would like to adapt my house to some kind of low energy home and I like the idea of growing sustainable things.
The first thing I will do is plant a few English oak trees they will last forever
regards Anns

Your intentions are laudable, but I'd take a bit of time to familiarize myself with the local flora before making big commitments on the species to plant if I were you.

At least you didn't say pine: it's quite popular, despite being totally alien in 99.9% of Hungary, and destroys all plants under it even more than oak does :-)

anns wrote:

Dear Markru,
Yes I am interested in gardening and growing things. I would like to adapt my house to some kind of low energy home and I like the idea of growing sustainable things.
The first thing I will do is plant a few English oak trees they will last forever
regards Anns

Hi

I have just installed solar heating for the whole house and my therapy centre. Gas is so expensive here. My next move is to put in one or two wood burners and then use sustainable timber for the fuel. I looked at ground source heat pumps but they still use a shedload of electricity to run the heat exchanger. For my large house, about 4.7kW. I am also looking at hot air blowers from solar heat exchangers, we'll see.

Kind regards

Mark

[Moderated: No free ad on the forum]

since I was on here last I have moved all my stuff to Hungary and had a good look around my garden.
Then I had to come back to the UK to work sad but I will visit again mid July.
What I learnt:

I loved Budapest and am so glad I live only an hour and a bits drive away I am so looking forwards  to  spending more time there.

Hungarians exagerate big time !!! The botanical gardens at my farm were just a few colourful shrubs and trees thank goodness because I dont want to maintain anything to spectacular

Everytime I go there the family that I purchased the property from  will come and visit.This is a good and bad thing! Nice that they will still show an interest but also I am sure they have difficulty letting go and might come and boss my gardener about
I am worried that mice might nibble my carpets and moths might attack my clothing. Has anyone got any good ideas on how to keep pests out of the house without using chemicals?
chat later Anns

Correction:

Real estate agents and sellers exaggerate big time :-)

Keeping mice out is primarily just that: never letting them in.
Keep doors closed, screens on windows (they jump incredibly high, and clime up impossible surfaces.)

Once inside, it's all traps, poison, doom and gloom.
Similarly for moths: doors, screens, plus when you bring grain or produce inside, keep it sealed.


Enjoy your own piece of Hungary :-)

It was actually the family that exaggerated big time their son used to work in the botanical gardens in Budapest! So goodness knows what plants have been moved to my garden.
However the good thing is that it is not planted out in a formal style so I can let it do its own thing .
Who knows when I visit in July what I will notice.
One thing I did notice is that the soil seems to be quite sandy

Hi

Thanks to mentioning in this forum that I was looking for an Allen Sythe and people making suggestions where I could find one I have been successful in finding one in Kecskemét.

A chap there buys, refurbs and then re-sells them. I have now added some wheels at the front and can now cut anything but leave the last 200mm or so. The cuttings just fall and will be the green manure for next year.

Most importantly the Mayor will not be able to complain as my whole paddock will be short enough but not cut to the ground.

Thanks

markru wrote:

A chap there buys, refurbs and then re-sells them.

Glad to hear you found what you need, extra credit for discovering the "ezermester" ("master of a thousand trades") subculture :-)

szocske wrote:

markru wrote:

A chap there buys, refurbs and then re-sells them.

Glad to hear you found what you need, extra credit for discovering the "ezermester" ("master of a thousand trades") subculture :-)

It's funny you should say this as this is my nickname in the village as I am an Instrument Engineer and have fixed all sorts of things from locks to computers to electronic items for the villagers. I enjoy any kind of engineering, mechanical or electrical and have two workshops for this purpose. It also uses old items and thus avoids waste and saves money in the long run.

That's so cool, I wish I was good with real life tools too...

The best I can do is try to fix everyone's computer, except they all have Windows, and I'm not good with that.

Hi marcru, how did you get on with your reciprocating knife mower? I have been thinking of getting one for my 1.5 acre plot. I was a bit concerned that the blades would get damaged by hidden Christmas tree stumps but it sounds like I could set the cutting height to clear them as they only stick up a couple of inches. I brought over a rotovater on my last trip from UK but I've not tried it yet. I too have a ragweed problem and suspect that turning the soil with the rotovator might make matters worse. I'm told the rotovator will chop up the tree stumps and roots though so it might be good as a one-off treatment.

fidobsa wrote:

.... I'm told the rotovator will chop up the tree stumps and roots though so it might be good as a one-off treatment.

I had tree stumps in my garden. They are a major problem to get out. It's impossible to chain saw the roots - dulls the chain in seconds. I doubt a rotovator will make any difference at all. Roots are rock hard. The only way I know to get them out is to use a stump grinder or if you can manage it, explosives (more fun but wow, majorly risky from flying debris etc....). Latter is probably too difficult to organise in Hungary.

Grinder:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/im … en/1273711

Explosives:

http://www.dumbstump.com/blasting.php

Hi!

Contrary to what you'll see and hear on the streets tonight, explosives are quite rare and strictly licensed.
We usually dig up tree stumps, and tear them out with a manual wench.

Ragweed: yes, as a pioneer plant, it's the first to reclaim disturbed soil. Prepare to mow more afterwards.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I had tree stumps in my garden. They are a major problem to get out. It's impossible to chain saw the roots - dulls the chain in seconds. I doubt a rotovator will make any difference at all. Roots are rock hard. The only way I know to get them out is to use a stump grinder or if you can manage it, explosives (more fun but wow, majorly risky from flying debris etc....). Latter is probably too difficult to organise in Hungary.

The stumps I'm talking about are those left behind after harvesting Christmas trees of the size people have in their homes so they are only about 2" diameter.

fidobsa wrote:

The stumps I'm talking about are those left behind after harvesting Christmas trees of the size people have in their homes so they are only about 2" diameter.

I still like the idea of blowing them up.

I've always wanted to have a bottle of nitroglycerine just so I could label it "Smashing Up Liquid" .

fidobsa wrote:

I've always wanted to have a bottle of nitroglycerine just so I could label it "Smashing Up Liquid" .

Oh, haha, now you've done it. THe FBI will be at your door. Nitroglycerine is very hard to make. Highly unstable and liable to blow up. It seems the best home made solution seems to be ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil). I got that from the videos online at YouTube. But unfortunately it's the terrorist explosive of choice as it's easy to source and use. That's wikipedia for you.

fidobsa wrote:

The stumps I'm talking about are those left behind after harvesting Christmas trees of the size people have in their homes so they are only about 2" diameter.

If you have time you can use high nitrogen chemicals poured into holes drilled into the stump. You can find details "how-to" at many web sites. Will take a few weeks (in summer) to soften the wood and then it can be removed with an axe and shovel.

At that size you can also probably remove them with a backhoe. Even a small 20HP compact tractor with a backhoe or similar sized Bobcat could probably do it. If you will have to specially cut a tap root with an axe, or if the hoe can just rip it out, depends on how deep and established is the tap root and if there is even a tap root or not (depends on the tree species - fir, pine etc.). If you don't have a tractor with a backhoe, you can probably hire a local who has one to do the job.

Hi Anns,

Im looking to move to Hungary soon too...im actually trying to get into a legal job Ive just finished my lpc and am finding it really hard to get a training contract in the UK.. I would be most grateful for any advice....

thanks
kind regards

Amy

amy claire wrote:

Hi Anns,

Im looking to move to Hungary soon too...im actually trying to get into a legal job Ive just finished my lpc and am finding it really hard to get a training contract in the UK.. I would be most grateful for any advice....

thanks
kind regards

Amy

LPC? Legal Practice Course?

Hey fluffy,

how are you doing... yep Legal Practice Course... unfortunately I cannot find a legal job in the UK.. I have always loved Budapest (my mothers Hungarian)so am looking to move out to Budapest short term. I am currently doing a TEFL course to teach English in Hungary as a back up plan (if I cannot find work)

Amy

amy claire wrote:

Hey fluffy,

how are you doing... yep Legal Practice Course... unfortunately I cannot find a legal job in the UK.. I have always loved Budapest (my mothers Hungarian)so am looking to move out to Budapest short term. I am currently doing a TEFL course to teach English in Hungary as a back up plan (if I cannot find work)

Amy

If you cannot get a TEFL job in Hungary, there's a massive shortage of qualified TEFL teachers in (South) Korea. My nephew is out there doing that and is always telling me they are short of people. I also believe there's a shortage in Austria too.

Cheers

Fluffy

Hi,

If you are looking for renting apartment near Hatvan, we have brand new rooms and self-catering accomodation for short- and long time renting in a new renovated apartment-building near Hatvan (only 7 minutes).
Safe  parking place in the huge garden.
Panorama rooms on the higher level with wiew to the mountain Matra.
High speed cabel internet, TV, micro, fridge, new individuell furniture and bathroom.
The companies in the Industry Park in Hatvan (Bosch, Horvath Rudolf, Johnson Electric, Saia) are in a short driving distance.
Apartman building is 7 minutes away from the M3 exit.
If you had any question do not hesitate to contact me: maria.urban@t-online.hu

fidobsa wrote:

Hi marcru, how did you get on with your reciprocating knife mower? I have been thinking of getting one for my 1.5 acre plot. I was a bit concerned that the blades would get damaged by hidden Christmas tree stumps but it sounds like I could set the cutting height to clear them as they only stick up a couple of inches. I brought over a rotovater on my last trip from UK but I've not tried it yet. I too have a ragweed problem and suspect that turning the soil with the rotovator might make matters worse. I'm told the rotovator will chop up the tree stumps and roots though so it might be good as a one-off treatment.

Hi I have only just read this bit and never replied to you. Sorry about that. The allen scythe works really well and will cut up to 1/2 inch diameter bits with no problems. If you want to cut at the heights I do then you will have to modify it. The models I have seen only adjust to about a couple of inches above the ground as the front is on adjustable skids. I replaced the skids with a frame and wheels to get the required cutting height. I do this as we let the cut lengths of plant fall back on the soil. This rots back into the soil and also retains moisture. At the height of summer last year our ground was still damp under the mulch. Less work than collecting cuttings and better for the soil in the long run as you are constantly giving the land green manure. This is the basis of "permaculture".