On Tuesday 23rd May I spent a great few hours together with Eva Johansson and Annevi Sjöberg from Sweden in my 3 gardens. They were on a […]
Article / Edimentals
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EDIMENTALS REACH MAINSTREAM HORTICULTURE
My attention was drawn today to two articles in which my word Edimentals featured (made up in the late 2000s):EDIMENTALS AT CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW “Edimental plants that are […]
Birds
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Shelduck visit
Every few years I see a shelduck (gravand) feeding in the field below the house. This one was captured on film at 6 am on 18th May 2023! […]
Garden tour / Perennial vegetables
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God Save the King’s Hostas!
My only post on last weekend’s big news item. This memory came up on my feed this morning. In October 2015 I talked about my book Around the […]
Art Exhibition / Salad / Winter vegetables
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Unpacking the Edimentals Herbarium
Being the focus of an art installation wasn’t something I ever imagined, but since February an installation has been exhibited at the Trondheim Art Museum Gråmølna based on […]
Climbers / Perennial vegetables
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Hablitzia under Norway Spruce
Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) has self-sowed numerous times in my garden but only up to now on cultivated beds with naked soil. Now for the first […]
Food / Perennial vegetable shoots
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68th Birthday Mac-Cheese with 68 shoots of 4 species
Last year’s birthday dinner was the Around the World in 80 Mac-Cheese, this year’s green mac-cheese contained 68 Hablitzia shoots, 68 ramsons (ramsløk) leaves, 68 ground elder (skvallerkål) […]
Climbers / Perennial vegetables
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Walking’s not healthy for Habbies
I’ve been growing Hablitzia tamnoides, affectionately known as Habbies, for over 20 years and this is the first registered mortality. On a shallow bed under a birch tree, […]
Botanical Garden / Community Garden / Garden tour / Perennial vegetables
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Garden visits with Fosen students
It’s always a pleasure to spend time with students from the Fosen Folk High School from the other side of the fjord. Despite the dreadful weather, we visited […]
Birds
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Closest Crane
I noticed a single crane in the field on the other side of the bay this morning, the closest I’ve seen one, but still too far for a […]
Birds
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Fall of thrushes
Thousands of thrushes, mainly redwings and fieldfares (rødvingetrost og gråtrost) arrived back in this part of Norway over the last couple of weeks and local breeders are already […]
Edimentals / Perennial vegetables
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Megacarpaea delavayi
This is one of the most exclusive vegetables and finest edimentals out there, Megacarpaea delavayi (Brassicaceae), a plant found in the high mountains of southwest China at high […]
Biodiversity / Butterflies and moths / Pollinators
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Chiffchaff and Willow
My interest in recording the incredible diversity of insects in my 40 year old edible forest garden lead to a much better understanding of the importance of different […]
Butterflies and moths / Insects
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Emerging sallow catkins and biodiversity on the rise in the garden
As the most important tree for insect diversity in the spring – goat willow / selje (Salix caprea) – emerges into flower, two more moths that feed on […]
Nut trees
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Monkey puzzle overwinters in Malvik
It looks like I’ve finally managed to overwinter a monkey puzzle tree (apeskrekk) here in Malvik probably thanks to stable but not very cold winter weather! It only […]
Dandelions / Music
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Doug Clifford eats dandelion
A curiosity in an occasional series “The famous eat dandelions”: From the documentary Creedence at the Royal Albert Hall where they played in 1970, drummer Doug Clifford asks […]
Perennial vegetables
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Fairchild’s Experiments with Udo from 1914!
Yesterday, I introduced Agricultural Explorer David Fairchild who, inspired from visiting Japan, was determined to try to introduce udo (Aralia cordata) and wrote an interesting paper 120 years […]
Beans
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Selecting for a local early broad bean
I sowed broad (fava) bean / bondebønner (Vicia faba) seed indoors yesterday as there’s still snow where I’d planned to put them outside. In addition to my late […]
Bees / Butterflies and moths / Pollinators
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Two spring signs
This spring sign today went unnoticed for many years, one of many moth species that has been registered feeding on Salix caprea (goat willow / selje) in spring, […]
Perennial vegetables
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Udo introduction to the US with cultivation instructions (1903)
I stumbled upon this interesting US Department of Agriculture Bulletin from 1903 by David Fairchild, who calls himself Agricultural Explorer, entitled “Three New Plant Introductions from Japan”. There […]
Edible flowers / Forcing
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Happy Easter with a floriferous oxlip
Happy Easter 2023 with this floriferous forced Primula elatior (oxlip / hagenøkleblom) in the kitchen window. Unlike England where oxlip is a rare native plant, it was introduced […]
Dandelions
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Moss-leaved dandelion = Taraxacum tortilobum
I’ve been trying to find out what species the legendary moss-leaved dandelion (as featured in my book) and some other cultivated varieties actually are. I took the series […]
Seed sAVING
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Seed sorting for KVANN members
This weekend was my big annual seed pack for members of Norwegian Seed Savers (KVANN, kvann.no). I’m offering some 360 varieties this year and I received orders from […]
Climbers / Food / Perennial vegetable shoots / Talks
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Hablitzia Pinaattiohukaiset
Yesterday, I was preparing my talk for the Finnish Permaculture Association (see https://youtube.com/live/CYBqioWTr6U) and was reminded that I had mentioned in my book that Hablitzia could be used […]