The end of March this year was mild with little frost. I was surprised to find the first flowering sallow / selje (Salix caprea) on 19th March and by the end of the month some larger trees were in full flower providing much needed food for a myriad of insects include wild bees, bumble bees and most of the 13 moth species shown below, all of which were photographed in my garden at the end of March, attracted by a moth trap. In turn, birds are attracted to the insect feast and some also feed on the nectar directly.
If I’m asked what my favourite perennial vegetable is, I will struggle to only mention one (I wrote a book about my 80 favourites after all), but the one I will mention most frequently is the Caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides) as it has an interesting history, it was discovered as an edible plant in Scandinavia and remained a closely kept secret here until the 2000s, it provides the first spring greens together with various Alliums , its productive and probably grows best in cold climates!
This video describes how I discovered this amazing vegetable and its history in Scandinavia and in particular the role Swedish author Lena Israelsson played! The video can be seen here: HABLITZIA BEGINNINGS
With the huge shift in temperature this week, spring is suddenly here and several bird species are now singing in the garden: blue tit (blåmeis), great tit (kjøttmeis), greenfinch (grønnfink) and, down in the bay about 20 goldeneyes (kvinand) have been displaying. Yesterday, for the first time, I heard singing woodpigeon, bullfinch and this great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett) drumming on the metal cap of the electricity pole:
..and this nuthatch (spettmeis) was inpecting what I have in offer for nesting sites. The oldest painted bird boxes predate my time here and were put up for starlings (stær) originally.
I was surprised yesterday to see my first swallows of 2020, 3 of them hunting in the garden for a few minutes. We’re experiencing the coldest weather this late in spring in my lifetime according to an article in the Trondheim newspaper yesterday, translating as “This burst of cold air from the North Pole is giving the coldest weather this late in the spring in 65 years”, my own arrival on this planet on 29th April 1955 coincided with this. In the UK “On the 17th May 1955, the heaviest SNOWFALL in London in May for about 100 years occurred when snow fell for 2-3 hours across practically the whole of England, accompanied by a widespread SEVERE GALE. One of the LATEST SNOWFALL events across southern England known”. I apologise for the disruption ;) I’m one of the few who enjoy this weather as it means that my perennial vegetables grow slower and actually yield more over a longer period as it’s too cold for flowers to appear but perfect for leaf production! I do feel sorry though for gardeners at higher elevations who will be getting a lot of snow this week :(
The swallows probably arrived on my birthday when the temperature crept over 10C! In this video they were flying over a maple tree whose flowers were trying to open! The 8 day forecast is just as cold with not a single day above 10C!
(English: Short Norwegian video of a few things I’m harvesting from the garden now) En kort norsk video om litt av det jeg høster i hagen for tiden. Dette i forbindelse med et intervju til et magasin artikkel som ble gjennomført (på avstand) i forrige uke! Planter som nevnes er Strandkål (Crambe maritima) Bendelløk (Allium scorodoprasum) Prærieløk eller Chicago-løk (Allium cernuum) Stjernemelde eller Kaukasisk spinat (Hablitzia tamnoides) Og det bør nevnes at jeg kunne fått alle mine grønnsaker fra ute i hagen denne våren (men noen tar jeg også fra kjelleren). Lagt ut foreløpig kun på Facebook av Naturvernforbund i Trøndelag! https://www.facebook.com/192991824049531/videos/844838809324232
I returned home this afternoon from my 6 city tour of Canada to a beautiful cool day here on the Trondheimsfjord. Spring is further advanced than anywhere I visited in Quebec and Ontario…with many of the early spring flowers now out, blackbirds, robin and chiffchaff singing and an abundance of greens everywhere!