In the wild part of the garden, one of my goat willow (selje) trees, important for the garden’s biodiversity, is halfway down after yesterday’s storm 🙁 This is what is called a “rotvelt” (root throw?) in Norwegian where the tree doesn’t break but the whole root system peels off the rock below. Almost all the 1/2 metre of snow we had a few days ago has gone and there’s no frost in the soil.
With cold nights down to -5C currently, most trees are now shedding their leaves and there’s a carpet of leaves under the Norway maple (spisslønn), a tree that prefers the shallow drier soils in the garden (compared to sycamore / platanlønn). A treecreeper (trekryper) calling can be heard at 0:38! The large leaves are very useful for protecting less hardy plants in winter.
This is a long post to document the importance of Norway spruce, gran in norwegian (Picea abies) in my garden. All pictures shown are taken in the garden. Milder weather has arrived with strong southerly winds and the garden around the twin spruce trees was covered in fallen spruce needles (video below), something which is only obvious when there’s snow on the ground. Norway spruce (Picea abies) needles live for only a few years before being shed.
Pairs of spruce trees had been planted by the previous owners in the 1940s-1950s in four different parts of the garden and about 5 others have appeared, presumably self-sown from the original plantings, although gran (Norwegian name) is a common forest tree in this area and an important economic species. Only one of the original pairs still exist as I felled them to make room for a diversity of fruit and berries and because of an area of the garden had been attacked by an aggresive form of honey fungus (honningsopp) (see below). Despite finding honey fungus on the roots of the oldest two trees maybe twenty years ago they still seem to be in good health. On my exposed hilltop they’ve survived extreme winds, particularly Storm Dagmar at Xmas 2011 which felled large numbers of trees also in this area. The film below was put together from a series of still pictures some hours after the storm peak that destroyed my greenhouse; see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=18189
This Google Street view picture from before Dagmar in 2010 shows the intact greenhouse and the pair of remaining oldest spruce trees and a couple of younger self-sown trees to the right (the yellow shed is in the neighbour’s garden).
Drone picture of the garden with the spruce trees on the far left (picture taken by Andrew McMillion on 30th July 2020)
There used to be two spruce trees to the south east of and quite close to the house but they were felled when I was terracing below the house in the 90s. We found that the trees were growing on an old rubbish tip with a lot of organic material as nettles grew prolifically here. …and one of original two on the western boundary next to the outhouse: Large numbers of wood mushroom / snøballsjampinjong (Agaricus sylvicola) and a few blushing wood mushroom / blodsjampinjong (Agaricus sylvaticus) have grown under these spruce trees for many years. They are saprobic, living on decaying and dead spruce needles. The best trees were those by the outhouse (last picture above), but we had to take this one down as the neighbour was afraid it would fall over their house or the power cable. They also grew in large amounts around the remaining two spruce trees (pictures below) but I haven’t seen them for several years at the same time that hedge mustard / løkurt (Alliaria petiolata) invaded this area and I wonder if the allelopathic chemicals in this plant have impacted and killed the mushrooms. I have therefore been systematically removing the hedge mustard from the this area in the hope that the mushrooms will return. It’s amazing to think that those fallen spruce needles that we started with can transform into delicious food for us!
Invading Alliaria petiolata in the dry soil under the spruce trees.
Another edible fungi associated with spruce once appeared in the garden; Lactarius deterrimus (false saffron milkcap / granmatriske):
The Ethnobotany of Spruce There are numerous food uses of Norway spruce to be found in the ethnobotanical literature. The inner bark has been used to make bark bread in the past in bad years; the immature cones have been cooked, the seed have been eaten by children raw, the young shoots have been used to make tea and beer (and in modern times to make a sweetened drink), the needles have been used in the French/ Swiss cheeses Vacherin d’Abondance/ Vacherin Mont d’Or and the resin or gum (kvae) has been used as a chewing gum:
There are small amounts of resin (kvae) to be found on my oldest trees in cracks in the bark and, here, where I’d cut off one of the lowest branches)
Other uses I’ve used the wood of the felled trees of course to heat the house and the ash has been used for various purposes. A stump has also served as a chopping block for many years. I’ve also used branches to insulate and stop leaves from blowing away from areas of the garden like my sea kale bed that need winter protection:
Spruce used to keep leaves in place (my blackberry is underneath)Used for splitting firewood
The importance of spruce for birds in my garden The two oldest spruce trees are also extremely important for many bird species both as an excellent song post, the top being the highest point in the garden, and a place with a good view of approaching predators. Both chffinches (bokfink), robin (rødstrupe), blackbird (svarttrost), dunnock (jernspurv), nuthatch (spettmeis), greenfinches (grønnfink), brambling (bjørkefink), redwings (rødvingetrost), chiffchaff (gransanger; the Norwegian name meaning “spruce singer”), various tits, notably coal tit (svartmeis) and others sing from these trees. Here’s one video of a brambling singing and various links below to other posts I’ve made over the years of birds on these trees..
Spring gathering of starlings (stær) in one of my trees
Treecreeper and goldcrests are sometimes seen foraging in the spruce trees in winter, hosting favourite hiding places for numerous insects. Here’s a recent blog post of a winter goldcrest: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=27332 Some birds cache nuts and seeds for winter in trees like spruce and others may accidentally discover this and raid the caches. On warm winter days, waxwings (sidensvans) can often be seen hawking after insects from the tree tops. Various species also nest in my spruces, most obviously magpies (skjære) and hooded crows (kråke).
A blackbird (svarttrost) above showing off its improvisational and mimicking skills atop a spruce tree this morning! It’s been a bit too cold for much song activity over the last couple of weeks, but it’s slightly warmer today with a maximum of 7C this first day of May.
Woodpigeon (ringdue) enjoying the view
Below is a video of a redwing (rødvingetrost) in full song at 1 am on 7th June just 2 weeks away from the longest day!
The first dunnock of 2021 atop one of the spruce trees in song this morning (17th April):
Flowers, cones, seeds to fungi An album of pictures showing the whole life cycle of flowers to pollen to cones to seed and the afterlife of cones and fallen needles colonised by fungi that give us and other creatures food:
The flowers are very pretty close up
Spruce pollen in a water butt in the garden.
Two generations of cones on my two oldest trees.
Two generations of cones on my two oldest trees.
Fallen cone with shoots of lily of the valley (liljekonvall)
Winged spruce seed on snow
Seedlings pop up here and there in the garde
Mycena plumipes (konglehette)
Mycena plumipes (konglehette)
Another species that I’ve found growing on spruce cones in the garden is the spruce cone cap / grankonglehatt (Strobilurus esculentus) although this is the closely related Strobilurus stephanocystis which grows on pine cones.
I store root crops in damp leaves and other organic debris including cones that I rake up in the garden and I found this fungus on a cone when I went to get a few carrots from the cellar today as I’m writing this, an unidentified fungus so far.
Stumps Stumps of spruce trees left to rot are also fascinating to follow through the years as they break down slowly helped along the way by fungi and colonised by mosses:
This is an over 20 year old spruce stump from a large tree that was growing in an area planted up by the previous owners as an orchard. An aggressive form of honey fungus (honningsopp) attacked the trees including this spruce and killed them one after the other,. I therefore systematically, over several years, dug out all the roots and this big stump so that I could replant in a honeyfungus-free environment. I replanted this area with a diversity of woody shrubs and trees.
The tell-tale honey fungus rhizomorphs or mycelial cords
The tell-tale honey fungus rhizomorphs or mycelial cords
Red-belted bracket fungus / rødrandkjuke (Fomitopsis pinicola) colonised one of the stumps
Red-belted bracket fungus / rødrandkjuke (Fomitopsis pinicola) colonised one of the stumps
Hepatica I’m also fortunate having a wild population of Hepatica nobilis (blåveis) and they often grow in dry soil below younger spruce trees:
In the foreground are the three-lobed leaves of Hepatica nobilis
In a sunnier spot, Hepatica can flower profusely in early spring
Storage Under the spruce trees is also a good spot to store pea and bean stakes as it’s dry.
Stakes for garden use are pretty dry under the shelter of mature spruce trees; small slow growing hazel (picture) and rowan grow closest to the spruce.
Growing out of nothing It’s always amazing to see how such large trees grow on hardly any soil and I’ve noticed how, when removing stumps, how the tree itself has broken up the rock to create deeper soil over time. At the bottom of the garden, the lower two trees grow on even shallower soil and here you see large roots clambering over rocks in search of deeper soil:
Assorted celestial and other spruce pictures through the years A final set of pictures featuring my wonderful spruce trees over the years in various poses with the moon, the sun and a rainbow.
My oldest twin spruces with a nest box designed for treecreepers (trekryper) – no, they’ve never used it
Full moon through spruce
Full moon through spruce
Full moon through spruce
Reflection of spruce with chilis in the living room
Reflection of spruce with oca (Oxalis tuberosa) that had been moved indoors in October
This was the year’s first sunrise picture
Flowering hazel and spruce
Flowering bird cherry (Prunus padus) and spruce
Winter scene in the late 80s
Stump of one of the trees next to the ouhouse after felling. The pencil line shows the how fast it had grown in the 17 years we had lived there (since 1984)
Bramblings (bjørkefink) are common breeding birds at higher elevations, but it’s just possible that they will breed here one day. This is the closest I’ve got with a male singing the last few days in the garden, here atop a Norway maple (spisslønn), the flowers still waiting after two very cold weeks!
Easter is a big holiday here and it’s a tradition to decorate your home with various decorations (påskepynt) and the cheapest decoration is just to bring in some twigs that leaf out bringing a bit of spring atmosphere into homes. This is even more important this year when most people are at home! I do this every year too, but here the emphasis is on edible tree leaves and two of the best are lime (Tilia cordata) and beech (Fagus sylvaticus)! So here’s what this year’s looks like:
Last night’s 100% wholegrain sourdough barley, rye and oat pizza with masses of Hablitzia shoots was eaten with delicious lime leaves:
The leaves of Murraya koenigii (Curry tree or curry leaf plant) are commonly used in curries and in chutneys in India. Although it’s a small tropical tree (<6m), I would encourage even arctic gardeners to try to get hold of a plant (not currently available in the UK RHS Plant Finder) or seeds (try ebay). I’m pretty sure it could be propagated by suckers too! My experience is that it’s easy to grow as a house plant, which can be cut down to the soil as a young tree and resprout from the base repeatedly. I was given one in 2003 and I still had it in 2013, although it eventually died for an uknown reason. It even managed to flower but, although self-pollinating, I didn’t get any of the edible aromatic seeds! I still have a jar of home-grown dried leaves which can be powdered and sprinkled on vegetables and yoghurt. I also had a Murraya paniculata (Jasmine orange) which is used for a similar purpose but it became infested with thrips I think and I had to throw it out before I could try it. There are at least 8 species in the genus Murraya which is in the Rutaceae as are citrus fruits!
Murraya koenigii in my living room
Murraya (left) and Fenugreek (bukkehornkløver) leaves used for a curry
Murraya and Fenugreek curry
Even though I have a cold by Norwegian standards living room ( I try to keep it about 16C), this tropical tree grew well
This was about as big as it gof, flowering in January
I cut it right down every year or so and it quickly resprouted. I never tried but I imagine you can propagate by suckers!
Murraya koenigii
Dried leaves of Murraya koenigii (grind and sprinkle over vegetables and yoghurt!)
When I was away in January, the mildest ever recorded in this part of the world, this bird cherry that I received as Padus asiatica leafed out for the third year running in January, here seen with my only misteltoe (top left):
My only Rhododendron, R. mucronulatum v. taguettii from Jeju Island in Korea is also early out and full of flower buds, so I brought a few twigs indoors:
After the storm some days ago now, it was interesting to see how evenly the seed from Norway maple / sycamore and birch (spiss- og platanlønn og bjørk) was spread evenly over the whole garden…it’s easy to imagine how the more open parts of the garden would quickly transform to forest given the chance!
Most trees had an enormous production of seed and berries this year following the hot summer in 2018 and mild winter last year.
There are an enormous number of yew berries on the tree next to the kitchen window this year and this video shows how a vine (probably Vitis coignetiae) has found its way towards the light high up in the yew, which is Taxus × media “Hicksii”, the Anglojap or Hicks’ yew, which is a hybrid of Taxus baccata and Taxus cuspidata.
Most will be left for the birds, bringing both waxwings (sidensvans) and blackbirds (svarttrost) close to the house!
…and one of original two on the western boundary next to the outhouse:
Large numbers of wood mushroom / snøballsjampinjong (Agaricus sylvicola) and a few blushing wood mushroom / blodsjampinjong (Agaricus sylvaticus) have grown under these spruce trees for many years. They are saprobic, living on decaying and dead spruce needles. The best trees were those by the outhouse (last picture above), but we had to take this one down as the neighbour was afraid it would fall over their house or the power cable. They also grew in large amounts around the remaining two spruce trees (pictures below) but I haven’t seen them for several years at the same time that hedge mustard / løkurt (Alliaria petiolata) invaded this area and I wonder if the allelopathic chemicals in this plant have impacted and killed the mushrooms. I have therefore been systematically removing the hedge mustard from the this area in the hope that the mushrooms will return. It’s amazing to think that those fallen spruce needles that we started with can transform into delicious food for us!
In a sunnier spot, Hepatica can flower profusely in early spring
