Geir Flatabø’s forest garden: Torblålia, Ulvik, Hordaland

A visit to Geir Flatabø’s forest garden which is located high above the picturesque village of Ulvik at the end of an arm of the Hardangerfjord was an unexpected treat on my recent visit to western Norway! I knew we would meet Geir but I had misunderstood an email from Geir a couple of years ago that the red deer had eaten everything he’d tried to plant…far from it, many of hundreds of trees, bushes and herbaceous perennials that Geir has planted on his plot are thriving. To reach Norway’s largest and most diverse forest garden, we drive high up above the village. Geir’s plot is a narrow strip of land almost 1 km straight up the hill with large spruce tree plantations on either side (felled on Geir’s plot to make way for his garden). Some might call it an arboretum, but Geir is very knowledgeable about the uses of the trees and other plants, most of which are edible or have other uses and he does call it himself his forest garden. We (my host Eirik Lillebøe Wiken​ and I) pass through many climate zones as we climb the hill talking plants with Geir. He has planted according to hardiness and has used various natural techniques to protect young plants against the red deer…permaculture in other words! An amazing place that will only get better as the year’s go by…and we only got half way up the hill….time went quickly and suddenly Geir noticed the time and dashed off to get to the National Fungi Symposium which was being held nearby…he was giving a talk that evening on the fungi of Hardanger!

Lofoten Victory Onions

Here are a few of my Allium victorialis pictures from the 2014 onion safari to the  Lofoten Islands! The aim was to see the naturalised stands of viking onion / seiersløk on the island Vestvågøy, quite possibly a viking introduction…it grows commonly around the Borg viking museum (on the site of an old viking settlement)…much more in my book on this amazingly tasty, healthy, shade-tolerant and productive onion!

Follow the link to the original FB album:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152404571040860.1073742080.655215859&type=1&l=b45f8fdd13

1
Reconstructed viking onion garden with Allium victorialis and Allium schoenoprasum subsp sibiricum (at the Lofotr Viking Museum at Borg)

 

2
Large patch of Allium victorialis…amazingly, when I posted this the first time, it turned out that one of my FB friends’ mother had lived in this house until last year :)
3
Allium victorialis waiting for the ferry to Røst…purchased at Judiths Urtehage ( a small nursery)
4
On Røst, Einar Stamnes had tipped me of a large patch of Allium victorialis in a garden, possibly 100 years old…
5
This picture was by print screen on the train on the way to the Lofoten Islands using Google Street View….I revisited a garden where I had found an allée of Allium victorialis along the driveway :) Amazing what you can do with modern technology…
6
Onions arriving at our final destination, Skomvær…