Greenfinches feasting on goatsbeard (geitskjegg) (Tragopogon pratensis) seeds this morning!
Artikler om grønnsaksarven fra Hagetidend
I 2011 skrev jeg en serie artikler om vår grønnsaksarven til Norsk Hagetidend. Etter Skog og Landskap sidene ble nedlagt er artiklene ikke lenge tilgjengelig på nettet. Derfor dette innlegget hvor alle artiklene kan igjen bli lastet ned! Artikelene blir også etter hvert lagt ut hos kvann.org (Norwegian Seed Savers/KVANNs webside).
English: In 2011, I wrote a series of one page articles about Norwegian heirloom vegetables in Norsk Hagetidend (the magazine of the Norwegian Horticultural Society) in Norwegian. The complete series can be found below.
- Fjellmandel og takløk (Mandel potato and the roof onions of Gudbrandsdal)
2. Aleksandra hvitløk (Garlic Aleksandra)
3. Hagemelde “Backlund-Bly” fra USA (Garden orach Backlund-Bly from Seed Savers Exchange i USA)
4. Stjernemelde (Caucasian spinach, Hablitzia tamnoides)
5. Vossakvann (Voss Angelica)
6. Seiersløk fra Lofoten (Victory onion, Allium victorialis from Lofoten)
7. Luftløk fra Udøy (Walking onion, Allium x proliferum from the island Udøy and Catawissa onion)
8. Jordskokk fra Ontario (Jerusalem artichoke from Ontario that travelled the world)
9. Maries høje ært (Marie’s pea…from Norway to Denmark and back)
10. Tante Cis tomat (Tante Cis or Ansofs Gule tomat)
Speckled Wood: new for Malvik
This rather damaged speckled wood (skogringvinge) turned up in the garden this morning….and it turns out to be the first record of this butterfly in Malvik kommune…
The third picture below shows the distribution in Norway. It’s not that unexpected that it should turn up here in Malvik as there are several reports on the other side of the fjord!
Weeding Vermont!
Yesterday was my most intensive weeding day of the year so far, first 2-3 hours finishing the weeding of KVANN’s bed at Væres Venner community garden followed by 7 hours at Ringve Botanical Garden weeding the Vermont Bed (see below). It was literally covered in an effective ground cover of birch seedlings, much worse for some reason than the New Hampshire Bed which I weeded a week ago: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=18255. This reminded me of the large flock of redpolls (gråsisik) at Ringve during the winter, a sign that it was a birch seed year 😊 and here’s a picture from my blog last winter at Ringve: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/P1080538.jpg
In the previous blog a week ago linked above, I wrote:
“The Allium garden at Ringve has grown well as have the so-called weeds (mostly very young birch trees!). I spent the afternoon weeding and documenting the right hand (easternmost bed)….now known as the New Hampshire bed (I’m told the two beds resemble a map of Vermont and New Hampshire) (As it looks like the garden will be known as Chicago-hagen due to the fact that the native american name Chicago means onion)!!
This is the link to the last album I made from 31st May: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156051646095860.1073743203.655215859&type=1&l=cbacd0612e”
Brown Cress is Back
BROWN CRESS IS BACK!
I received a tip via permies.com that hybrid brown watercress is again available in Europe!
In my book I wrote (in the piece about watercress):
“There aren’t many cultivars and the most common variety is ‘Dark Green American’. In the past, a naturally occurring hybrid between the two closely related species Nasturtium officinale and N. microphyllum (One-rowed watercress), known as brown cress (as it inherited the brownish winter leaves of N. microphyllum), was cultivated. However, this sterile clone had to be vegetatively propagated and the build-up of viruses led to its demise…….It would be nice if the old hybrid brown cress had been available to the home gardener, but I’ve never seen it offered.”
You can order it from:
https://www.kraeuter-und-duftpflanzen.de/Nach-Verwendung/Essbare-Pflanzen/Salatkraeuter/Braune-Brunnenkresse-Pflanz
Please let us know how you get on!
The perennial bed onions
A little video showing various Alliums about to burst into flower on a bed I’ve always called the Perennial Bed as it was the first bed devoted to perennials. It’s in the shade most of the day.
0-11 secs: Various forms of Allium cernuum (Chicago onion, nodding onion / prærieløk) and broad-leaved Allium wallichii (Sherpa onion)
11-20: Allium cernuum, Hemerocallis (daylily/daglilje) and Clinopodium vulgare (wild basil)
31: Norrland Onion / Norrlandsløk
(all of the onions above are in my book)
38: Allium cyathophorum v. farreri (Farrer’s onion)
Morning beams
Following reports of unwanted aliens being deported via the airport in the background of this shot….they’re back!
Earthquake proof Crambe!
An old stone wall collapsed below the house in the winter on top of one of my Crambe cordifolia (ornamental sea kale / buskstrandkål) plants….well, it bounced back through the rubble bigger and better…here in full flower!
More in my book Around the World in 80 plants!
Bi-coloured fjord
The fjord was looking greeny blue all day in the sun, perhaps coloured by an algal bloom, then the wind picked up and a front moved across the fjord with cloud giving this amazing view of a two coloured fjord…closest to us in shade! The temperature plummeted from around 23C to 13C in short time.
Edimentalilies
I’ve been enjoying my edimental lilies this week and eating the flowers, both as salad and in last night’s tempura!
More about edible lily bulbs in the following entries on my web site:
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=8614
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=2614
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=2207
