A film in Norwegian from Norwegian Seed Savers’ visit to my garden….udo and my forest garden :)
Dagmar and the Destroyed Greenhouse!
Have a google street view image “peep” at my (red) house and edible garden and surroundings from 2010, with greenhouse the year before the major Boxing Day 2011 storm destroyed it 
The wrecked greenhouse made me realise I should concentrate on growing climate friendly vegetables that don’t need expensive climate modification, so I never rebuilt it :) It was a SIGN!
Dokka Garden Festival
Just a few pictures from the Dokka Hagefestival (Garden Festival) this weekend 23rd June! I gave a talk outside under the festival “sail” supported by some 20 different perennial vegetables harvested from my garden the day before and KVANNs (Norwegian Seed Savers) stand which board member Lone Dybdal helped me with. After the talk we had a successful auction of the plants I’d brought along including a selection of rare and heirloom onions!
I’ve talked twice before at the festival, first in 2012 which was the first year it was arranged. I was then asked back the year after as I’d only got about halfway around the world the first time :)
Thanks to Tove Vesterås who’s been the festival “General” since the start!
Variegated Hablitzia on Nesodden
I visited my son today on Nesodden (Oslo) and was impressed by how much growth his Hablitzia had put on and then I noticed that one of the stems had variegated leaves…I’m not sure if this is the same plant as the stems with normal leaves…will try to check on my next visit!
Young Hoodie
Young hooded crow (kråke) on a spruce tree in the garden!
KVANN treff Day 1 at Væres Venner and Presthus Gård
The first evening of KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) weekend event in Trondheim and Malvik, we visited KVANN’s first “nyttevekstreservat” (inspired by Lawrence Hills’ proposal for vegetable sanctuaries across Europe as a reaction to the loss of our vegetable diverity in 1979!) at Væres Venner Felleshage (a new communiy garden in Trondheim). KVANN have already started work on a Verdenshage (World Garden) and another area currently being used as a holding bed for a future diversity garden, including walnut, hazel, sea buckthorn and other fruit trees to be planted elsewhere..
Afterwards, Sølvi Kvam took us to nearby Presthus Gård, a farm which has until recently been threatened by nearby housing developments. It will now be developed with many activities and KVANN are also welcome to make suggestions!
See also
Monkey puzzles in Norway
Back in the pre-Facebook days, I remember there was a forum for unusual nut trees and the Norwegian monkey puzzle trees were considered to be the most hardy and I remember receiving a lot of requests from folk wanting seed from our provenience. I had to disappoint them as they weren’t easy to come by……but I did finally get a few seed via a contact from the botanical garden in Bergen who told me that a friend of hers had actually climbed a tree and harvested nuts!!!! Was her friend a monkey? The tree was located in Os, just south of Bergen. They germinated in spring 2007 and I attempted to overwinter outside in a plastic greenhouse open at the top and with a leaf mulch around the roots. I’d heard rumours that larger trees sold from a local nursery for an exorbitant price had survived (never confirmed for my area where winter temperatures can go down to -20C). They survived until mid-March 2008, when I took the picture, but it didn’t make it through a subsequent very cold period ☹ I didn’t try again.
A minimum of about -15C seems to be about the temperature limit here and this limits the area they can be grown to a narrow strip outermost along almost the entire Norwegian coast it turns out. One of the biggest surprises in my gardening life was to discover a monkey puzzle growing in Skavberg nursery not far from the arctic city of Tromsø close to 70°N!! Owner Bjørn Thon was also growing Maori carrots (Aciphylla spp.) from New Zealand and many other plants I’d never seen before in Norway. Bjørn has been a long-term collaborator of the Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden and had been on collection trips to South America. His monkey puzzle had actually been from nuts bought on the market at Puerto Montt in Chile rather than Norwegian trees. The botanical garden, located in a more exposed site than the nursery, also tried but failed, the young plants dying after a few years.
I also have a Brazilian monkey puzzle (Paraná pine) overwintered in my cold cellar without lights at about 3-4C and bring it up as a Xmas tree for a couple of weeks 😊 See http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=15467
Other links:
My monkey puzzle safari in Chile (old growth forest)
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=16981
A visit with Andrew McMillion to Norway’s largest monkey puzzle tree: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=16922
Discussion on monkey puzzle on a Norwegian gardening forum in 2009:
http://www.hagepraten.no/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21063&start=45&hilit=apenes+skrekk
KVANN meet in Trondheim and Malvik; Ringve Open Day
Day 3 of the KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) meet was at the Ringve Botanical Garden Open Day in Trondheim. The day started early as I drove one of the participants to the station in Trondheim and then spent a couple of hours collecting some of the ingredients for a multi-species salad. Including plants collected on a walk, talk and forage for KVANN members, we managed 111 ingredients in the salad! Thanks to all who helped make it a very successful and fun weekend!
KVANN meet 2018; Walk along the Homla canyon
Pictures from Saturday’s 5 km (almost 4 hours with all the stops) walk along the Homla river canyon from Storfossen (this area’s second highest waterfall) to the sea at Hommelvik! As usual, a memorable trip!
KVANN meet in Trondheim and Malvik; tour of the Edible Garden
Some pictures from Day 2 of the KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) meet in Malvik in my Edible Forest Garden :)
As usual, it was a great group!!
Thanks to Margaret M. Meg Anderson for most of the pictures!
