A good skirret (sukkerrot) harvest again…I don’t grow much as this perennial root and shoot vegetable is not totally hardy here. I have a few plants along the southern house wall which are covered in winter to protect against hard frost.
I’m just passing the mountain village Otta in Gudbrandsdalen on the train . In 2009, I visited several old farms in this area to witness first-hand the old onion turf roofs still to be found nearby and collect some samples (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=14436). Norway’s old edible roof gardens are also described in my book Around the World I 80 plants! I recently heard that a botanist, Bjørn Harald Larsen, did a thorough field study of the area last year (2016) and made a number of new finds. His report can be downloaded below (with many new pictures!). Bjørn Harald has tried to partition his finds of old Allium fistulosum (pipeløk / Welsh onion) in this area as follows: There are now 10 intact roof locations documented of 31 «original known onion roofs»; 12 intact of 16 finds where plants had been moved / planted from older roofs; 2 occurrences where plants have naturalised on dry slopes; a few that have been planted in gardens; and finally two instances where plants seem to originate from other cultivated forms (i.e., plants have a different growth form – I had also noted this when growing out some of these onions in Malvik).
Planted my garlic and sowed parsnip today on my 33 year old raised beds. No wooden edges, just raised using the soil where the paths are and adding compost year after year and never treading on the beds. The beds are about 1.2m wide so that I can reach into the middle from the paths. Note the diagonal planting which allows you to plant rows closer and increase yield!
After our visit to the Government House garden, Solara Goldwynn took me on a visit to an amazing inspiring ecohouse, gardens and perennials nursery in the Highlands area just outside of the city of Victoria (BC) where she and husband Tayler were living in a flat with owners Ann and Gord Baird
You can read much more about Ann and Gord on their web site at https://eco-sense.ca
The location of Ecosense north west of Victoria on southernmost Vancouver Island!
Zoom in to the plot, the gardens and house surrounded by forest. The nursery is around the pond seen at the top.
About the house from the Eco-sense website: “Our home achieves these objectives by incorporating sustainability and research with solar PV agrid intertie, solar thermal heating, rain water harvesting from a living roof, composting toilet, grey water re-use, passive solar design, and all within North America’s first code approved seismically engineered load bearing insulated cob residence”.
Late March is still early spring, but here is clearly a diversity garden
Perennial kale. Daubenton?
Allium cernuum, native nodding onion
Cultivated dandelion :)
Victoria has a mild warm and dry in summer climate
Gord Baird
Solara showed me around the gardens
Earth chestnut (unsure if this is the real thing Bunium bulbocastanum, often mixed up with Oenanthe pimpinelloides in the trade).
A dandelion spiral?
In the woods I found this plant that I also saw just coming into flower in the harbour area. Pacific sanicle (Sanicula crassicaulis) is a much bigger plant than European S. europaea, reaching over 1m. Some west coast Sanicula species such as S. graveolens and S. bipinnatifida were used as spring vegetables, but I only find medicinal uses of this species.
Claytonia in flower was a common edible of woodlands – I hadn’t thought of this plant before as a shade lover…now I know :)
Erythronium and Dodecatheon in the woods
Rumex
…and Hablitzia tamnoides had preceded me :)
Hablitzia bed :)
Fuki (Petasites japonica) naturalising by the pond
..and fuki for sale
Prunus “Valentine”
A “Food security top pick”, perennial leek (Elephant garlic, I think)
Sea buckthorn (Hippophae)
Good? King Henry!
Day lilies
Wild ginger (Asarum)
Skirret
European and Asian plums
A single fawnlily was in flower
Mahonia
Saanicula +++
Sedum spathulifolium? in the woods
More forest dwelling Claytonia perfoliata (miner’s lettuce)
Sedum spathulifolium?
An early flowering Ranunculus spp.
Dodecatheon hendersonii?
Dodecatheon hendersonii?
Cardamine
Horseradish
…and for my last evening on Vancouver Island I was invited to a great potluck dinner at Eco-sense with Solara and Tayler (picture), the Bairds and friends. Thanks folks!
I made a presentation about my visit to Austria and Arche Noah in June at the “Seed for the future” seminar in Oslo last week! The presentation can be downloaded below. The seminar was organized by the Network for Plant diversity (Nettverk for Plantemangfold) which comprises the following organisations Oikos – Økologisk Norge, Biologisk-Dynamisk Forening, Solhatt Økologisk Hagebruk, Norsk Senter for Økologisk Landbruk (NORSØK), KVANN / Norwegian Seed Savers, Århus Andelsgård and Økologisk Spesialkorn og Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskole (SJH). The seminar was supported by Landbruksdirektoratet (The Norwegian Agriculture Agency)
A summary of the seminar and all the presentations can be found here http://www.oikos.no/aktuelt/fro-for-framtida
Continuing with another garden I visited in Victoria BC, Canada! My host Solara Goldwynn took me on a quick visit to the Government House Garden (from 1911) on 30th March 2017. The album shows a few pictures of the edimentals we found!
The garden web site is here: http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/gardens/history/default.html
Within the garden is some remnant Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) woodland, an endangered species rich habitat of which 95% has been lost.
Allium amplectens is one of the species found with Garry Oak. It has proven hardy in my garden in Norway (picture)
Fertile fronds of Ostrich Fern
Emerging Gunnera
Trilllium
Primula denticulata
Pachyphragma macrophylla is a beautiful woodland edimental in the cabbage family which is one of the earliest flowering woodlanders. I had it for a number of years, but for some reason didn’t make notes of tasting it…I lost it unfortunately…replanted it last year and lost it again..
Polyanthus…As they are thought to be a natural hybrid between the cowslip (Primula veris) and the common primrose (Primula vulgaris), these are also no doubt edible!
Cardiocrinum, giant lilies which have been foraged in the past
More wows were uttered as I noticed the northern lights were back just as I was about to go to bed…and later I fell asleep to the flashing light show through my bedroom window :)
Suddenly, a powerful burst and all the colours were there,not often I see red here!
The big dipper is top left
Big dipper and the Aurora
Enhanced (brightened) image! Reflection in the fjord!
The next garden I visited in Victoria BC on 1st April 2017! The Abkhazi Gardens were created by Prince Nicholas Abkhazi from Georgia and his wife from 1947, taken over by the Land Conservancy to protect the garden against property development.
With Kelly Kerr
I think the garden was on the hill?
Pachyphragma macrophylla is a beautiful woodland edimental in the cabbage family which is one of the earliest flowering woodlanders. I had it for a number of years, but for some reason didn’t make notes of tasting it…I lost it unfortunately…replanted it last year and lost it again..
Pachyphragma macrophylla is from West Asia, N.E. Turkey to the W. Caucasus. It’s naturalized in Britain. Have a taste and let me know!
Trachystemon orientalis in flower
Polygonatum odoratum
Primula and Podophyllum
Petasites palmatus: the leaves and young stems were a vegetable for native american tribes
