After a very cold start to the summer, Malvik has had record warm weather over the last month which has helped the populations of butterflies! They love my edible garden and, in particular, peacock (dagpåfugløy) has been recorded more times than anywhere else in this area, half of the total of 15 observations were made here between 2006-2010. Hoping for the first peacock since then! The favourite plants at the moment are my two Buddleja davidii (sommerfuglbusk, sadly only edible for insects as far as I know), one of which is bigger than ever as I didn’t prune it last winter. In the last few days I’ve noted up to 20 small tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl), 1 painted lady (tistelsommerfugl), up to 7 red admirals (admiral), 1 dark green fritillary (aglajaperlemorvinge; I think, a first here) and 2 comma butterflies (hvit C).
Dark green fritillary (aglajaperlemorvinge)? Anyone confirm (no other shots)
3 of in total over 20 small tortoishells (neslesommerfugl) today!
I think he loves her…their larval food plant (nettle) is nearby!
Added a few more overview pictures of my vegetable beds intertwined with poppies! No way are these weeds….so the other so-called weeds are just plants doing their job of repairing bare soil that lack pretty flowers, that’s all! See this page for links to many more pictures: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1967
On the way up the mountain at Alvastien Telste I found a particularly fertile ostrich fern with 30 fertile fronds! This is the edible wild plant equivalent of a moose with antlers with many points ;)
These much shorter fronds which carry the spores are one of the most important distinguishing features of ostrich fern (the taller fronds don’t have spores).
Documentation of yet another amazing day during last week’s Perennialen III in Hardanger!! Pictures taken on a fantastic 6-7 hour round trip from Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Aasdal Wiken’s house to their shieling (støl or seter in Norwegian). We took our time botanising on the way up, passing through different types of forest on the way up, from alder (or), ash (ask), planted spruce (gran), lime (lind), elm (alm), hazel (hassel), aspen (osp) and birch (bjørk) at the highest levels. Lower down, old apple trees witnessed that these steep slopes had at one time been worked for fruit production, no easy matter….
Eirik and Hege are planning to rejuvenate and replant some of this area and have planted a multispecies forest garden above and below the house, probably one of the most dramatic forest gardens in the world (more later).
A picture of Alvastien Telste taken last year showing the house at the bottom centre and the walk to the ridge at the top and beyond!
Starting our walk up the mountain, I took this picture of a farm on the other side of the fjord and, next picture, a shieling (seter / støl) is visible on the ridge at the top!
Shieling (seter / støl)
The house at Alvastien Telste
Ostrich fern (strutseving)
Eirik and Hege’s tree house (I stayed there on my first visit – Perennialen I)
Under the spruce, a ground cover of young ash seedlings…the future of which is uncertain as Ash dieback has arrived here…
Impaties noli-tangere (Touch me not balsam / springfrø) was common on damper soils
Ostrich fern (strutseving) with enchanters nightshade (trollurt)
Cirsium arvense on a small open field halfway up the hill
Campanula
Late flowering Silene dioica (red campion /rød jonsokblom)
Ostrich fern (strutseving)
Alder tongue gall (Taphrina alni)
Mycelis muralis
Galium odoratum (woodruff / myske)
Rock to which an old cable lift was attached
Fox dung with beetle cases?
Old apple tree half way up
We saw one small population of hedge garlic (løkurt)
Wood vetch (skogsvikke)
Clambering wood vetch (skogsvikke)
Hazel (hassel)
More ostrich fern (strutseving)
There were many amazing trees, many of which were pollarded (for animal feed in the past)
Old barn
Pyrola spp.
Woodruff (myske)
The Troll Elm!
Eirik showed us an old cross on the rock marking the edge of his property
This ostrich fern had over 30 fertile fronds in the centre!!
I was surpised to find an area of Geranium lucidum
Woodruff (myske)
Steep slopes
Galium spp.
…the rain came down near the top
Fantastic views of the fjord on the way up!
Frosted bracken?
Rut pool used by red deer stags!
There weren’t many edible fungi apart from one good patch of chantarelles in the birch zone
Picking chantarelles
…and, finally, after 4 hours we reached the hut!
Foxglove (revebjelle) within the protection of this old wall
Allium wallichii (Sherpa onion, Nepal onion), my oldest variety from an unknown source and clearly different from all my others
Norrlands Onion was discovered in gardens in Northern Sweden (see my book Around the World in 80 plants).Thanks to DNA sequencing by Erik de Vahl in Sweden with help from Nikolai Friesen, this is now believed to be a hybrid between Allium angulosum (mother) and Allium nutans (father).
Allium “Miami”
Allium “Miami”
Allium caesium
Allium macranthum
Allium macranthum
Allium scorodoprasum
Allium cernuum “Wall of Pink”
Allium jajlae
Allium tuncelianum
Allium nutans or hybrid from Kazakhstan
Allium nutans “Seedlings” from Wietse Mellema
My oldest Allium wallichii (unknown source) now emerging
My oldest Allium wallichii (unknown source) now emerging
My oldest Allium wallichii (unknown source) now emerging
My oldest Allium wallichii (unknown source) now emerging
My oldest Allium wallichii (unknown source) with Allium “Hair” – can’t work out what species this is as it has some characters of scorodoprasum and some of vineale…
Allium wallichii flower stalk with Allium victorialis from the Haut-Chitelet alpine garden in the Alps
Allium “Hair” – can’t work out what species this is as it has some characters of scorodoprasum and some of vineale…
Allium ovalifolium
Allium stenodon
Received as Allium schoenoprasum ssp sibiricum from Hokkaido but flowers much later than other chives…
On 19th May 2017, filmakers Ane Mari Aakernes and Berit Børte of Grow UP City filmed me in the garden collecting ingredients for an extreme salad, made with 211 different plants, almost all of them perennials. I’m told that almost all the ingredients are shown in this 6 part film, so settle down and join me in foraging my maximum diversity edible garden where the focus is on sustainable, nature and climate friendly, perennial vegetables ….. :)
Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Aasdal Wiken‘s Udo (Aralia cordata) has grown a lot since last year and has one of the best views over Fyksefjorden in the Forest Garden! :)
1. Eirik and his Udo now towers over his head..
2. Decaisnea (Dead man’s finger / likfinger) on the left produces fruit with Udo (Aralia cordata)
3. View down over Eirik and Hege’s house close to the Fyksefjord
A little glimpse from one of the best permaculture courses ever that only a selected few attended, Perennialen III i Fykse, Hardanger :) Rebecca J Smith warns me in this video about this old growth elm on Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Aasdal Wiken‘s land on the tour up to their mountain farm.
Perennialen IV is definitely planned to happen next year and will be announced in very good time, so watch this space!!
Best in HD!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
