So much has happened this year that I haven’t had time to blog about several places I’ve visited this year….with a bit more time now I’m returning to my great trip to Canada in March and Victoria, BC. Solara Goldwynn, a local Permaculture Landscape Designer (Hatchet & Seed) had arranged a program for me including a walk and talk gig at the Garden of the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, just 12 km from downtown Victoria! It’s a relatively young garden but full of interesting plants (far more interesting than the nearby world famous Butchart Gardens which doesn’t even merit a blog post!). It’s non-profit community focused garden with sustainable management practices. Here’s an album of pictures from the garden tour and talk – the participants preferred to stay inside and hear the whole lecture rather than going outside, so this album documents what we would have seen :)
Thanks to Solara Goldwynn for arranging this and great also to finally meet my friend Lara from Salt Spring Island!
Before my talk Solara and I walked around the garden, making a plan for a tour of these largely ornamental gardens looking for edimentals!! A good start was this sign announcing the Hosta garden, although it was a bit early to see any spring sprouts (Hostas appear in late spring) ;)
Allium acuminatum is one of the west coast wild onions, widely used by Native American peoples as food, including the Coastal Salish and Thompson
Caltha, cowslip or marsh marigold is also widely used for food and medicine by native peoples
Cornus officinalis, Sanshuyu: the fruits are used fresh and in an alcoholic drink
Cornus avellana “Contorta”, contorted Hazel. I hadn’t seen the name “Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick” before. From Wikipedia, it has Scottish roots!: “Sir Henry McLennan Lauder (4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950) was a notable Scottish entertainer, described by Sir Winston Churchill as ‘Scotland’s greatest ever ambassador!'” The Corkscrew Hazel was dubbed “Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick” because the comedian used a crooked branch cane during his performances.”
Harry Lauder and twisted walking stick
Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick
Sedum spectabile is a good spring salad plant!
Trachystemon orientalis took my thoughts to my friends in Bulgaria, Maria Tariyska and ИВАН КАМБУРОВ, plants bind us all together; see how this plant is eaten here – http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1269
Nice touch at the entrance, including Trachystemon!
Lilium martagon has edible flowers and bulbs, a great plant for a forest garden
Trilliums and Polygonatums, more edible forest garden inhabitants
Erythroniums
…and more, Erythroniums
One of the edible berries of the west coast, kinnikinnick (melbær) is also widespread in Norway.
The native plant garden!
…with edible camas (Camassia) and garry oak
Edible camas and Dodecatheon
Ribes sanguineum “White Icicle”
Arabis
Allium tuberosum
Allium schoenoprasum
Bronze fennel
Lovage
Native Allium cernuum
Sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata
Guess what I chose? Dandelion Latte or Organic Bone Broth? ;)
A few pictures from a short lunch time visit to the Oslo Botanical Garden at Tøyen this week with my little girl!
Eryngium maritimum (Sea holly) is an endangered species in Norway, so not encouraged to eat it. The next picture shows what Cornucopia II says of its use in the kitchen (I’ve never managed to grow it, so haven’t tried)
Eryngium maritimum (Sea holly) in Cornucopia II
Allium thunbergii is one of the latest onions to flower…it looked like there were two different forms here..
Allium thunbergii
Pinus wallichiana, Indian blue pine (tårefuru /tear pine). The seeds are sometimes eaten as pine nuts..
Photographing the tears of Pinus wallichiana…..Conucopia II: the tree exudes an edible manna from the leaves and twigs!
The tears of Pinus wallichiana…..Conucopia II: the tree exudes an edible manna from the leaves and twigs!
Pinus wallichiana
The Viking garden
An ex-Elm
Hazel with Turkish Hazel!
Turkish Hazel…all I’ve opened have been empty
Campanula rapunculoides, from the garden’s Korsmo weed chart exhibition!
Probably the oldest Gingko tree in Northern Europe, soon to reach 150!
This week I gave a couple of talks for the first time on the subject of “Perennials: Attractive and climate friendly city vegetables” ….covering everywhere from roof gardens to shady backyards to city farms, including Slottsparken – the park around the Royal Palace in Oslo which is in reality a productive forest garden ;) (full of Hosta and ostrich fern / strutseving)!
3 hour course for Bybondelagon 1st November 2017 (the Norwegian City Agrarian Society)
Short 35 minute talk as part of the “Grønn Helse i Byen” (Green health in the city) symposium arranged by Det Norske Vitenskaps Akademiet (the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters!)
Excellent and enthusiastic talk by city farmer Andreas Capjon from the Losæter farm in the centre of Oslo at the Green health in the city symposium.
I was invited to the opening of a new edimental bed at Incredible Edible Todmorden (West Yorkshire) in September, but sadly couldn’t make it :( It was designed by a landscape gardener from Harrogate as part of her university degree course! The task was to make a totally edimental bed!!
I certainly didn’t think I would make a blog post with this name today! This is possibly my strangest post ever….
To explain, I was cleaning and packing seed in the garden today (a beautiful sunny day here) and I noticed that the seed of an Allium I’d just cleaned seemed a bit “nervous” or jumpy, jumping as soon as I touched them! They don’t have an English name, they are simply Allium ovalifolium var leucoNERVUM….. I decided to film this strange phenomenon (see the video below)…..and at about 1 minute my friend the wren decided he wanted to be part of the action and starts to call next to me (see also yesterday’s wren film)…and then at the end my neighbour can be heard calling me, unaware of the drama going on….wanting to know if I wanted some hen (not wren) manure…..let me know what you think?
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
