This is the title of an 11 page article on my garden in a new Austrian book on edible forest gardens and agroforestry systems by permaculturist Bernhard Gruber. I wish I could read German! I briefly met Bernhard who attended my talk in Graz, Austria in January 2020.
I got home this morning after my train trip around Europe. A very good experience apart from last night sitting up on the train from Oslo -Trondheim (the sleeper was sold out). I did 22 longer train journeys and all apart from one were on time. The one that wasn’t on time was only 10 minutes delayed and it turned out that the connection was the same train, so it had no consequence! I didn’t once think it was a drag and used the time productively—-or sleeping! I visited my parents in England (Chandlers Ford) and did 4 talks in Austria for the University of Graz, Langenloiser Staudentage (over 200 landscape architects, nursery owners and gardeners on perennial vegetables), Langenloiser Gehölztage (on woody edibles…aka wedibles!) and Arche Noah in Schiltern, also on woody edibles as they are planning to plant a forest garden! On the way home I gave a talk on edimentals to Nesodden gardening club…in the same building as my grandson goes to kindergarten…and also gave a talk at NIBIO in Ås on Alliums.
I’m returning to Austria in January and giving two talks at two seminars at the 7th Langenlois Woody Plants Seminar on 21st January with focus on woody edibles https://www.gartenbauschule.at/…/040_langenloiser_gehoelzt…/
and the day after at the 29th Langenlois Herbaceous Perennial seminar https://www.gartenbauschule.at/…/041_langenloiser_staudent…/
..and I’m happy to say that I won’t be flying. It actually only takes two days from Vienna to Trondheim with one night on the Rostock Sweden ferry and the Oslo – Trondheim night train! I’ll be travelling via a family visit in England!
Saturday was a great day with the garden full of Austrians and to make them feel at home I took them to the steepest parts of my garden 😊. Two years ago, I toured Austria giving talks for the seed saver organisation Arche Noah and the highlight was my visit hosted by Thomas Strubreiter and his wife Michi who have built an amazing ecodwelling / earthship with turf roof. A series is currently airing on Austrian television showing its construction and a short program “Das-hobbithaus in Salzburg” can be seen here: https://www.servus.com/tv/videos/aa-1vr7rebsw1w12/
It is located high in the mountains above Salzburg surrounded by alpine meadows and beautiful Lake Seewald. I gave a talk in the mountain restaurant Auerhütte, owned by the family and located nearby http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=11483. Thomas and family have dedicated themselves to preserving rare breeds of farm animals, their connection to Arche Noah who also work with rare breeds! See also http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=11499
We talked about them visiting Malvik at some time, but it still came as a surprise to get a FB message from a very good friend of theirs, Birgit, who was living in Jämtland in Sweden, a 4 hour drive from here that Thomas and Michi were visiting and wondered if they could visit! They were here for a few hours on Saturday, a powerful meeting with a lot of laughter! Their turf roof will now have Norwegian roof onions from Gudbrandsdalen!
The second nature reserve I visited just outside of Vienna was near Pfaffstätten, a dry partly wooded hill again on limestone and with an amazing diversity of plants and as many as 1,200 butterflies and moths. Among the birds, woodlark breeds here, although I didn’t see it! Thanks to Simon for finding the time to take me to this precious place which included the amazing Adriatic Lizard Orchid!
Salvia nemerosa
Sambucus ebulus, the berries of which are widely believed to be poisonous, but I remember Maria Tariyska in Bulgaria telling me they were used there…
The destination was this limestone hillock
Saponaria officinalis, soapwort
Nature reserve
Just by the path near the entrance to reserve, this incredible flower was growing, the Adriatic Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum adriaticum)
Adriatic Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum adriaticum
Adriatic Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum adriaticum
Amelanchier ovalis, a European species
Berberis spp.
?
Misteltoe on pine
Sedum
Sanguisorba minor
Lamium
Sempervivum
?
Second location for Himantoglossum adriaticum, Adriatic Lizard Orchid
Simon from Arche Noah kindly took me on an early morning botanical excursion to Eichkogel on the outskirts of Vienna during my visit in June 2017. This is a 428m high hill, part of the Northern Limestone Alps…with a rich diverse flora and fauna…here’s a photo album of some of the plants we saw…no time to ID some of the plants we saw…please help if you can…
Two members of the nettle family growing together in the woods, Parietaria officinalis and Urtica dioica.
Salvia nemorosa
Salvia nemorosa
Heracleum
The first surprise…Staphylea, bladder nut!
Hops and Bryonia interweaved
Simon found a snack…
Verbascum
Simon was telling me that the art of constructing stone walls from the limestone was dying out…
The only Allium we saw….vineale?
Campanula
Campanula
Orobanche
Not far from the suburbs
…and there it was…my first wild Dictamnus albus
Dictamnus albus in fruit!
Stephen Barstow 18 hrs · Fallen misteltoe (on pine)
My last gig in Austria was a tour in the young botanical garden in Saltzburg. Despite its youth (from 1986), it had one of the best collection of unusual edibles I’ve seen in a dedicated garden to the world’s cultural plants! Of course the ornamental beds also had a lot of food…
The garden entrance
Right next to the gate was a bed full of edibles like Allium moly, various Lilium species, Dahlia and Camassia
Allium giganteum
The following pictures are from the cultural garden collection
Peltaria alliaceae
Orychophragmus violaceus
Sea kale, Cramb meyeniie maritima
Perennial buckwheat, Fagopyrum cymosum
Hibiscus acetosella (with a pleasant sour taste)
Zingiber mioga, Japanese ginger
Maca, Lepidium meyenii
Canna indica
Gynura crepioides
Plantago coronopus
Altananthera sissoo
And now some other edibles in the garden, Gunnera (probably manicata)…we talked about Nalca, the slighty smaller Chilean Gunnera chilensis
Aralia elata
Polygonum hydropiper, marked poisonous! Really?
Horseradish….apfelkren!
Begonia flowers are edible, this was a demonstration of Begonia breeding
A few pictures from my first three days in Schiltern and Austrian Seed Savers organisation Arche Noah’s amazing show gardens. The main show gardens are in the village of Schiltern in Langenlois, an important wine growing area, with warm, dry summers and relatively mild winters.
I’m doing a series of talks and garden guided tours this week starting here in Schiltern, then Vienna and finally in the Alps near Salzburg!
…and I got to try one of these broadforks! This one had been handmade for Arche Noah!
Seed art at the gate!
The show gardens are in the grounds of an old cloister..
The sales area has a great selection with many perennial edibles including Crithmum, Angelica dahurica etc.!
Purple mitsuba for sale
Angelica dahurica for sale
Caraway (karve) on sale
Hosta on sale as a perennial vegetable!
Toona sinensis
Sea kale (Crambe maritima)
Hablitzia tamnoides
Curly whirly onions, Allium senescens var glaucum
Crithmum maritimum
Rumex scutatus glaucus
Impressive elderberry with my host Claudia and organiser of my tour! Thank you!!
Bee hive
Library
Great outdoors restaurant
Lunch: risotto with an old grain! Did they make a special effort for me?
Isolation tent!
Perennial rye (from, I think, Tim Peters)
Old fruit trees
The countryside and village…
A demonstration of breeding lettuces
Sea Kale on one of two perennial beds
Asphodeline lutea…edible flowers and the tubers were traditionally cooked and eaten with cooked figs by the ancient Greeks and Romans according to Cornucopia II
Scorzonera for seed
Diplotaxis erucoides (wasabi rocket) has an excellent wasabi like taste
Winterkefe pea is one I’ve grown for several years (originally over winter in my old greenhouse). It originates here at Arche Noah
A row of Hablitzia is growing slowly and is maybe not too happy in the heat… shadier place would probably be better!
Catawissa onion (etasjeløk)
Rumex scutatus glauca
Oxyria digyna, mountain sorrel seems to grow well in the lowlands too!
Nice to see Sideritis syriaca, Greek mountain tea in the herb garden
Arch Noah seed packets in the shop
Allium moly (gul-løk) is from the mountains of Spain and is a great edimental
My talk was on Sunday in the cloister buildings
Typha (cattails / dunkjevle) in the courtyard pond! Supermarket of the swamps!
New friends after the talk..chef Johan Reisinger top left, Wolfgang Palme top right (vegetable researcher at the Horticultural College and Research Institute Schönbrunn, Vienna) and his good lady Angelika Palme who did an excellent job at translating!!
On Monday 12th June, I joined an informative tour of the Arche Noah show gardens lead by the head gardener. The tour was for staff and guides.
Nettle water with perennial kale Ewiger kohl (Eeuwige moes)
Chick peas
Broad beans are difficult to grow due to a number of pests and diseases
Millet for a future drier cilmate
I also visited the seed bank…
Humidity instrument for checking that the humidity is low enough for long term storage
Seeds are both stored in sealed jars…
Seeds are both stored in sealed jars…
Arche Noah are in the course of changing database (Access) as they have outgrown it!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
