A visit to Geir Flatabø’s forest garden which is located high above the picturesque village of Ulvik at the end of an arm of the Hardangerfjord was an unexpected treat on my recent visit to western Norway! I knew we would meet Geir but I had misunderstood an email from Geir a couple of years ago that the red deer had eaten everything he’d tried to plant…far from it, many of hundreds of trees, bushes and herbaceous perennials that Geir has planted on his plot are thriving. To reach Norway’s largest and most diverse forest garden, we drive high up above the village. Geir’s plot is a narrow strip of land almost 1 km straight up the hill with large spruce tree plantations on either side (felled on Geir’s plot to make way for his garden). Some might call it an arboretum, but Geir is very knowledgeable about the uses of the trees and other plants, most of which are edible or have other uses and he does call it himself his forest garden. We (my host Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and I) pass through many climate zones as we climb the hill talking plants with Geir. He has planted according to hardiness and has used various natural techniques to protect young plants against the red deer…permaculture in other words! An amazing place that will only get better as the year’s go by…and we only got half way up the hill….time went quickly and suddenly Geir noticed the time and dashed off to get to the National Fungi Symposium which was being held nearby…he was giving a talk that evening on the fungi of Hardanger!
On the way up to Geir’s unique forest garden high above the picturesque village of Ulvik
Geir Flatabø in his Forest Garden
Aralia elata
Sweet chestnut
Now what was this one called?…Geir has an amazing memory for plants and fungi, but the occasional one stumps the man ;)
The document below is in Norwegian but contains many pictures from my first visit to Vestvågøy in the Lofoten Islands to see the stands of naturalised victory onion (seiersløk), Allium victorialis, including a harvesting trip with Judith van Koesveld (she and her partner Christoph produce a local pesto from the plants). The document also contains an account of a visit to Brynhild Mørkved at the botanical gardens in Tromsø to see the collection of Allium victorialis accessions from different parts of this onion’s extensive range (from the Pyrenees to Japan). Plants vary quite a lot in their form. Finally, I visited Geir Flatabø in Ulvik (Hardanger) in south west Norway and he showed me the large naturalised stand of this plant next to the Granvin river. There are also a few pictures from a collection of heritage ornamentals at the Lofotmuseet and from a visit to a once great but now derelict garden at Finneset (Steinhagen). All pictures were taken in June 2009.
