The 4th Perennialen was the shortest yet, a short visit to Eirik and Hege’s wonderful place and LAND centre at Alvastien in Hardanger after the Nordic Permaculture Festival in Jondal! This year’s participants were Eirik and Hege, Meg, Karoline from Myrrhis in Denmark, Julia Sol and LAND coordinator Helene Bøhler!
Next year will be the 5th Perennialen and we will be inviting you to a road trip around great permaculture sites of Hordaland and Hardanger in May, so watch this space!
On the second day of Perennialen III, in early August 2017, we were joined by Rebecca Smith of Norway’s second LAND centre on Byrknesøy on the coast north of Bergen! Since I last met Rebecca here during Perennialen I, Eirik Lillebøe Wiken’s food forest which basically surrounds the house, both above and below all the way down to the fjord on steep ground, has grown well and is becoming more established. The diversity has also increased. These pictures are from our food forest tour together including a stop on the shoreline where we could only imagine the wild food forest also in the fjord, this is truly a food forest with many layers :)
It’s been announced that this year’s Nordic Permaculture Festival will be arranged between 12th and 15th July 2018 in Jondal at the Hardanger Academy for Peace, Development and Environment, which is located in western Norway next to the Hardanger Fjord in fantastic surroundings and not far from the famous Folgefonna glacier! About time then that I blogged about my visit there as part of the annual Perennialen (no. 3), arranged by Eirik Lillebøe Wiken of the Alvastien Permaculture LAND Centre on the other side of the fjord. On the first day of Perennialen III, Eirik took me on aday trip, first to the famous garden at Baroniet Rosendal and then on to Jondal. A blog about the visit to Rosendal will follow tomorrow!
See the photo album below:
Barony Rosendal (Baroniet Rosendal) is a historic estate and manor house on the Hardangerfjord going back to the 1650s. As part of Perennialen III, on our way to Jondal, one hour’s drive away (separate post), we stopped at this famous garden on 8th August 2017 to do some edimentals spotting! Despite several attempts to visit over the years, I’ve never been before. This must be one of the most picturesque gardens in the world with the dramatic scenery surrounding it! I was particularly interested in seeing the naturalised stands of spiked rampion (vadderot), used as a vegetable in the past elsewhere in Europe (video). The climate is very mild, and the sweet chestnut trees were particularly impressive, perhaps the biggest in Norway? There are also several beds with historical vegetables. Here is an album of pictures of mostly edible plants and scenery!
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).
Ostrich Fern (strutseving)
Ants on pine tree
Aspen (osp) and the fjord
Young blackcap (munk)
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
