Cutting the Norway Spruce

Norway Spruce (Picea abies) kept downsized by an annual cutting

What to do when a tree close to your house grow too big? I thought of cutting it down, after a neighbor warned me of the possible future damage to the foundation caused by the roots. But then I didn’t have the heart to cut it down. Just keeping it in same size might be enough. For approximately ten years now I’ve cut it with shears every late june. Today it’s the same height as I started cutting it.

The trees charater has changed a lot in those years. Today it looks more like a Picea glauca ‘Albertiana Conica’, just much taller. The strict shape render it a focal point , where my eyes can rest whenever I enter the garden. The wood pigeons also love the new shape. They have two nests up in the higher parts of the spruce.

It’s really not labor intensive. I spend one hour a year in late june, to cut the tree with my garden shears. The work is a pleasure, as my thoughts wander around when the hands work the shears.
It’s an art to cut deep into the fresh shoots, not cutting them completely. When cutting at this time of the year, the new shoots are able to produce new buds to shoot from next year. I don’t believe it could shoot again next year, if I cut into last years dark green growth.

The Norway Spruce also acts as an extra garden shed. I keep spare pots and potting mixture out of sight in there.

 

Salsify Seed

Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) seedhead

It was about the time to make a new harvest of “Vild dansk” salsify, originating from Christiansø, a small island in the tiny archipelago Ertholmene in the baltic sea. It grows wild on the island, presumably bewildered from the small gardens around the naval fortress in times long past.

The seedhead looks like the dandelions miniature parachutes, ready to spread by the wind over a great distance. But I find it a bit slow to clean the pappus (parachute) from the seed. This year, inspired by SESAM, the swedish seed savers, I tried to cut off the pappus before the seeds matured. Indeed, it was an easy way to clean the seeds, for a private gardener that is.

Salsify flowers open between 10 and 12 am.

In the time between flowering and seed maturation it’s time to cut off the pappus. The pale yellow milk sap runs out and cover the injury. I cut quite low, where the shape goes from broad to narrow.

The result is immediately clean seeds, to pick when the seed head opens, just in need of proper drying before they can be packed in paperbags.
A simple operation saving a good deal of work under garden conditions. I used a kitchen scissor, but a short beaked scissor would probably do a better job avoiding the neighbor stems when cutting.

This method could probably also be used for other members of the composite flowers, like lettuce and chicory. If it’s usefull with artichokes I don’t know, I ought consider it – they are slow to clean.
One thing to be aware of is the birds reactions. Do they see the cut seedhead as an invitation to eat all the seeds? With salsify the seeds were ready to harvest same day as the seedhead opened, hardly any time for birds to feed on them before I’m home from work to pick them all.

Salsify between flowering and seedmaturity

 

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in one of her brassica beds

Alice grow her garden to harvest green leaves during winter. She’s very consistent in this, more so than I’ve seen by other gardeners. This makes her garden a very interesting wonderland. She grows a lot of brassicas, and select hardy varieties. The hardiness is naturally selected, as Alice save a lot of the seeds in her own garden, year after year.

Savoy Cabbage sown in autumn

Alice shared her knowledge on autumn sowing of cabbage for an early harvest next year. About being dependent on the autumn weather after sowing. If it’s too warm, the cabbage grow to a size where the low winter temperature induce flowering in the spring. If you try avoiding this by sowing later, the seeds might not sprout until spring, and you will not harvest earlier than if springsown. This spring half the savoy cabbage have gone to flowers, but the other half very soon form big heads. Alice tells she avoid saving seeds from these early bloomers. I didn’t ask, but I guess she harvest the savoy heads when mature, and then leave the roots and stalks to form flowers and produce seeds.

Most plants grow where nature let the seed meet the soil

A lot of Alices vegetables are let to shed their seeds. When they sprout and grow, she will harvest most of them in a very small size, leaving a normal row of vegetables to grow on. In the photo is among other vegetables a row of spinach beet she will harvest during the next winter.

Italian Winter savory (Satureja montana), or would it be a kind of thyme (Thymus sp.)?

The Italian Winter savory was remarquable. First I thought it was an unusual lemon thyme, a bit similar to my own. A green carpet, an aromatic herb with a note of thyme. Alice tells, she bought the plant in a little place, where no plants have a label, and when you ask they tell you it’s italian. She is not really sure, if it is a Winter savory or perhaps a weird kind of thyme. It sets no seed, although there is both ordinay Winter savory and thyme in the garden to interbreed with. It’s an efficiant groundcover – Alice tells a little plant will cover a square meter in a year, it flowers in may and is perfectly hardy in Denmark, even in clay soils. I got a bit of it, and now it has to be kept within its boundaries, either by me or neighboring plants!

Alice’s frontgarden

The frontgarden is full of romantic flowers, a flowering meadow. It seemed to have flowers for all seasons. This peticular day the columbines, geraniums and veronicas were the super stars. It must have taken a lot of years to find the right balance between the many species, and Alice told, that the Thalictrums tended to take over, so every year she will pick out a lot of them.

One of the many small nurseries in the garden

Alice is a generous woman, and here and there in the garden you will find a little nursery. She is potting up a lot of plants, giving them tender loving care, until they leave for the right home. No reason to fear the killerslugs, though they live in the neighborhood. She use nematodes, and no plant seems to leave the garden without a douche of nematode water. The garden lies next to a meadow and a lake. Even if she keep the killeslugs at stake so they don’t bother her, they reinvade her garden again and again from the meadow.

Alice sets out to clean seeds of Musk-mallow (Malva moschata)

Alice is a routined seed saver. It’s a pleasure to see her clean a large batch of Musk-mallow seed in no time. The dried seeds are in the barrel. She rub and turns the seeds vigoriously a few minutes. Then she dives to the bottom retrieving hands full of released seeds. She sift them through old outworn kitchen sieves with different mesh sizes. In this way she first get rid of the rough debris, then the fine debris smaller then the seeds. The final touch is blowing the last debris ower the edge of a flat tray. All done in five minutes!

Thanks for a great garden experience.

 

Pictures from a Garden in Jutland

Sandleek (Allium scorodoprasum) on top of Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

On a trip to Jutland I had a chance to visit the garden of Inge Lise and Brian. Brian have two garden websites, Gourmethaven (in danish) and Potager.dk – Ornamental Kitchen Garden.
The beautiful bed with sandleek on top of chives touched my heart – I’m rather easily touched by any Allium. The garden is a heaven for both parents and three children, with lawn, flowerbeds, kitchengarden and two greenhouses.

Kitchengarden in raised beds

The garden is full of small practical details. I noticed the solar lamp in the kitchengarden. Very convenient when looking for greens for the kitchen in the dark autumn afternoons. The compost pile is located in the middle of the garden, easily accessible from all over the garden. No hiding away. A statement of the value of garden compost. More of us ought to use the compost pile as a garden centerpiece, a fine signal to the community around.

Inge Lise and Brian next to their Caucasian Spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides)

The specialty most admirably in the garden right now is the Caucasian Spinach. It is a perennial very hardy climber from Caucasus. The leaves taste more gentle and fulfilling than ordinary spinach. The plant is very difficult to find, but the danish seedsavers Frøsamlerne offered it on their members exchangelist this year. It grows very well in Inge Lise and Brians garden, it is not allways growing this well in danish gardens. It was grown as a vegetable hundred years ago, but was forgotten. The garden culture was continued in Estonia, from where it has spread to Finland and Scandinavia, including Denmark.

Caucasian Spinach with a flowerspike

Caucasian Spinach is related to mercury / Good King Henry, as one can see in flowers and leaves. The seedlings could be taken for mercury seedlings. It originates in mountains of Caucasus, where it climbs up in trees, having the root in shadow.

Yellow Flag (Iris pseudacorus)

The yellow flag are in a dry spot. This bogplant reacts by growing shorter leaves, thus giving a much better show-off of the flowers. Inge Lise and Brian have used their knowledge on the nature of the boggy yellow flag in an opposite way of what most of us would have done. A copy could be considered

Thanks for a great garden visit!

 

Sweet Cicily – two varieties or two species ?

Sweet Cicily from my own garden on top, below from the garden of Rie and NO

I have to realise, that the to me so familiar Sweet Cicily is not the normal type, because it is utterly smooth. If I look it up in the Danish Flora by E. Rostrup, I read it should be downy, just like in the garden of Rie and NO.

In old drawings you can also just notice the downy hairs

In the district where I was born, I never saw any but smooth Sweet Cicily. Now I’ve been looking around in that area again, in my brothers garden and in the garden of Merete and Ejner, only the smooth version is known. It seems the smooth version is the only known in that area, nobody have heard of a downy version. And where I’ve met the standard downy version, people have never heard of a amooth version !
How is your Sweet Cicily ??? Please let me know !

My question is, wether the smooth Sweet Cicily is a variety or a different species? Apparently there is only a single species in the family of Myrrhis, it ought to be a variety (or could I be mistaken by the family Myrrhis ?) Could it be a type imported to the monastery gardens in catholic times, and from there spread to apothecary gardens, vicarage gardens and cottage gardens ?

In the kitchen I find the smooth version more appealing, as it washes more readily.

Did you know, that Sweet Cicily is effective againt fungal infections like Candida albicans ?

 

A Garden Walk

Rie and NO between sweet Cicily (left) and quince (right)

The garden kept by Rie and NO is a paradise of exiting and unusual plants, a true seed saver garden. At the front door of their house a small Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula) tree reside, planted to serve as food for the Common Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) butterfly. The appletrees are all grafted with several varieties, one on the other. In this way they can grow more of the old local varieties in very little space. The harvest of each variety is small, but the number of varieties make up for that, and they harvest apples in a full season.

Quince flower Cydonia oblonga

Immediately the quince caught my eye. At a distance it looked like a gourgous wild rose. Close up the flowers are also beautiful. I rarely saw anything as romantic as this quince.

Eggplant, pepper og tomato

The tender plants, like eggplant, pepper and tomato was already in the ground, and was thriving. Am I too pessimistic waiting until a week into june (or even later) before planting them out? I understood it’s first time they try to grow eggplant outside, but they are experienced with pepper and especially tomatoes.

Camassia sp.

An eyecatching clump of camassia was to be found in the kitchengarden. It is a bulbous plant, culinary to the north american indians, loved so much they even had wars over the rights of its grounds. NO tells it is hardy and easy to grow, but hasn’t tasted it yet.

A part of the kitchengarden

In the kitchengarden I could find garlic and cereals (forgot wich species) in front of angelica and sweet Cicily in a impressive combination. Some years ago I had some garlic varieties from this garden!
After the garden walk we enjoyed the juice of rhubarb and angelica. A mixture I found most satisfying, having it for the first time in my life.
Thanks for a beautiful experience.

 

Victory Onion

Victory onion (Allium victorialis)

As many other people, I´m very fond of ramsons (Allium ursinum), I even had them in the garden (and maybe still have). Ramsons are invasive where they thrive. They went under the raspberries, to keep them down, but I’ve had second thoughts and given the plants I could detect away. The good thing about ramsons is that you in short time have a lot of them to eat, and no matter how much you pick (or weed) them they just continue growing.

Some years ago I had victory onion from several sources. It is much larger than ramsons, and where ramsons defoliate in the summer, victory onion keeps the leaves into the autumn. The very best is that it spreads very slowly, like a peony, and selfseeding is no problem. Only some of the seeds will sprout, and in the years they need to grow mature, they are very sensitive to animals activities. In other words – I have plenty of time to weed any volunteers if any should come.
It is actually quite difficult to grow from seed in open ground, due the the many mishappenings that are likely to hit small seedling in an ordinary garden in a span of five years. I haven’t succeded yet.

In wintertime the nettet stubs remind me where victory onion grows

My first encounter with victory onion was in Siberia 1993. At most of the meals in private homes was served a sidedish черемша (cheremsha or tjeremsha), salted victory onion in smetana. I immediately became a fan of cheremsha! I love caviar, but this is even better. For years I tried to convince somebody in Siberia to send me seeds or plants, they only laughed at me and tried to make me understand that their victory onion can’t grow in gardens, they grow in the taiga and only there!

For years I only saw leaves

Stubborn or persistent? I started a search on the internet. Found Stephen Barstow in Norway, who send me some seeds of victory onion. I couldn’t get them to grow, but then I made contact with a friendly japanese woman in Sapporo in Japan. I had seen her photos of Allium victorialis in her garden. She send me seeds, and some of them sprouted after 6 months. Unfortunately they were all destroyed by animals passing my gardens in the next three years, although I did try to protect them with chickenwire. Time is a serious factor in the culture of victory onion.
Stephen Barstow has written about victory onion (seiersløk).

Victory onion in flower – after years waiting

The seedy failures didn’t change me being stubborn/persistant. A dutch bulbcompany N.C. Nijssen offered two clones – ofcourse I had to buy both. Now I had a clone from Kemerovo in western Siberia and one from Cantabria in Spain. The one from Kemerovo is almost half size of the cantabrian one. A year after this “victory”, I saw some norwegians writing in a webboard about a local variety, grown in gardens on some of the Islands in Lofoten. I made contact with a norwegian woman on the island Vestvågøy, who send me a victory onion from her garden. Interestingly it seems, that her plant is the one that grows best in my garden. Investigations in the genetics of this victory onion shows, that it is likely to have come from Caucasus, where it once was in garden culture, and brought to Vestvågøy by vikings 1000 years ago.

Seedhead, victory onion clone from Kemerovo in Siberia

Victory onion clone from Kemerovo has been very willing to flower and produce seeds. I’ve collected the seeds and shared them with other seedsavers, telling them about the challenge.

Stephen Barstow visited danish gardens in the summer 2008, I was lucky – he passed by my garden. He even brought me gifts: Allium victorialis spp. platyphyllum and Allium ochotense. The first is the same kind as the one I tried to grow from seeds from Japan, the other one is a victory onion from Estonia (yes it has another latin name, but in alliums they might still be able to cross, anyway it looks just like the victory)

 

Visiting Vild med have

Merete and Ejner in their wonderfull kitchen garden

Bringing a few things to Merete and Ejner, I was invited to see their lovely kitchen garden. It is early in the season, but there are allready rows of tiny sprouting vegetables. Pea, and …. OK, I don’t exactly recognize the tiny sprouts by looking at the photo, but there are a variability of crops and no weed. The strong leafy row in front is black salsify not to be missed, and garlic grows up to the left.

The old artichokes impressed me deeply. I know the problems of getting them safely through the frosty wet winters. I have often read, that the younger plants from cuttings make it through the winter with more ease than the older individuals. Contrary, Merete and Ejner have experienced that in their garden the older plants are more likely to survive the winters than the younger plants. Therefore I saw some very old plants not move for many years. This makes me wonder how should I cultivate my own artichokes in the future.

We have exchanged artichoke clones, at I’m very excited to see the development of one of their old clones in my garden. We believe it is a ‘Green Globe’. As this is a seed propagated old line of artichokes, the name can not be fixed on a single individual. Taking cuttings from their original seed plant is cloning, and if it grows well in my garden I will continue the cloning. Then I have to ask Merete and Ejner for a name for the clone.

I allways find it exciting and inspiring to visit others gardens. Often I bring home new methods, less labour intensive than what I can find in the books or on the web. Particularly when it comes to more rare vegetables like artichokes or garlics in my area. Thanks for an artichoke talk!

Merete is author of the danish blog “Vild med have“. It is very visual, based on photos, I think a lot of readers here can enjoy it, go visit it!

 

Spring garlic and health

Garlic Allium sativum. Left 2 virus infected, right 2 stemnematode infected

Yesterday I went to the garlic bed to pick some springgarlic and keep the clones healthy. I’m both alerted by yellowstriped leaves as sign of virusinfection, and by twisted and thickened leaves on plants probably infected by stem nematodes.

Those infected by stem nematodes have lost the juicyness, not worth eating. Those infected with virus are good food. They were cleaned, cut and prepared in the wok. Virus in garlic is harmless to humans.

Yellow stipes in garlic leaves, a sign of virus

Propagating plants vegetatively allways makes virus an issue. Clones accumulates vira over time, and garlic are very old clones. But not all clones are infected the same day, thus taking away the infected and propagating the healthy is a good practice in any garlic bed. As many of the plants can be used in the kitchen, loss is limited.

 

Bronze Fennel

Bronze Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare

Bronze fennel is easy to cultivate, it is perennial and hardy. I guess most people just enjoy the beautiful view of this plant, but I also enjoy the delicious taste. At the same time I thin out the number of shoots, to get a more pretty plant the following summer. I use it either raw or lightly steamed/fried, just as bulb fennel is used in the kitchen.
Last year I made scallops with kaleflowers and bronze fennel

Normally you buy seeds of bronze fennel and then sow them directly in the garden. Take notice of taste and color as the vary a bit, and select the best plants. I have a single plant with a superior taste that I’m giving special attention. When bronze fennel is established in the garden, it starts to spread seeds, but in my garden it is far from a problem.