Already getting a bit discouraged, knowing yet again my beloved watermelon and tomatoes probably won´t mature or do well at all here in Norway, so I started reminding myself what does do well here, coming back on its own every year here since I´ve lived here. Some things I still haven´t figured out the names, but will try to add photos as they appear.
All the berries. Here they grow usually on single stalks, in rampantly-spreading groups of stalks, straight up and tall from the ground. Every year or so we cut them drastically down to the ground, so we get fresh, new stalks, rather than old woody pithy ones which then usually have only mostly dull, small, dry mouldy berries. Our garden (here that means yard, not necessarily "garden" in the American sense of the word. And by yard, I mean expanse of land your houses and outbuildings sit upon, not the concrete slab my Aussie and NZ friends tell me they think of when I say yard. Garden, yard, hmft! The English language is always meaning something else to someone else who speaks it, haha!). So, our expanse of land I call garden or yard, each year suddenly springs forth with a plethora of various berries, which will be everywhere later on in summer, for making jams, jellies, conserves, pies, drinks, cakes, freezing, sharing. Usually we get raspberries, blueberries (on huge short full shrubs everywhere growing wild), strawberries (tiny wild alpine strawberries are all over certain areas, plus any larger varieties I´ve planted pop up elsewhere randomly), and rarely a few black berries or white raspberries, or creamy pale yellow cloudberries here and there in the forested area edges, if one looks carefully.
In the lowest most protected part of the garden, which to me reminds me of Italian gardens as it has a few random natural rivulets of streams from underground natural springs flowing underneath the top area we walk on and see, and there are a few walled areas made from rock and stones chiseled and cut from the rock underneath. Here, many gardens, like ours, if you knew it, is like someone covered huge boulders and slabs of stone and rock with a layer of soil and grass: literally, I´ve seen the soil and grass peeled off, exposing nothing but stone "ground", in order for them to build a new house, as down the road last year. I was too slow to get photos, as it only took them a few hours from the peeling off the grass layer as I walked by to the local shops, to blasting and bulldozing the stone layer flat for building! I was gutted I´d not gotten it as I´d wanted to add it! It was so cool, almost shocking to me, as it had never occurred to me ground could be nothing but stone, as where I come from ground is soil, sand, mud, usually a combination of, maybe with some smaller rocks throw in. Here, it seems the ground often is really just a thin inches or so layer of soil with grass, then solid rock for miles! It can make even the most hearty gardener discouraged. But I do try to see the positive side--great solid foundations for building, say a raised bed; great soil when you do find it. And lovely views everywhere of solid rock mountains, with stone that seemingly changes color seasonally, from blackest black in rainy cold winter´s bitterest temperatures (which to be fair are still warm compared to say Svalbard), or to a warm, pale cocoa as is today, as I see as I type, the solid rock mountain out my window, showing the blue skies and bone dry mountain, that during rainy season has waterfalls, and during winter has frozen waterfalls. Today, only light, airy, gleaming rock, shadows, and bits of heather starting to flower usually purple, a few small shrubs, and bright green leaving trees growing out of the crevices and steep stacked breaks and natural steps. The shape overall is more like the rounded Mesas in the SW, rather than the steep sharp pointy Rockies. Mostly low here, maybe 20 or so stories high. So, not blocking out everything entirely, just letting the sky peek out from beyond overhead. During the worst rain, hail or snowstorms, I can´t even catch a glimpse of the mountain, but today, on such a perfectly glorious warm, balmy, sunshine, blue-skied day, the mountain is simply sitting there, laying there rather majestically. I can see a few groups of adults with kids walking along the top where the long trail follows its edge along the best views over this part of the island.
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The other things grow here wild or easily every year coming back without doing anything at all, good in part thanks to the microclimate near the sea, is the many berries all over the numerous fruit plants my MIL planted long ago! I smile thinking it´s her garden really, and that I share it, and thank her for what she begun so long ago. Apple trees with random antique varieties of apples, some for eating, some for pies and applesauce. Roses, a deep dark luscious pink, with a glorious scent even deeper than Gertrude Jekylls, which is one of my faves planted in other of my gardens past. These roses are quiet, they are just sticks, then suddenly they´re abundantly in bloom, wrapping round this and that, growing ever taller, bining round as much as they can access, which is great in my book! I don´t cull things much, and appreciate anything in this harsh climate that can take care of itself so well, and be gorgeous and smell so wonderful at the same time! Other roses grow in shrubs or stalks, and have large rosehips later on for making rosehip jellies, recipes from my really old cookbooks. So far I´ve not done as well making the rosehip jellies, as I seem to always get some of the scratching artichoke-like central hairs in no matter following the recipes which demand I keep the hips intake not cutting them at all before boiling. I´ll try again this year:).
Gooseberries, both green and reddish-purple, grow wild both on shrubs and stalks which hang over edges of paths. White (green?) ones are slightly less sweet, the latter are so sweet I eat by the handfuls raw. My aunties always made endless things from their gooseberries, which I keep planning on trying here, but never get past eating them raw from the shrub:). The kids love our summer walks, foraging along the way, love finding the berries and picking and eating them. They usually share too, even with their fierce playfighting to get the most,). Have done since n was a baby, cute the middle two would pick for her, and feed her first, then themselves, and then the adults sharing with us finally too,). chuckle!
So far the kids can pick out most edible things here, from different berries in the usual style to the most obscure ones I even have to ask them about!,) Every lekeplase (public play place with play equipment found randomly throughout the city or island areas, each totally different, with different terrain) has its own foraging bits and pieces. One larger varied one which includes its own wooden covered bridge over a pond, and its own organic garden, has large cherry trees which are full of ripe, luscious cherries on double stems all summer, and we like going there anyway, let alone for the fun of picking cherries, in. the. city! Can you imagine?! Ripe, wild cherries, being picked from actual trees, in the middle of a city?! Very cool!
Back to our own garden, I do plan on adding some cherry trees, short trained onto a stone wall, at some point, but every year keep getting distracted and forget til it´s too late til trying again next season. Would be great fun to have cherries in the garden, even if only the mere fact there are cherries in the garden.
Gooseberries of various variety, the raspberries and strawberries. Rhubarbs, foxgloves (poisonous, but wild, growing everywhere randomly each year when I can´t grow them myself for anything elsewhere so I am loving that they grow wild everywhere here and in my yard!!) both pink and purple and white varieties. Lovely random flowers, and bulbs. Tall blue iris patches of irises everywhere, so pretty!!! Spikey blobs of starlight shaped flower blossoms elsewhere, surrounded with yellow flowers of some sort, both so pretty and unusual to me, typical here. Crocus, tulips, anemones, bluebells, white snowdrops, similar snowdrops with wider bells and dots of lemon-lime at the edges. English daisies rarely.
More roses, wild this time, with small, wispy, poppy-like petals. And orange poppies growing wild. Bright red-orange tulips with black centres. Tiny blue hyacinth on stalks, and delphiniums. The really tiny spring bulbs, muscari, just lovely, so delicate! Yellow daffs, double daffs. The usual spring flower bulbs here, and lots of usual things which I still can´t name, such as these large-stalks of purple red flowers with huge thick leaves, that when the flowers themselves are gone, the leaves are a huge solid structural element of the winter garden structure. Heathers of all colors, usually purple, pink, white. Junipers with berries.
Holly of different varieties, both tall stalky and short shrubby, both unfortunately in real life I abhor for the pointy prickly leaves which fall and land on my benches, or in the grass making it difficult to walk barefoot, so that I´ve cut down nearly every one of the holly plants I see, and as soon as I see them shoot up again. The berries ARE pretty in winter against the snow, I DO like the shiny leaves, and they do provide structure in winter, but I just can´t appreciate that much when I am pulling a leave out of my bleeding foot, in summer when walking randomly barefoot in the yard!,)
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I forget what all else that grows on its own every year, but more of the same or similar as above, lots I still don´t know the common names in English or the latin names for. But am most appreiciative sp of each year, when what I try to plant maybe doesn´t work, or dies, or doesn´t mature here, as I am still learning about growing things in this micro climate or that, and where we are, can be a totally different microclimate from a few miles away or across the water or at another end of the island. And, well, I do forget that here is not easy, and I am spoiled taking for granted all the places I lived where all I had to do was plant something in the ground and it thrived. Here sometimes I can find something dead or eaten by African slugs, a few hours or a day after I checked on it! so. frustrating. pout haha.
Other neighbors have so beautiful gardens, as in English cottage gardens or sweepingly vast gardens swathing colors and texture across the entire area of their yard; ie not in the American sense that I mean they have grass that grows well, but that I mean they have gorgeous flowers as in an Italian, or French or English cottage or formal garden, or as in a tiny courtyard garden you might find in Savannah or New Orleans, or desert gardens even, such as the lush gardens found in downtown Southwestern cities....I mean GARDENS with FLOWERS and such not just grass everywhere and hardcore this and that.
Though, in our garden/yard here, though out, I appreciate all the hardcore solid structural elements my FIL and his father also built, such as the huge stone walled raised beds topped off with a further height of walled stone and boulder surround filled in with soil, topped off with grass and flowerbeds and lovely plants and shrubs which come up every year on their own. A lovely seating area (s) which had been planned to house a huge gazebo, to overlook the lush views of sea, sky and forested mountain. One day maybe we will put a gazebo there, but for now the area is a huge picnic area and play area, with various stuffs blooming throughout the year, such as heathers, those huge stalky purple bulbs I wrote of earlier, huge swaths of bluebells and white spring flowers, blue irises, yellow daffs and other bulbs, wild roses, miniature beds along the side of short growing ponderosa like pines and bulbs, a few red burberry, wild ferns, yellow broom, jasmine and honeysuckle, more stalks of raspberries. Wild pink roses, lavenders, rosemary and other herbs, lots of wild mints, and lots and lots of pretty tiny frail columbines growing wild in various colors and varieties.
The stone wall garden area has raised beds along the edges, with walkways surrounding that, leading up to a large outbuilding divided into rooms. Used for storage now, they are heated, with lighting, windows and insulated, and used to be used as work sheds areas of my FIL. Before that the space over there was bare, just land with an old-fashioned outhouse, hence why the plants thrive there even now without help! In the main "refuse" area, which is below and to the back of what used to be the original outhouse, but is now about a person´s height below and to the side of the new outbuilding, I´ve planted vines of blooming things such as honeysuckles, rhubarbs, a few short bamboos (yes, but our yard is huge and I wanted some bamboo as I like it blowing in the wind, anyway they´d´´nó´t taken off here as the weather is cold in winter so that culls them lots), and roses and other flowers. To the back of this outbuilding along the sides are stone and cement stairs rounded down to the back spiralling around to a mound of rock covered with a shallow amount of soil and grass, so that wild raspberries thrive and cover this mound and one across from it, all summer long. Vines and strawberries like it here too. Not so much blackberries for some reason though, as my efforts to grow blackberries have not gone down well with the blackberries!
Nearby is a huge Japanese maple, burning bushes that look more like trees, a few trees with what resemble tulips as flowers, other trees which have flowers which resemble white cherry blossoms and white popcorn when in bloom. A huge really pretty blood red aubergine leaved tree, with similar color of bark. More of the similar color berberries sp. Lots of wild Norwegian trees, from pines of various sorts (Norwegian and not, but typical of what grows here), with paper bark which peels off prettily, and huge trees, hazelnuts and such, oaks of some type; birch of different types.
Lots of hidden things in the forest, such as what I call The Castle, which is really the remains of a huge old stone boulder farm building, and lots of rivulettes of springs popping up here and there then disappearing again. A small river, stream really, from presumably somewhere further up the mountain, and various springs that come from all the rain that collects somewhere hidden and ends up as the stream/river, depending on time of year. Our cats, when kittens, loved to explore this area, and swim in the water...not so much swimming now, as drinking hautily, then sunning themselves on The Castle top for the top views surrounding (being able to see mostly everything from such a high position over everyone and everything). Our cats are sweet really, but some of the other cats around are not, which annoys me when they are mean to our cat on our property. But fences are not really necessary here, markers are usually 99% adequate, barring the 1 or 2 who disregard the cultural norm of respecting boundary markings without fencing. It´s nice to have the sea, the mountains, the woods etc all so close, and not have to have fences which enclose, just have it open. The walk up the back of the yard in another area goes over an actual mountain, with various diverse routes where ever you like, to enjoy views from the top of the mountain overlooking the entire mountain, surrounding island and fjord immediately in the area over to the mainland; or various other views depending which route you choose. The paths are not marked, but staying straight on towards one side will end you up along a road going perpendicular and thru the bottom of the mountain land area, along more lower mountains and paths, past farms and country homes (homes in the country, not Country Homes as such), horses in fields, open fields of grass and flowers, berries, fruit for foraging, and more hidden paths and marked paths to more areas to enjoy, with lovely views. Several of my yoga hikes, both in winter and warm weather are along here. Yoga outdoors is very rewarding, soothing. Just dress warmer, and be ok with modifying poses to the terrain, paying attention if you are near the edge to not fall off! One of these yoga areas I like, down the road, thru a huge field near horses, thru some further fields used by locals for soccer, walking, walking dogs, hiking, yoga, sport, exercise, sunning, picnicing....goes again back and out a forest, coming out onto solid rocks slanting off along the mountain, growing with heathers, wild berries and mosses...and simply overlooks everything, for another view over the fjords and to the mainland. It´s relaxing, and if you sit and watch, you can see submarines, huge ships, tiny kayaks, wood boats, large wood sailing vessels, iron ships...cruise ships, fishing boats, ferries....all go past. We get lots of seagulls here, really huge seagulls compared to some, but I like them, and their rampant squawking and noisiness:). I like being able to hear I am living on an island, not just see that I am, and often the mountains and forests block the views to the sea, so I like the seagulls reminding me, if I can´t see it, that the sea is still there.
This is our second or so really hot day. Yesterday the trees were barely showing new blooms. Today are in full greenery! It smells fresh out, slightly damp, you can smell the sea in the air. I LOVE that about here, living anywhere near or on the sea--being able to smell the sea.
I can literally smell here when it might rain, or can tell by the change in clouds, every so slight, when snow is coming. It´s hard to explain, and I think I get it from my father and grandfather, as they were both able to do that too. Smells so lovely today, now I must get back to studying. Tomorrow, as I´ve been a bit ill with norvo or such, is my first day out, into town, and am looking forward to it! Stuck in the house with such lovely weather is not so nice. If it is nice tomorrow, will take some photos of the Tourism Season, as by now all or most of the seasonal tourist trade kiosks will be in full bloom in the city, off the sea, along the wharf:).
Maybe I´ll take some photos of the locally-caught fish at the sea market too, but only if I feel ok about it---it´s rude to just take photos at the fish market, not buy something too. And mostly I don´t eat fish for overfishing the seas/not environmentally friendly, and don´t like eating fish much anymore unless I catch it myself. The kids picked mussels last year, and other bits and pieces from our local beach and sea, including pink sea urchins. We used a hammer to crack the crab shells, which were extremely dense and thick, and steamed them like I steam Southern crawfish in a homemade crabboil....but we didn´t really like it after all that work. The best bit was foraging the food, beach combing for items, digging into the wet mud, etc,) haha! A fab day out, otherwise, but next time we´ll just throw it back in. They like seeing the cockles and welks open and shut, like they´re talking, and the water and such makes squelshing "talking" noises, which the kids find funny and sweet---like they get to have a conversation with the sealife! We like going to the aquariums and open tanks at the fish market to see various sea life too, or find fish under the long wooden docks near the old wood Viking ships, etc around town. Other times we do actually eat the fish and such....
A local recipe I like, really simple. Half a pink salmon, bones/skin on for flavor, roasted with fresh herbs in oven or over fire til done, not dry or overcooked. Top with fresh full fat rømme, a traditional sour cream here. Serve with either parsleyed and buttered new potatoes, or long wide strips of pasta such as spinach fettuccine. I do fix this maybe once a month or so. It´s good with the local potato salad made with herbs, and creme fraiche not mayo. Enjoy:)
Monday, May 20, 2013
Favourite companion planting combinations
1)
Borage (green fuzzy leaved herb with tiny star like blue flowers, pretty, and tastes good)
Tomatoes
2)
This is an example of intercropping taking advantage of undersoil and oversoil space; and companion planting.
Carrots with Tomatoes. The Carrots take up the undersoil space, the tomatoes vine onto the posted stakes. With this I add some flowers and herbs, say Zinnias (tall) and nasturtiums (vines, hanging low, look nice if in a raised container), and marigold.
3)
The Three Sisters: Beans, Squash, Corn.
Long string beans, yellow patty pan squash and a tiny orange pumpkin variety, a tall white or yellow corn variety. Various herbs and a few flowers, such as white borage, and French marigold. One garlic or chive plant.
4)
Cucumber and tansy and/or rose geranium.
5)
Rosemary and carrot.
6)
Okra, interplanted with peppers and beans, also take advantage of available undersoil and oversoil space, and the lower plants will benefit from shade in hotter sunny climates. That´s not such a problem here, so here in Norway in my area, I would not plant these together, as I´d rather all plants get as much of the sun as possible, as it isn´t always sunny and hot during the growing season. It really depends. Sometimes within a season I might change or transplant something elsewhere, according to how things are going. Not everything can be easily transplanted of course, so don´t try this with taprooted plants, or easily killed plants that die if disturbed much. Smaller things such as herbs, or if something is planted in a moveable container is helpful when doing this. To change things around easily. Most things can be planted in pots, and my garden is not so huge, like my stepdads with a few acres planted usually. His climate is totally different, long, extremely hot and sunny and humid, so his plan is done before he starts planting and plowing. My "field" is small, so I do everything by hand, not with a Massey Ferguson,)
Work with what you´ve got. I´m not so amazing with gardening that I would appreciate gardening on a huge endless plot with machines. I´m a bit more towards the smaller end of that, or enjoying helping out with smaller things in the huge plots, such as watering, picking, cooking, canning, sharing:). And taking photos of course!
Or, simply dragging my deck chair to an empty space, and sharing the views with the fireants hoping I´ve not disturbed them or the wasps and bees flying about on the really super hot hours. At night, watching the glowing fireflies everywhere, is magical against the starry black twinkly sky, listening to the dogs barking, or the crickets chirping everywhere. Each garden site is different, enjoy yours as you can:).
Every garden I´ve had has been different, especially by location. Each has its own difficulties (say, fire ants), and its rewards (endlessly easy growth, huge tall full basils and wild sunflower shrubs popping up from out of nowhere!), to no fireants but lots of wasps (as here) and short season necessitating often getting plants from the local farmer when my own haven´t taken, and having to seriously plan everything as per the exact microclimate and warm to hot with cold nights weather here.
Watermelon so far has been my bane, not really working out well at all. But will try again this year. Failing that, the local shops have started selling watermelon briefly. So much so, the novelty still new, has sprouted, to me, bizarre cooking suggestions of grilling watermelon slices. ick EEKK poor watermelon! AHH what a good waste of watermelon! but then maybe the watermelon is not as good, sweet, juicy as it should be, so grilling it brings something flavourful to it. Who knows, but I am not one who will be grilling my watermelon, store bought or not. It´s in my mind, only to be ice cold, eaten by hand, outdoors, in the garden, after freshly picked and cut! haha. Or, after stuffing the fridge inside, and outside in the shed the extra fridge, to capacity when suddenly 20 watermelon all come ripe on the same day, and everyone else within a day´s radius is also trying to share (get rid of) theirs too! haha also.
Watermelon. My insane garden desire here,)
Borage (green fuzzy leaved herb with tiny star like blue flowers, pretty, and tastes good)
Tomatoes
2)
This is an example of intercropping taking advantage of undersoil and oversoil space; and companion planting.
Carrots with Tomatoes. The Carrots take up the undersoil space, the tomatoes vine onto the posted stakes. With this I add some flowers and herbs, say Zinnias (tall) and nasturtiums (vines, hanging low, look nice if in a raised container), and marigold.
3)
The Three Sisters: Beans, Squash, Corn.
Long string beans, yellow patty pan squash and a tiny orange pumpkin variety, a tall white or yellow corn variety. Various herbs and a few flowers, such as white borage, and French marigold. One garlic or chive plant.
4)
Cucumber and tansy and/or rose geranium.
5)
Rosemary and carrot.
6)
Okra, interplanted with peppers and beans, also take advantage of available undersoil and oversoil space, and the lower plants will benefit from shade in hotter sunny climates. That´s not such a problem here, so here in Norway in my area, I would not plant these together, as I´d rather all plants get as much of the sun as possible, as it isn´t always sunny and hot during the growing season. It really depends. Sometimes within a season I might change or transplant something elsewhere, according to how things are going. Not everything can be easily transplanted of course, so don´t try this with taprooted plants, or easily killed plants that die if disturbed much. Smaller things such as herbs, or if something is planted in a moveable container is helpful when doing this. To change things around easily. Most things can be planted in pots, and my garden is not so huge, like my stepdads with a few acres planted usually. His climate is totally different, long, extremely hot and sunny and humid, so his plan is done before he starts planting and plowing. My "field" is small, so I do everything by hand, not with a Massey Ferguson,)
Work with what you´ve got. I´m not so amazing with gardening that I would appreciate gardening on a huge endless plot with machines. I´m a bit more towards the smaller end of that, or enjoying helping out with smaller things in the huge plots, such as watering, picking, cooking, canning, sharing:). And taking photos of course!
Or, simply dragging my deck chair to an empty space, and sharing the views with the fireants hoping I´ve not disturbed them or the wasps and bees flying about on the really super hot hours. At night, watching the glowing fireflies everywhere, is magical against the starry black twinkly sky, listening to the dogs barking, or the crickets chirping everywhere. Each garden site is different, enjoy yours as you can:).
Every garden I´ve had has been different, especially by location. Each has its own difficulties (say, fire ants), and its rewards (endlessly easy growth, huge tall full basils and wild sunflower shrubs popping up from out of nowhere!), to no fireants but lots of wasps (as here) and short season necessitating often getting plants from the local farmer when my own haven´t taken, and having to seriously plan everything as per the exact microclimate and warm to hot with cold nights weather here.
Watermelon so far has been my bane, not really working out well at all. But will try again this year. Failing that, the local shops have started selling watermelon briefly. So much so, the novelty still new, has sprouted, to me, bizarre cooking suggestions of grilling watermelon slices. ick EEKK poor watermelon! AHH what a good waste of watermelon! but then maybe the watermelon is not as good, sweet, juicy as it should be, so grilling it brings something flavourful to it. Who knows, but I am not one who will be grilling my watermelon, store bought or not. It´s in my mind, only to be ice cold, eaten by hand, outdoors, in the garden, after freshly picked and cut! haha. Or, after stuffing the fridge inside, and outside in the shed the extra fridge, to capacity when suddenly 20 watermelon all come ripe on the same day, and everyone else within a day´s radius is also trying to share (get rid of) theirs too! haha also.
Watermelon. My insane garden desire here,)
3rd split, I keep getting logged out...OKRA, eggplant, peppers
Okra. Eggplant, both large and baby varieties. Peppers, mostly a mix of colorful bell peppers, Anaheim, ristra chilis. Heirloom tomatoes, and a mix of local varieties I´m not familiar with but will try as the gardener farmer I get my seeds and plants from suggested it. He and his wife grow the plants--one year I gave them some bluebonnets to grow, as lupines grow wild here and no one had seen these tiny blue and white ones---then they sell on to the shops. I go out in the country further and furtherest out, to them, so I can ask them directly, and see what all they have. I don´t mind not perfect plants, or unusual plants, which usually are not sold on to the shops, but I buy when I discover them. Their farm is by the sea, down a long winding lane of grassy knolls either side, old traditional wooden houses with flint rooftops, huge old plants of blackberries so old they´re not shrubs not stalks they´ve rambled together so tightly. I always wishfully think of transplanting a few, but not sure they will grow on this part of the island, even though time wise it´s not that far away, but weather wise we get different climate here, oddly enough and some people don´t believe me,).
Right. So this year what I´d like to plant---okra, LARGE tomatoes mostly heirlooms, mixed colorful bell peppers and such, corn in The 3 Sisters squares, various heirloom and short carrots, colorful radishes, small and full-sized eggplants, patty pan yellow squash, yellow squash, watermelon and musk mellon....spinach, and some edible and non-edible flowers, and various herbs-----is currently what I will be trying to start by seed, indoors.
Barring that not working, I will then have to get small plantlings from the farmer to plant directly in the soil later on in the year.
A few of the herbs I´d like are chocolate mint, lots of varieties of other scented mints such as grapefruit mint (not necessarily for cooking, but simply as I like the scent wafting thru the air as summer breezes wisp them about), verigated mints as they´re pretty too; zinnias, French marigolds and some other flowers, a bit as my Mom plants them and I like them. Watermelon as my stepdad always has such flavourful ones every year, and it reminds me when the kids would help pick them. :)
We´ll see.
So how is your garden coming long by now? Still on paper, in your head, or already lucky enough to have some actual sproutlings slowly popping up here and there?:)
Happy Gardening!
I´m now wistfully leafing thru colorful photographs in my French and Italian garden books:) how lovely! One day I hope my garden here will be as packed and full of such sights, and I can actually once again walk thru the diverse, wonderful garden, picking the days food, rather than heading off daily to the market to decide the day´s meals:).
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Right. So this year what I´d like to plant---okra, LARGE tomatoes mostly heirlooms, mixed colorful bell peppers and such, corn in The 3 Sisters squares, various heirloom and short carrots, colorful radishes, small and full-sized eggplants, patty pan yellow squash, yellow squash, watermelon and musk mellon....spinach, and some edible and non-edible flowers, and various herbs-----is currently what I will be trying to start by seed, indoors.
Barring that not working, I will then have to get small plantlings from the farmer to plant directly in the soil later on in the year.
A few of the herbs I´d like are chocolate mint, lots of varieties of other scented mints such as grapefruit mint (not necessarily for cooking, but simply as I like the scent wafting thru the air as summer breezes wisp them about), verigated mints as they´re pretty too; zinnias, French marigolds and some other flowers, a bit as my Mom plants them and I like them. Watermelon as my stepdad always has such flavourful ones every year, and it reminds me when the kids would help pick them. :)
We´ll see.
So how is your garden coming long by now? Still on paper, in your head, or already lucky enough to have some actual sproutlings slowly popping up here and there?:)
Happy Gardening!
I´m now wistfully leafing thru colorful photographs in my French and Italian garden books:) how lovely! One day I hope my garden here will be as packed and full of such sights, and I can actually once again walk thru the diverse, wonderful garden, picking the days food, rather than heading off daily to the market to decide the day´s meals:).
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Starting the okra seeds...
Blogger isn´t liking my internet connection, so I´m splitting this post. Maybe I can actually write it before I get logged out again for the tenth time,)
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As I don´t live at my Momma´s with long 24-hour hot-as-hell humid steamy perfect climate, but here in a chilly to cold night drier night climate with currently hot sunny days, with a short season that is quick to start and end, I start my seeds inside. Using biodegradable "planters" such as either egg shells or the thick paper egg shell cartons cut up eventually at planting time. These are good, as I have them, and they biodegrade good for the planet and my garden and the plant itself, for nutrients.
I do NOT ever used sterilized soil. I use a normal mix of healthy soil which I´ve added healthy compost to from my garden. Sterilzed soil is bad in my opinion and I don´t want that in my garden. Sterilized to me implies the life, the living soil, has been killed. I want life in my soil, as my garden needs it...all those tiny tiny living things roaming thru the soil which help it keep my plants healthy. Anywho, whatever, but try to get just good clean healthy soil, not moss, not peat moss, not sterilized.
In the daytime, when it´s warm, so the soil is warm, add some soil to your eggshells, then a few seeds to each in case not all the seeds sprout, cover gently with just a tiny bit of soil. My granddad used to paint seeds onto a long strip of paper, then plant that directly in the ground, and that is what I do in warmer weather, when planting directly into the ground. The paint used is more like a wet thin glue, not paint,).
Companion planting; and okra seeds...
Today, Monday, is still Pinsedagene vacation, and as I tweeted earlier, it´s finally warm enough to turn off the heated floors! yay summer:). It´s been hot out since 8am, and that is very unusual here for Norway--to get this hot this early. Ya´d thunk I´d woken up at my Mom´s, a for a second I did think, oh yay am at Mom´s...and can go out into my stepdad´s garden, check on the okra, enjoy the lovely flowers: okra has simply gorgeous Georgia O´Keefe paintings worth of flowingly lush flowers, that often I forget the main point is for the actual okra pods. Oftentimes I plant extra, and wish the flowers would just stay, and not fall off, as the pods emerge. But then pick those pods when they´re maybe 3-4 inches long imho: the larger ones, again imho, are pithy, oaky, spongy, woody. Those are not good for gumbo, or even fried, certainly not raw as I sometimes like to nibble.
The companion planting I mentioned. Where for various reasons, you plant different types of plants together, for benefit. Explained a bit:
In my opinion, I like and prefer a diverse garden, if for no other reason than that. But the other benefits are actually worth it and do make a huge impact. Whilst I prefer my flowers to be planted with fruits and veg, and herbs; and for my herbs to be planted with fruits and veg and flowers; and for my roses to happily dwell amongst my herbs, flowers, fruits and veg....all together, besides looking amazing, with lovely textures and colors, scenting the air with fragrance as the wind gently pushes and pulls them about...the plants together disuade and discourage unwanted bugs, and encourage lots of beneficial bugs, such as bees, butterflies, praying mantises, walking sticks, ladybugs which eat unwanted bugs.
In my home library I´ve lots of gardening books, both for the ideas in print, text, and the photos, for reference, but I also use the internet now lots too. As much info as I get via the internet, I still wouldn´t part with my books. Either is fine, or both, do what you like:). Youtube and other vlog sites also have great hands on video help and explanation, which I also enjoy. It´s great seeing other gardeners across the world, and I hope we inspire and spread the gardening gene to everyone! Our planet needs diversity, and more gardens that are healthy for the planet and us, but ok I will try to not preach. Plant something simply cuz you like it, that is enough sometimes. Just don´t use harmful poisons please to grow it.
A few great combinations of companion plants:
--The Three Sisters.
Where I come from, this old combination of 3 is both what you use in your gumbo (bell pepper, onion, garlic/shallot) and this garden combo of BEANS, SQUASH, CORN. Here, I mean the latter. And there are many ways of this, but one I like is to make a large square of raised bed, plant 3 corn plants in the middle, then circle that with bean and pumpkin plants, then add herbs to that.
Other idea for this, I like is slightly varying each square to slightly different varieties, or different herbs.
-Corn always is included, and usually I plant the same variety. The squash, as I like pumpkin, is always pumpkin but I change the variety. The beans are usually pole beans, purple and white speckled, green beans, long string beans, etc. But here in Norway, I just try to grown what works here, as the weather is cool at night not hot-as-hell, not as humid, and the season is shorter unless you use greenhouse levels to make several micro climates. And frankly, with the African slugs, it´s easy to give up, and just be thankful for a can of nibblets, and forget I used to love eating corn on the cob all summer long!
-the herbs I usually plant with this combination are strong ones, to deter the strongly unwanted pests who might eat my plants. So maybe chives, garlic, strong mints, lavenders and rosemaries. I like mints, and like how invasive they are, how they can cover the area quickly easily, and so let them, so there is always lots to smell, and lots to pick. Mint is great in tea, infused into a hot or cold drink, great in fruit salads, in yogurt, in cold fruit soups, and even hot hearty stews. It grows wild under our apple trees, and I like that, always encourage it.
------
More companion plants in next post.
Time to plant the okra, tomato
The companion planting I mentioned. Where for various reasons, you plant different types of plants together, for benefit. Explained a bit:
In my opinion, I like and prefer a diverse garden, if for no other reason than that. But the other benefits are actually worth it and do make a huge impact. Whilst I prefer my flowers to be planted with fruits and veg, and herbs; and for my herbs to be planted with fruits and veg and flowers; and for my roses to happily dwell amongst my herbs, flowers, fruits and veg....all together, besides looking amazing, with lovely textures and colors, scenting the air with fragrance as the wind gently pushes and pulls them about...the plants together disuade and discourage unwanted bugs, and encourage lots of beneficial bugs, such as bees, butterflies, praying mantises, walking sticks, ladybugs which eat unwanted bugs.
In my home library I´ve lots of gardening books, both for the ideas in print, text, and the photos, for reference, but I also use the internet now lots too. As much info as I get via the internet, I still wouldn´t part with my books. Either is fine, or both, do what you like:). Youtube and other vlog sites also have great hands on video help and explanation, which I also enjoy. It´s great seeing other gardeners across the world, and I hope we inspire and spread the gardening gene to everyone! Our planet needs diversity, and more gardens that are healthy for the planet and us, but ok I will try to not preach. Plant something simply cuz you like it, that is enough sometimes. Just don´t use harmful poisons please to grow it.
A few great combinations of companion plants:
--The Three Sisters.
Where I come from, this old combination of 3 is both what you use in your gumbo (bell pepper, onion, garlic/shallot) and this garden combo of BEANS, SQUASH, CORN. Here, I mean the latter. And there are many ways of this, but one I like is to make a large square of raised bed, plant 3 corn plants in the middle, then circle that with bean and pumpkin plants, then add herbs to that.
Other idea for this, I like is slightly varying each square to slightly different varieties, or different herbs.
-Corn always is included, and usually I plant the same variety. The squash, as I like pumpkin, is always pumpkin but I change the variety. The beans are usually pole beans, purple and white speckled, green beans, long string beans, etc. But here in Norway, I just try to grown what works here, as the weather is cool at night not hot-as-hell, not as humid, and the season is shorter unless you use greenhouse levels to make several micro climates. And frankly, with the African slugs, it´s easy to give up, and just be thankful for a can of nibblets, and forget I used to love eating corn on the cob all summer long!
-the herbs I usually plant with this combination are strong ones, to deter the strongly unwanted pests who might eat my plants. So maybe chives, garlic, strong mints, lavenders and rosemaries. I like mints, and like how invasive they are, how they can cover the area quickly easily, and so let them, so there is always lots to smell, and lots to pick. Mint is great in tea, infused into a hot or cold drink, great in fruit salads, in yogurt, in cold fruit soups, and even hot hearty stews. It grows wild under our apple trees, and I like that, always encourage it.
------
More companion plants in next post.
Time to plant the okra, tomato
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Transplanting roses, berry stalks with potatoes
Gasp, an actual garden post! Nearly forgot.
When the season starts, and you want to make new rose plants, find a good, clean, healthy, green shoot, or few. Cut them just below a bud, and cut about 10 inches of a straight area. Carefully remove most of the leaves--I like to leave a few at the top to help the plant gather sun/energy. LEAVE the thorns.
This leaves you with a straight, thorned, stalk with an inch or so of leaves. Carefully cut an X with a knife into a large baking potato. Do not use yams or small boiling potatoes. Carefully, so as to not break your rose stalk piece, fit the end into the potato. When your ground plot is ready with some sharp soil and maybe some fluff from your vacuum/dusting up (it provides needed nutrients, and easily composts, and hey who doesn´t have too many dust bunnies they´d like to bury!?), then cover up with dark healthy soil, about 6 inches apart. Leave til maybe October or November (maybe December in a cold climate, but then cover to protect), and transplant where you want it, if you didn´t plant it there in the first place.
This works well with blackberry plants, depending on the variety, and some berry stalks.
-------
When I do this, I like to companion plant, which is to say, I plant other things which imho are helpful to the rose, such as basil herbs, catmint, catnip, chocolate mint....whatever you think best and like. I like the scent, look, etc of the herbs and/or flowers, so there´s also not just a green bare stalk sticking up, and the space is not wasted. It´s lovely to pull up a chair, and maybe even a table, to sit back and enjoy the garden plants, in nice weather or not.
To keep out the African slugs, you can use copper guttering, as they don´t like that. For ticks, if you have ticks in your area, like we do, cinnamon bark and fresh cloves, clove oil, dried cinnamon helps lots. For sand, say if you have a sandbox for your kids, add some dried cinnamon to it, to keep out fleas, which luckily we don+t generally have here. I think ticks are worse, ick! hate them!! with a passion! Every year, the second it gets warm, they´re out--teeny tiny, bitty barely noticable they´re so small, but you know they´re there:(.
Now, back to study. Enjoy your gardens! Cottage garden if you can, by mixing your fruits, flowers, veggies, herbs together with seating, a water feature, encouraging wildlife, butterflies and bees, birds, ladybugs into your garden.
It´s not as easy for me to snap my fingers and magically always have a fantastic garden here in Norway as it was in other warmer climes, but the challenge is mindfully interesting, and luckily I adore gardening. Slow food has always been naturally an interest, passed on from my father and farming family before anyone used vocabulary as Green, Environmentally-Aware, Planet and Earth-Friendly, Globally-aware...we just did it, it was how we were. I never use harsh poisons and such, always try to do more natural things such as companion planting, encouraging diversity, planting in a diverse manner for both plant health, mutual benefit to plants, and to encourage bugs such as ladybugs, praying mantis, spiders who help by eating the unwanted pests, etc.
My dream garden is an eclectic mix of Italian, English cottage, and French potager, amongst other bits and pieces, and things I learned from those with allotments, reading, talking to other gardeners.
Study break is over! and has been for a while. Supper must be finished also. Am making black bean and black-eyed pea chili, and a finely-grained polenta corn bread made with thick creamy Norwegian yogurt.
When the season starts, and you want to make new rose plants, find a good, clean, healthy, green shoot, or few. Cut them just below a bud, and cut about 10 inches of a straight area. Carefully remove most of the leaves--I like to leave a few at the top to help the plant gather sun/energy. LEAVE the thorns.
This leaves you with a straight, thorned, stalk with an inch or so of leaves. Carefully cut an X with a knife into a large baking potato. Do not use yams or small boiling potatoes. Carefully, so as to not break your rose stalk piece, fit the end into the potato. When your ground plot is ready with some sharp soil and maybe some fluff from your vacuum/dusting up (it provides needed nutrients, and easily composts, and hey who doesn´t have too many dust bunnies they´d like to bury!?), then cover up with dark healthy soil, about 6 inches apart. Leave til maybe October or November (maybe December in a cold climate, but then cover to protect), and transplant where you want it, if you didn´t plant it there in the first place.
This works well with blackberry plants, depending on the variety, and some berry stalks.
-------
When I do this, I like to companion plant, which is to say, I plant other things which imho are helpful to the rose, such as basil herbs, catmint, catnip, chocolate mint....whatever you think best and like. I like the scent, look, etc of the herbs and/or flowers, so there´s also not just a green bare stalk sticking up, and the space is not wasted. It´s lovely to pull up a chair, and maybe even a table, to sit back and enjoy the garden plants, in nice weather or not.
To keep out the African slugs, you can use copper guttering, as they don´t like that. For ticks, if you have ticks in your area, like we do, cinnamon bark and fresh cloves, clove oil, dried cinnamon helps lots. For sand, say if you have a sandbox for your kids, add some dried cinnamon to it, to keep out fleas, which luckily we don+t generally have here. I think ticks are worse, ick! hate them!! with a passion! Every year, the second it gets warm, they´re out--teeny tiny, bitty barely noticable they´re so small, but you know they´re there:(.
Now, back to study. Enjoy your gardens! Cottage garden if you can, by mixing your fruits, flowers, veggies, herbs together with seating, a water feature, encouraging wildlife, butterflies and bees, birds, ladybugs into your garden.
It´s not as easy for me to snap my fingers and magically always have a fantastic garden here in Norway as it was in other warmer climes, but the challenge is mindfully interesting, and luckily I adore gardening. Slow food has always been naturally an interest, passed on from my father and farming family before anyone used vocabulary as Green, Environmentally-Aware, Planet and Earth-Friendly, Globally-aware...we just did it, it was how we were. I never use harsh poisons and such, always try to do more natural things such as companion planting, encouraging diversity, planting in a diverse manner for both plant health, mutual benefit to plants, and to encourage bugs such as ladybugs, praying mantis, spiders who help by eating the unwanted pests, etc.
My dream garden is an eclectic mix of Italian, English cottage, and French potager, amongst other bits and pieces, and things I learned from those with allotments, reading, talking to other gardeners.
Study break is over! and has been for a while. Supper must be finished also. Am making black bean and black-eyed pea chili, and a finely-grained polenta corn bread made with thick creamy Norwegian yogurt.
Great Kitchens: the book that started me on twitter today,)
...In case anyone was wondering.
---
Other books, I´ve generally been unpacking, stacking, sorting today, onto bookshelves from their hidden boxes. I sort by theme, subject, to my mind, not by author. One shelf are sorted by either "Great Britain", "France" or "Italy", including architecture, culture, travel/living, cooking/travel; with cookbooks all together, no matter what, and just sorted by which I use most any given month.
Another shelf is sorted by particular historical novels, memoirs, and such. A further 8 shelves are sorted by miscellaneous, eclectic arrangements of travel books, women´s historical stories and memoirs, science and maths historical discoveries such as "Mauve". The rest are mostly still in boxes sorted in a closet understairs, neat and tidy, left for the kids when they get older for them. Their current books line several bookshelves and cases, ranging from bedtime stories, fairy tales, historical, usual and obscure.
My cookbooks are sorted neatly in a large closet, filled to the brim, but all organised. Most of these are obscure, old canning, jarring, Blue Ribbon state fairs, women´s organisations, coastal, sometimes handprinted recipes from books I found rummaging thru library sales, bookstore sales, and flea markets. The cookbooks I usually use take up several shelves inside the actual kitchen, including along the inside, deep window, and the tiny cupboard I keep the espresso and Prosecco glasses inside.
My handwritten recipes, from my experience of cooking, self-taught, range from bound spiral notebooks, to fancy leather bound books, to pieces of scrap paper with such delicious recipes as "Great Grans gingersnaps", and an tiny book of old recipes in Italian I got in the airport for a Euro.
So, am a bit excited to follow on twitter, and see what I learn, maybe share a thing or two. Living abroad most of my life, and in so many places, I´ve learned so much from watching others cook, sharing with new friends their recipes for making food from their cultures, and just trying. A few horrible, nasty mistakes, but surprisingly not many! If you have good ingredients, a keen interest, some time, a fork maybe a bowl and a pot or pan....and an oven or fire...it´s amazing what one can come up with to bake, stew, grill, bbq, or throw together!
I appreciate all those who´ve uploaded obscure clips onto Youtube of such as Julie Child or The Frugal Gourmet, or the "oh it´s so good" tv chef....or how their own clips of how they make this or that. I´ve tried a few videos, but still am not so good making them and uploading them whenever I get to that bit where I´ve got to edit...as I end up erasing the main parts! Then get frustrated, mad, curse, and give up...and go do something else----like watch a new recipe, or read a new book about the recipe, or the place it came from, or the people/culture it relates to in some way.
Travel, it´s in there too. Right...must.get.back.to.study! I knew this blogging, and twitter was not a good idea,)
------
Paige
---
Other books, I´ve generally been unpacking, stacking, sorting today, onto bookshelves from their hidden boxes. I sort by theme, subject, to my mind, not by author. One shelf are sorted by either "Great Britain", "France" or "Italy", including architecture, culture, travel/living, cooking/travel; with cookbooks all together, no matter what, and just sorted by which I use most any given month.
Another shelf is sorted by particular historical novels, memoirs, and such. A further 8 shelves are sorted by miscellaneous, eclectic arrangements of travel books, women´s historical stories and memoirs, science and maths historical discoveries such as "Mauve". The rest are mostly still in boxes sorted in a closet understairs, neat and tidy, left for the kids when they get older for them. Their current books line several bookshelves and cases, ranging from bedtime stories, fairy tales, historical, usual and obscure.
My cookbooks are sorted neatly in a large closet, filled to the brim, but all organised. Most of these are obscure, old canning, jarring, Blue Ribbon state fairs, women´s organisations, coastal, sometimes handprinted recipes from books I found rummaging thru library sales, bookstore sales, and flea markets. The cookbooks I usually use take up several shelves inside the actual kitchen, including along the inside, deep window, and the tiny cupboard I keep the espresso and Prosecco glasses inside.
My handwritten recipes, from my experience of cooking, self-taught, range from bound spiral notebooks, to fancy leather bound books, to pieces of scrap paper with such delicious recipes as "Great Grans gingersnaps", and an tiny book of old recipes in Italian I got in the airport for a Euro.
So, am a bit excited to follow on twitter, and see what I learn, maybe share a thing or two. Living abroad most of my life, and in so many places, I´ve learned so much from watching others cook, sharing with new friends their recipes for making food from their cultures, and just trying. A few horrible, nasty mistakes, but surprisingly not many! If you have good ingredients, a keen interest, some time, a fork maybe a bowl and a pot or pan....and an oven or fire...it´s amazing what one can come up with to bake, stew, grill, bbq, or throw together!
I appreciate all those who´ve uploaded obscure clips onto Youtube of such as Julie Child or The Frugal Gourmet, or the "oh it´s so good" tv chef....or how their own clips of how they make this or that. I´ve tried a few videos, but still am not so good making them and uploading them whenever I get to that bit where I´ve got to edit...as I end up erasing the main parts! Then get frustrated, mad, curse, and give up...and go do something else----like watch a new recipe, or read a new book about the recipe, or the place it came from, or the people/culture it relates to in some way.
Travel, it´s in there too. Right...must.get.back.to.study! I knew this blogging, and twitter was not a good idea,)
------
Paige
Monday, February 11, 2013
Booklist, books, reading books YT
Reminder to myself. Finish adding videos, photos to my Norwegian blog, then make it public.
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For those reading this blog, I´ve changed this HGT (House Garden Travel) blog, that used to be a bit like my photoblog, by adding my Booklist to it. From now on I´ll be adding YT videos of my reading some of my books, including Garden, biographies, historical, etc. All the old WT and MP and stew booklists, and all the ages and ages I´ve wanted to upload my books and records onto YT....finally with all the changes recently, decided to give it a go. A little each week when time.
As it´s the start of a new garden season, will try to add info on gardening from some of my more obscure gardening books.
off finally to sleep, must be up early in the morn, am meeting friends for tea.
HAPPY MOTHER`S DAY today! and Happy Valentine´s Day this Thursday 14th!:)
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On my cooking blog, I added the Mother´s Day supper recipes, including my ricotta chocolate cake, which is then topped with fig jam, and chocolate butter frosting. Usually, I might also cover this with a thin layer of marzipan, which is why I used the fig jam (see my Peter Rabbit cake for that type of version), but didn´t have time to. Glad I didn´t it was perfect without. Norwegian marzipan is much lighter in flavour than the typical English marzipan; as is Norwegian orange marmalade, which is also good in place of the fig jam.
Menu I made was a bit rushed and changed last minute due to time issues:
ribollito (over cous cous)
12 ziti with crushed tomatoes, artichokes, leeks
ricotta chocolate cake
iced tea, iced water
prosecco, cafe au lait, espresso
The Lady with the Dog, Anton Chekhov,1800s
My YT reading of Anton Chekhov´s The Lady With The Dog, 1800s. Part One Link.
Part Two Link.
Last Part Link.
Part Two Link.
Last Part Link.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
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