Due to this weather everything has been going crazy in the garden and on the windowsills. I cannot recommend Icelanders to grow their own salad enough. Apart from watering there is basically no maintenance. The limp tasteless crap that we can buy in supermarkets is entirely pointless.
In on my windowsills I have aubergines, paprika(pepper), and 12 varieties of tomatoes and 12 varieties of tomatoes. This week I ate my first tomatoes. All of the plants are producing loads of flowers and some of the tomato plants are heavy with fruit and I am just waiting for them to ripen.
Also waiting to ripen are my strawberry plants. All of which were purchased last year. Some were from blómoval but the plants which are strongest and are absolutely weighs down with fruit were bought in Ikea of all places. They survived outside through the very long and brutal winter we had and are the biggest thickest plants I have ever seen.
Other plants which are doing well and were from last year includes my spring onions. I was amazed that these survived the winter, but they did and have been keeping me in supply whilst this years crop is almost ready. Nothing is as amazing as the taste of a home grown spring onion. Everyone who appears at my house gets one shoved in their face with me ordering "Taste it, just taste it". The response is always startlement that it tastes so good.
The heat has destroyed a few crops too though. My pak choi and swiss chard skipped straight from young plants to going to seed. I pulled them up and replanted because at least both of these crops are fast growing.
I have handed over the last of my extra young plants which needed rehoming this weekend and now everything is ready for the rest of the year. I have concentrated on summer crops this year as I will be away during mid September to mid December. The exceptions I will/am making is spring onions and cabbage family which generally look after themselves. I rehomed some broccoli and brussel sprout plants from my friend Ben and I planted alot of Kale which generally makes it through.
May this weather stay good all summer long, I have alot of squash plants and am trying with baby sweetcorn again. I will literally do a victory dance if these crops do well.
This month I have been eating:
- Beet leaves
- Japanese spinach by the ton (I strongly recommend the variety Mikado F1 its amazing)
- Corriander by the mountain
- Geovese Basil
- Purple Basil
- Peas
- Mange tout
- Chilis
- Tomatoes
- Rhubarb
- Spring onions
- Cos Lettuce
- Red and Green Salad Bowl leaves
- Corn Salad
- Chives
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Mustard leaves
"Also waiting to ripen are my strawberry plants. All of which were purchased last year. Some were from blómoval but the plants which are strongest and are absolutely weighs down with fruit were bought in Ikea of all places. They survived outside through the very long and brutal winter we had and are the biggest thickest plants I have ever seen."
ReplyDeleteExcellent to read about your strawberries and that picture says more than a thousand words. Do you keep them in plastic green houses? Or are they kept in the open in both winter and summer?
I know that many of the plants sold by IKEA are originally from Hveragerði, produced by Garðyrkjustöð Ingibjargar. This includes the ribes and the edible greens and I would guess also the strawberries. Fruit trees and evergreens such as buxus and cypress are imported however.
Blómaval is if course a part of the Blómaval/Húsasmiðjan conglomerate and they do import a lot of plants, mainly from the Netherlands I think. Many of these are not suitable for the short Icelandic summer.
Wow that's actually really good to know. Strange that the Icelandic stores have imports but the Swedish monster uses local suppliers.
ReplyDeleteI have the plants outside constantly. My garden is completely south facing and extremely sheltered from the wind but winter hits like it does anywhere!
It seems that your strawberries are many days or weeks ahead of many of their relatives in Iceland. I'm still only seeing flowers, being south-faced with limited shelter from winds. Wind-shelter is a great asset.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this (not so formal) reference, Ingibjörg imports all the plants for IKEA: https://www.facebook.com/groups/61097954674/permalink/10150875934244675/ and it also says that she produces the strawberries for the giant.
I've seen a lot of imported plants in Blómaval and also Garðheimar, even redcurrant and blackcurrant which are very very easy to replicate in Iceland.
Cheap imports are a known problem with Maple trees for example, which are imported from Netherlands, whereas Norwegian, Finnish or even some American cultivars would be much better suited. These stores really should be acting more locally while thinking globally.
There is one guy in particular that has put much thought and effort into finding plants suitable for Iceland, travelling to N-Europe and to mountain areas of many European counties to find seeds and such: Óli í Nátthaga - http://www.natthagi.is/ (he also breeds cats). It is also a recommended experience for gardeners to visit his place, although I've yet to go there myself.