After my weekend course in Haugaland, member of Norwegian Seed Savers, Tone Lise Østboe kindly showed me around gardens in Stavanger and we also visited Rogaland arboretum outside the city and also a producer of bumble bees for the greenhouse industry!
Thanks very much Tone Lise :)
The stairs up to the flat I’d been loaned for my stay :) I hope I don’t sleepwalk :)
Tone Lise was one of the first to receive seed from Paolo in Italy who had crossed our Dagnøytral Jerusalem Artichoke with wild JAs in Italy and her flower heads were full of seed! I’ve never seen so much JA seed produced in Norway and Stavanger isn’t teh warmest part of Norway :) Let’s hope these are viable seed!
Tone Lise’s seed were darker than the original seed I received from Paolo, seen in this pictrue.
The tubers on Tone Lise’s plants were not worth keeping, inheriting the wild genes…
Soya beans +++
Tomatillo and Peony seed
My first taste of African Sukuma Wiki kale….some varieties are perennial….
Tone Lise tried to defeat me with this super chili hot pizza, but failed…it was delicious!
Interesting brussel sprout seed head which had developed sprouts…is this common?
Swelling ovaries on Tone Lise’s Elephant Garlic!!
A tree in the street where Tone Lise lives has the tallest dandelion ever growing out of it ;)
The arboretum was disappointing….that an oil town can’t afford to make a good arboretum is very sad….
The arboretum…
We visited a producer and breeder of bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) for pollinating in greenhouses…
Multi-colour pollen from different plant species!
Tone Lise has a “kolonihage” (allotment with small cottage) here
Kolonihagen
All the street names are vegetables—blomkålveien = Cauliflower Way
I wonder if this is Aralia spinosa? It remebles Aralia elata, but that one is already in seed in my garden. Does spinosa flower later?
Aralia spinosa?
Turnip Way…
Tone Lise lives on Asparagus Way…
…and she has asparagus in the front of her garden :)
A lot of work has gone into developing the garden with masses of organic matter…
Tone Lise is now the main guardian in Norway of Herrgårds artichoke! Artichoke is most likely to survive the winter in Stavanger…I sent this to her this spring!
Tone Lise’s Artemisia annua plantation, inspired by a stay in Africa
A strange long-leaved kale, probably deriving from one of Chris Homanic’s perennial kale mixes
Tone Lise’s garden is sadly far and above the most productive garden here, most people growing no food at all….
Lablab bean in the greenhouse…
Tone Lise has a good taste in reading material in her greenhouse
A neighbour has a monkey puzzle tree, a good indication of a mild winter climate!
Tree tomatoes…but they don’t smell strongly like my plants did…why?
It’s forbidden to use Round-up in Stavanger and this also applies to allotments!
..and to end the day, a look through Tone Lise’s seed collection including several packets of unknown seed from Africa! These both seem to be cultivars of Solanum nigrum or similar, an important leafy green vegetable in Africa!
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