Gardening at 63° North

[svalli]

Thank you all for the compliments. Actually the zone here by the west coast is not so bad for gardening. Summer here is short, but we are so close to the sea, that the late frosts seldom hit us. My main vegetable garden is 120 km inland, and it is totally different zone with colder winter temperature and threat of frost through summer.

This summer has been something exceptional with dry and hot weather continuing for weeks. Last week we hit the record of 33,7 °C here in Vaasa. We are now on summer vacation and it has been way too hot to do any work around the house, which we usually do during our vacation. Wild blueberries are ripening, but even the forests are too hot to go to and there are a lot of all sorts of biting flies, so I have not done any berry picking except strawberries from the garden. Most of my time home seems to watering the greenhouse, raised beds and potted plants.

If I knew the this year is so hot, I would have tried some more exotic plants. A colleague brought me seeds from China and I tried the Luffa first time, without expecting any harvest. The plants are now climbing on the greenhouse beams and I have been able to pollinate two of the first female flowers. The first fruit is now week old and is growing rapidly.

[svalli]

Many years I have tried growing apple and lemon cukes outdoors, but those have produce only few fruits here. This year I ordered seeds for cucumber named Chupa Chups, which is a Russian hybrid. It seems to be really prolific. Maybe it is the weather or that it is a F1.

[svalli]

Since we have had really dry the wildlife is also suffering. People have been encouraged to set out water for birds, squirrels and hedgehogs. We have been feeding and giving water to hedgehogs many years. We have these regular visitors coming to our buffet of cat food every night. It is setup so that the hedgehogs can get in and out, but magpies and gulls will not get the food.

[NarnianGarden]

Lovely pics Sari! And yes, wild strawberries are the best.
I've planted alpine varieties next to wild ones and they've all become a mixed jungle... need to prune the bushes down a bit for air circulation before the diseases hit.

We used to have hedgehogs on my parents' yard, but haven't seen any for years. Hopefully there are some surviving even in this heat.

[bower]

Awww... that hedgehog is super cute.

We are getting a lot of rain now, although overall it's a dry year due to the lack of snow in winter. Hard to know what to try next, when the weather is so unpredictable...

[GrowingCoastal]

Wonderful picutres Svalli. They make me smile, especially the hedgehog.

[svalli]

We had first ripe New Big Dwarf last week. This is the best beefsteak, which I can get to successfully grow here. I grow them outdoors in large containers. For some reason beefsteaks get easily botrytis in my greenhouse.

[svalli]

Last year my onions just kept growing and the necks were quite thick and I had to lift them while the stems still stood up in end on September. This year the onion stems were falling down in end of July and I lifted most of them to dry and cure. I planted some sets later to a bed where fava bean seeds did not sprout, so those ones are still in ground. It looks like there should again be enough onions, so that we do not have to buy any from the grocery store.

The ones laying on the front in the picture are heirloom potato onions, which I got from an older gentleman, who has grown these for many years in northern Finland. We will eat the bigger ones, but most will be saved for planting.

Sari

[PhilaGardener]

Beautiful!

[bower]

Congratulations on such a marvellous onion year! Gorgeous crop.

[jtjmartin]

Sari,

I've thoroughly enjoyed the whole thread. Thank you! Those were the first panorama pictures I've seen online. Your pictures are so good I can almost smell the strawberries!

Jeff

[svalli]

This tomato is distributed in Finland between home growers and is known by name Laukaus (Gun Shot). It originates in Russia and who ever got it from there was told what the original Russian name translates in Finnish. It is indeterminate and heart shaped and produces easily tomatoes weighing over a pound. This is my first ripe one from a plant which was hit by TSWV, but recovered. It is fleshy with very few seeds and taste is quite mellow. I have not grown it earlier and I am not sure, if I should give it a second chance next year. I have an other plant of it without TSVW and I will save seeds from it when ever the first tomato ripens.

[svalli]

Weather has started to cool and autumn is in the air with the darkening nights. Greenhouse does still look like jungle, but soon the humidity from the cool nights may start causing botrytis and other problems. Still I will enjoy my jungle as long as it lasts.

[svalli]

This may look familiar to some people, but I guarantee that this "palm tree" is totally legal in EU.

It is the industrial kind and does not have any medicinal or recreational use. The height of the plants is currently close to 3 meters.

[svalli]

Summer is gone and all tomato plants have been cut down in the greenhouse and outside. I picked all green fruits and those are ripening indoors. Pepper plants are still in the greenhouse, but soon those will be gone too, since the unheated greenhouse is getting to be too cold for them.
Yesterday was time to start emptying the raised beds from frost bitten cucumber and squash plants. Sunchokes, perennial onions and kale is still looking good, despite couple of of really cold nights.

Sari