Eino Kenttä wrote:Thanks Skandi! Yeah, I noticed that minimum winter temperature is the only parameter taken into account in the USDA system. A bit limited. The norwegian system probably gives better guidance, but then again some plants have probably not been grown enough in Scandinavia to be assigned a suitable zone under that system... Well, I suppose we'll just have to try all the interesting species that might work, to see what actually does.
Pignuts are definitely on the list of plants to try. I've never eaten them, but they sound very interesting. Some other root crops we're thinking of trying are Lilium martagon (martagon lily), Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely), Campanula rapunculoides and latifolia (creeping and giant bellflower), Stachys palustris (marsh woundwort) and Sium sisarum (skirret). We'll also be growing more standard stuff like potatoes and sunchokes.
Yep, deer protection worries me a bit, especially if we'll be coppicing... We'll see how we solve it.
Creeping bellflower is the most difficult plant to control - please consider it with extreme caution. It takes over every garden, works itself into the roots of every plant - even shrubs and miscanthus - and it's roots are super deep. Like comfrey, it seems to be impossible to dig it out once it's established. It's spreads both by seed and creeping roots. In short, it is the bane of my existence!
