Finland calling!

Hi there ,    Just wondering if there is anyone else in our region?
would love to compare notes...ideas....challenges....
we  have a small holding around 13 hectares, field and forest. we have 10 sheep and 20 chickens.
we grow all our own veg and fruit and we are currently trying to renovate our old barn.
we are living as lightly as we can and are forever experimenting with new ideas!!!  we are always happy to have people come and stay for a visit.
Welcome to the magical north!
suomi.

Terve! Well, I'm not from Finland but I spend most of my summer time on my mother's island there. She's a Fin.

Maybe you could tell me some good plants growing there, they don't have to be fruit plants, they only have to do well in acidic soil. I already planted some native finish cherrytrees (well, they are bushes not trees ), raspberries, sea buckthorn (because of the nitrogen and the fruit), some lupins and american blueberries there.

I always stroll in the garden shop near Savonlinna when I'm there and try to get some more native vegetation on the island but they often only have imports from Holland, which I don't want to buy.

Is hazelnut growing in Finland? Or some other bushes to chop'n'drop?

I have tons of questions! Best regards, Dunkelheit.

Hi there, I'm a Finn

Hei!
where in Finland are you living?
missä sina asut?

Nicola.

suomi--Nicola Lloyd wrote:
Hei!
where in Finland are you living?
missä sina asut?

Nicola.

I live in Sipoo, which is between Helsinki and Porvoo. Here's what my garden looked like this summer: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=233688&id=688779967&l=865f9f02c1

Your garden looks great cybe! Keep up the good work.

Tere! I'm an English immigrant to Estonia and am slowly (very) trying to restore my old farmhouse in the woods. This year is the big indoor year, possibly (hopefully) completing the saun as well. Next year...

Greetings from Estonia. There are good people doing permaculture stuff in Finland. It's worth to peak to the blog http://pohjoinenpermakulttuuri.wordpress.com/ and contact them. This summer there will be also 72-hr PDC course there. Also one PDC course will be held this autumn in Estonia, Lilleoru community  near Tallinn. And some smaller events elsewhere. In South-Estonia some natural building and permaculture events will take place in Võrumaa. See www.juured.ee.

Liina

Hello there to our neighbours in Estonia!

Thanks for the link to a Finnish Permaculture website.
Its certainly great to have other northerners to disccus the possibilities of permaculture in our challenging climate!
We are trying to live as lightly as possible, making mistakes on our way and allways learning!  but its great fun.... so welcome to visit us anytime
Nicola.

There's also a permaculture study group in Turku that gets together every now and then.

To learn about what's happening in the permaculture front in Finland, everyone who's interested is welcome to join the "permakulttuuritiedotus" google group (http://groups.google.com/group/permakulttuuritiedotus?lnk=srg) where announcements about courses and events are posted. The mailing list is mostly for announcements only so it won't crowd your mail boxes, although just now there's a discussion going on about whether it's time to set up a permaculture association in Finland.

Dunkelheit wrote:

Maybe you could tell me some good plants growing there, they don't have to be fruit plants, they only have to do well in acidic soil. I already planted some native finish cherrytrees (well, they are bushes not trees ), raspberries, sea buckthorn (because of the nitrogen and the fruit), some lupins and american blueberries there.

Is hazelnut growing in Finland? Or some other bushes to chop'n'drop?

Dunkelheit, for chop'n'drop or coppicing you might be interested in planting siberian pea shrub (Caragana arborescens), saskatoon or some other serviceberry (Amelanchier spp), and I know some people who are now growing hazels from seed much further north than Savonlinna so that might work as well. (the ones they have are still baby trees so time will tell how they'll make it.) Alder is a good nitrogen fixer tree.

Apparently a major factor in cold hardiness of trees is also their associated symbiotic root fungi, so try to get seedlings which have a root ball and some soil from their original location. This was a tip i got from "Teaming with microbes" book which said that way people are growing sugar maples in Alaska!

Hi you all! I'm from Finland too. From Orimattila, Southern Finland, between Helsinki and Lahti. We have a small holding of 3 hectares.

We had quails and goats, lost the quails recently to a small predator, don't know if it was a small weasel or a rat. Some of the birds were just dead no signs of injuries. Some of the birds were clearly killed by a predator. This happened when it was really cold, -25 degrees Celsius. Wondering if it was a coincindence or if quails also can't deal with temperatures that cold. They had a sheltered outdoor pen and a house which they didn't use, they preferred to stay outside in the snow all the time. I also had a heat lamp above their drinking water to keep it from freezing but they didn't drink it, they just ate snow! They stopped drinking water after the snow came even though it was always clean and I changed it every day.

Now am not sure whether to change the bird species or to get new quails. We had a good pen, fox and hawk proof. But it seems impossible to keep out the smallest predators that can apparently get through even the smallest poultry net. Electric fencing does not really work in snow, does it?

There were no signs of the fence being broken.

Are chicken vulnerable to these small predators (smallest wiesels) too? And how do you deal with the cold weather? How much does it cost to keep the chickens warm and cosy during winter in Finland? My friend who is an organic farmer tells me it costs him 200 euros per month to heat the chicken house which is situated in an old barn... Does not sound too appealing...

hi up there in finland, had a look at your facebook page; you grow a serious amount of veggies ! when do you get your last frost ? would love to see more pics !
lil

hello from Estonia, Im planning on establishing a 2 hectare food forest on an old deserted hay field.

I'd love to come visit an already established permaculture farm in Finland this spring or summer to see a practical northern example of permaculture. I am especially interested in water harvesting structures (ponds, swales, chinampas) on almost flat land (gradients of about 0.2-0.5%).

Puhun myös suomea

Had to bump this thread. I'll be moving to Helsinki in June! Since I won't have a residency permit for six months, I'm hoping to do some volunteering on gardens/farms in the area. My Finnish is terrible, but I'll be signing up for courses ASAP. And to those across the Gulf in Estonia, I'd love to come visit there too