Northern Permaculture in Sweden

Hello Everyone.
Want to introduce myself.
Kevin Jarvis...I am an american now living in Sweden since 2004

So am "doing Permaculture" in central Sweden...as far north as Anchorage, AK.

I've been documenting and showing what I am doing at Earthway Experience Permaculture Demonstration on my youtube channel. Have over 80 vids just now.
If you have a chance here is a couple of vids (6 min or so each) that are overview of the place ..both shot in August...the past 2 summers.
The project is now about 4 years old..

the place Aug 2010 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPPvZBAkrQ0

the place Aug 2011 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqM26OuGcnw

Thanks for the great company here kj

What is the hardiness zone there, I live in zone 4b in Michigan USA. My ancestry is northern european and probably my zone is similar so we probably are growing similar things here.

I looked at the first two videos and bookmarked the rest, slow download here. It appears that you have maybe an aspen woods around your house, we have aspen woods in our back property. Could you tell me what plantings you have growing in the shade of those woods? I have planted jerusalem artichokes in the woods here and we have wild blackberry and raspberry plants in the woods and I have some perennials but so far I have not planted any food crops into the woods besides those and was wondering what ones you have growing in yours.

Really a lovely place that you have there, I have a lot of similar plantings here, among fruit and nut trees .

Hello Brenda...

Your place looks nice...
We are at the same latitude as Anchorage but inland...so it looks like about 3a or 3b...
In Europe or Sweden at least our scale is backward to USDA zones...
Zone 1 in USA is the coldest...but here zone 1 is the warmest...

I have mostly birch..some aspen...some alder...some spruce...In the woods I too am planting Jerusalem artichokes...hope to make these a "large" harvest crop...for sale and personal use...
Have lots of wild raspberry..wild black current...also planting "commercial" black current...Have started 3 large logs for mushroom cultivation last summer
This is all behind our outdoor kitchen area....

In front as you'll see from the videos...these is a large zone one area..lots of keyhole garden areas...lots of squash...kales...cannages...regular garden stuff

kj

edited my post while you were posting yours..so would you read it again and tell me what you have planted in your woods..thanks

Hej Brenda

edited my other post...hope this help...glad to know what you are doing at your place...kj

Kevin, sounds like we are thinking on the same general direction in each other's properties although yours is far more advanced than mine right now. We had a housefire 10 years ago and lost all of our food forest garden areas and some actual forest, our son now has his house next to ours where our gardens and a forest were..but alas, they were ash trees in the forest and they would have died from the emeral ash borer that is killing off the ash trees here anyway.

I started over rebuilding the food forest gardens in 2006 here, and am coming along, but our small forest in the back is mostly aspen and alder but has some oak, ash (dying) and wild cherry, and some beautiful maples that we are babying. We are planting fruit and nut trees all over the property and have put in more maples and oaks and a lot of evergreens.

In our woods I am loving having all the extra Jerusalem artichokes to experiement with, I put about a 250 ft row of them along our property line between us and the neighbors (field them us woods) and hope they'll give us a nice screen, then yesterday I dug up another huge bucket full and planted them every foot or so in a curvey line along a ditch/berm/hugel pile for another 150 feet row, where they are mostly in the field between our pond and some baby new groth field (lots of alder, aspen and evergreen babies as well as gobs of stuff I threw in to hope to get it to grow like berries, fruit cores, etc.)

Looking at your pictures (mostly the woods ) makes me feel right at home, it was like looking in my back...although we have to fight for rocks around here, we have very few for some reason.

I too have a pond, it is odd shaped and still has some clay piles nearby that have to be moved, I have a disabled husband and have to do most everything myself although my son (who works 12/7) occasionally will have time to help a bit.

thanks for the videos, i bookmarked and will try to watch more later, so hard to watch as they go very very slow on my connection.

Maybe a dumb question but my knowledge of the Jerusalem Artichoke is that the inulin portion of the tuber is indigestible for humans and causes extreme gas. Why is this being planted unless it is for animal feed?

Max Kennedy wrote:Maybe a dumb question but my knowledge of the Jerusalem Artichoke is that the inulin portion of the tuber is indigestible for humans and causes extreme gas. Why is this being planted unless it is for animal feed?

This thread explains more on Jerusalem Artichokes for human consumption
https://permies.com/t/10636/cooking-food-preservation-food-choices/Sunchokes

Jerusalem artichokes are edible for humans but for SOME people they do cause digestive upset. they are very useful for animals and are good weed blockers, and they also make nearly instant privacy screen and windbreak.

On my property I'm planting them for privacy, windbreak, deer feed and also my husband loves them.

Looks like Zone 4 on my map ( http://www.uk.gardenweb.com/forums/zones/hze2.html )
Or possibly Zone 5.

Alison Freeth-Thomas wrote:This thread explains more on Jerusalem Artichokes for human consumption
https://permies.com/t/10636/cooking-food-preservation-food-choices/Sunchokes

Thanks, hadn't seen that.

This is great. I'm in Ireland, where the dull and often very changeable weather makes me pessimistic about getting anything growing properly sometimes! But to see you growing stuff this well, not too far south of the Arctic Circle, is very encouraging!

Rather than reanimate that thread, I'll just mention here that we never dug the things until after a hard freeze - otherwise they tasted bad. Once the ground had frozen, they were fine (raw) straight out of the garden until spring (just bring a pick for the ground, and shovel the snow off.) You could also dig a bushel or two and put in the root cellar, but only if you waited for the ground to freeze first.

That, at least, is my memory of them, and we did eat the things for many years. I likely will agin, but I might try tracking down some of the "improved" types that are a bit easier to peel, and pick a spot where I am reasonably sure I want them (forevermore, barring serious effort)

Hello All

Here is the latest update to my place



thanks
kevin

Steve Furlong wrote:This is great. I'm in Ireland, where the dull and often very changeable weather makes me pessimistic about getting anything growing properly sometimes! But to see you growing stuff this well, not too far south of the Arctic Circle, is very encouraging!

Don't get discouraged from what I've heard Ireland and coastal Oregon are very similar in climate. And I would consider that part of Oregon the best to grow in.

If you "slow roast"the Jerusalem Artichoke it breaks down the inalin and make its easier for the human body to use....just like some beans for some people giv e a lot of gas