Gardening – Patricia McLellan's Blog

2024-04-17

Regular Walks

Most weeks I walk once or twice up to a local dairy farm, Åsvang, to buy fresh milk in bottles. And by “up” I mean a 25 minute walk uphill, and a little more than one and a half kilometers. According to Google Maps we live at 32 meters above sea level and the farm is 129 meters above sea level, meaning that there is an altitude difference of 97 meters. It is good exercise.

When one does the same walk many times, it may seem a bit repetitive, but as the seasons change, it is interesting to see what changes have happened since the last walk. Especially in spring, there can be quite a few changes, just in a week. We’ve recently had plenty of rain and the walk today was sunny, so nature is coming to life again after winter.

Where just a few weeks ago, these first yellow flowers were hard to find, they are now coming out in large clumps and quickly spreading along the sunny road banks. All pictures in this blog were taken on 2024.04.16.

View from Åsvang, looking west, 2024.04.16

As one looks over the fields, some of them are just starting to turn green. The snow has disappeared, but it will be a while before the trees have leaves on them. If you look carefully, you can just see the tops of the two towers of Skarnsund Bridge.

I love it when the new growth is starting to be more visible. Even the deer are starting to find enough grass in the fields to eat. There is still a lot of dry grass from the last year, but the new growth will soon be tall enough that one won’t see last year’s growth which becomes fertilizer for the new growth.

Though the fields are still mostly brown with dried grass, some of the fields have been plowed, often in the fall before the winter came. The road bank to the right of the road is just starting to show the promise of green grass. In the distance can be seen an island, Ytterøy, which means the outer island. We live in Inderøy, the inner island, which is actually a peninsula.

Along the road to Vangshylla, 2024.04.16

In the ditch, where there is still plenty of dampness from the heavy rains a few days ago, the leaves of flowering plants are showing that it won’t be long before there will be more flowers to be seen.

In a previous blog I mentioned people cutting down trees for firewood. Here’s an area that has been attacked by such a person. There is a field to the left, but in the center of the picture quite a few trees have been cut down this spring, making the hillside look bare. The small branches are left to rot, which is fine, but it doesn’t look very good.

For many, spring is a problem with pollen. The birch tree is one that can cause quite a bit of problem, both for myself and many others. Already, the trees are putting out their pollen producing catkins, but it will be a month before the leaves come out on birches. There is a sharp difference in color between deciduous trees, like the birch, and the evergreens, either pine or spruce, which you can see in the background of this picture.

Willow trees put out their flowers long before the leaves come out. The pussy willows on this tree are just starting to come out and will soon be shedding their pollen. Checking today’s pollen warning shows “moderate” for willows, or salix.

Trees are always hard to photograph close-up, in my opinion. What I see with my eye, is not always what appears in the photograph. Eyes are really much better devices than cameras in many ways, even older eyes. This year there have been a lot of spruce shoots from the ends of branches lying on the ground as if there has been too little food and animals have been eating the shoots. The new growth has not really started but at the very ends, there are signs of new growth just coming. The spruce trees did not bloom last year, and there are very few cones left for the squirrels to munch on, so I hope the trees bloom this year.

I am always eager to see what is coming up in my garden. Once the sprouts are showing from the bulbs, growth can happen amazingly quickly. Here are both tulips and daffodils coming up and there is also a peony plant that will emerge as well. The tulips don’t do very well anymore as the deer tend to eat them. But the daffodils do well as the deer don’t eat them.

Our house is called “Fjellheim” and we translate that as “Cliff Cottage”, though a more direct translation would be “mountain home”. The above plant is a wild orchid that comes up every year. When we first moved to the house, it was growing in a ditch, as it needs lots of water. I carefully moved it one year so that it didn’t get destroyed by people digging in the ditch and I managed to find a place where it thrives. It comes up early, and already the flower stem is starting to show in the middle. This one will have a dark purple flower.

The lilac bush’s buds are starting to open out in the sunshine. We still have frost at night, but the daytime temperatures can be up to about 10 degrees. This bush gets lots of sunshine and will be one of the first ones on our lot to put out its leaves and flowers.

Crocuses are the first bulbs to bloom and these ones are enjoying the sunshine under the lilac bush. These come up in a bed where we have been putting snow when clearing the driveway in the winter, so there are always a lot of stones in the bed. Eventually the largest of them will be put back on the driveway, though that is a tedious job.

These were some of the delights of nature this week. But the joy of this time of year is how things change quickly. The earliest flowers disappear, the leaves come out on the trees, and new flowering plants emerge. I hope you can get outdoors and enjoy the nature that is around you.

2022-05-272022-05-27

Dandelion Season

We live in the municipality of Inderøy and its official flower is the dandelion. When one looks at the fields in Inderøy during the second half of May, it can be seen why this flower has been chosen.

A field in Inderøy, picture taken on 25 May 2022.

As an agricultural municipality, there are many fields in Inderøy which are devoted to growing grass to feed animals. These fields are not plowed every year and each year the crop of dandelions in any given field will increase. Then the farmer plows the field and the field becomes primarily green the first summer.

The Latin name for the common dandelion is Taraxacum officinale. In Norwegian it is called løvetann (lion’s tooth). The English name, dandelion, seems to come from the French name for the plant, dent-de-lion, which also means the lion’s tooth.

Lots of dandelions in this field and they mostly bloom at the same time.

Here in Norway, the dandelion will have its first flowering in May, or perhaps June at higher altitudes. Where I live, it will be found along the edges of roads as well as in gardens and fields. Beekeepers say that it is an important flower for the bees early in the season. This year there have been comments in the Norwegian press to refrain from cutting one’s lawn and letting wild flowers grow, as the bees need the nourishment.

A group of dandelions growing in a grassy field. Picture taken 27 May 2022.

Dandelions have a characteristic yellow flower that opens wide on sunny days and long toothed leaves. When they grow in the open, they are very upright plants. When they grow with other plants, they can grow very tall in the competition for sunlight. They do not have to be pollinated and therefore can produce seeds that have the same genetic information as the parent flower. This means that even without insects, the flowers will go to seed. The flower grows on a hollow stem and the leaves grow separately from the long root. If the leaves and flower are broken off, the plant will regrow from the root.

All parts of the dandelion are edible and provide vitamins A and K, as well as calcium and iron.

At night, the dandelion closes its flowers. On a cloudy morning, the flowers have not opened completely. Some are closed completely while the seed is formed.

If a dandelion grows where the grass is cut, it’s leaves will spread out along the ground instead of growing primarily upright. The flower will come out on a very short stem.

Some of the dandelion flowers have become gray and the fluffy seeds will spread in the wind. In this picture we can see that the dandelions on this road bank are almost finished and the next flowering plant (*Anthriscus sylvestris* / hundekjeks / cow parsley or Queen Anne’s lace) will soon dominate the roadside.

I usually consider the dandelion a weed and will remove as many as possible before they go to seed. However, I do find it an attractive flower and quite understand how it is an important flower for bees.

2021-04-252021-04-25

Signs of Spring

With a large dump of snow in April, I have been thinking about what are the signs that spring has actually arrived. First of all, I think that the disappearance of the snow is an important sign.

Let’s look at what the definition of spring is for Norway. This excerpt is taken from the Store Norske Leksicon: Vår er er årstiden mellom vinter og sommer, og den perioden av året hvor normal døgnmiddeltemperatur er mellom 0ºC og 10ºC (disse inkludert). Temperaturen stiger gjerne i denne perioden and quoted on www.met.no. Translation: Spring is the season between winter and summer and that part of the year when the normal average day temperature is between 0 degrees C and 10 degrees C, including these temperatures. The temperature is usually rising during this period. Calculation of the average day temperature will differ depending on the number of readings taken during the day. The simplest calculation is the highest temperature is added to the lowest temperature and then divided by two (for example, 10 + 0 = 10, 10/2 = 5)

Another common definition of spring is the time between the spring equinox in March and the summer solstice in June, but this is a bit too general for my way of thinking. I prefer the previous definition which is tied to temperature.

If I look at some weather statistics for areas near here, but measured near sea level, there are very few days in March when the average day temperature is below zero degrees Celsius. By the end of April there should be none. This does not mean that there will not be freezing temperatures at night, but that the temperature rises sufficiently during the day that the average temperature is well above zero.

Spring is often thought of as that time of the year when the first flowers come out.

Colt’s foot (Tussilago farfara) is one of the first wild flowers to come out in Norway. It grows along the edges of roads, especially where the snow melts quickly and the sun warms up the earth. Its leaves come out after the flowers are finished.

Another early bloom is the anemone Hepatica nobilis, a member of the buttercup family. The leaves are green all year round.

Crocuses are planted and this one is almost finished. Many of the early garden flowers come from bulbs.

I live in an agricultural area so another sign of spring is the outdoor work of the farmers. They also give us some less pleasant smells as they spread their animal manure on the fields.

Tractors in the fields and on the roads become more common. Note that some of the fields are becoming very green as the grass starts growing again in the warmth and sunshine.

This field has been ploughed. Many of the fields near us are used to grow grass for animal feed, or for letting the animals graze in the summer months. They will not be reseeded every year, but dandelions can be a persistent weed so fields will be ploughed up and reseeded on a regular basis.

On today’s walk up to get eggs at a neighboring farm, I saw this hose just laying on the field. It is used to spread manure on the fields.

Here is the attachment that the tractor pulls across the fields making sure that the manure goes primarily into the ground. When we first moved here, the manure was sprayed into the air to spread it. What a stink! With this newer method, there is much less smell, but there is still some.

There is the large container for the manure and the pump to get it into the long hoses that are dragged across the fields.

More pleasant signs of spring include the return of birds. We have several species of seagulls that live near us. Some of them are here all winter long, but the noisiest one, Larus canus, loves to follow the tractors around as they plough the fields. They like to soar on the wind and often fly in large groups. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to include about this species.

Another common sign of spring is the oyster catcher who likes to feed in the shallows at low tide.

Pussy willows on the ground are a good indication that the willow tree has started its spring routine.

Here is the willow tree itself. It hasn’t lost all of its flowers yet. It is a sign that there will be pollen in the air for the next couple of months. The leaves will come out after the blossoms are finished.

I would like to finish off this blog with a few pictures of plants in my garden. I enjoy going out to see what has started blooming and what has started sprouting .

This columbine is just starting to put out its leaves. The flowers will come out much later.

Sedum acre is already blooming and the daffodils won’t be long now. They just need a day or two of sunshine. The one tulip that has come up may not bloom. They are often eaten by the deer that like my garden.

I’m not sure what this one is called, but it is an early bloomer too. It comes up under the rose bush where I put out bird feeders in the winter time. I put out mostly sunflower seeds and you can see the empty seed shells fertilizing the ground.

You may have other signs of spring in your area, but these were the things that I thought of while going on my walk today.

2020-05-16

Depressing weather

There’s not much we can do about the weather, except adapt to it. But certain types of weather are more depressing than others. I’m glad I don’t live in an area with a lot of drought or a place that has large forest fires. However, rain day after day can be hard on the spirits.

For example, here’s a picture from 8:30 am on Friday, May 15th, 2020.

The snow kept on falling, on and off all day, though by evening most of it had melted. It’s hard to see in this picture, but the rowan tree is opening out its leaves, as it should at the beginning of May.

It is quite normal for it to snow where we live in April, but it usually melts quickly and disappears. April is the time for the early flowers to bloom, such as daffodils. May is when I have always thought that my garden looks at its best, with lots of daffodils and tulips blooming.

I went back to my pictures from May 2019 and found the following.

April and May are the months I usually spend a lot of time in the garden, cleaning up after the winter, enjoying slightly warmer days and sunshine, weeding methodically through all the flower beds. I got a good start in April this year, getting the weeding done in many of the beds, but suddenly during the last two weeks, it has been difficult to motivate myself to continue. Snow on the ground when I wake up, cold biting wind on the driveway, snow flurries or rain showers throughout the day, do not encourage me to go outside for several hours.

We usually get two weeks of nice, warm weather in May. I’m waiting!