June has been extraordinary dry. No rain for six weeks and 25-30 degrees most of the days. Neighbour farmers even ir!rigate the grassy hayfields, which I hear is new in this area. In the past, only vegetables and sometimes grains were irrigated. Since May I have been …
read moreOrganic growth in the early summer is amazing. We have warm and pleasant weather (20-25C at noon, 10C minimum), so everything that is planted out is growing like crazy.
Chestnut seedlings on an air-pruning table
The poly-tunnel is a mediterranean climate, of dry, warm weather. The figs …
read moreIt has been a crazy month. Very busy. Very good. Sometimes deeply sad, sometimes joyfully exuberant.
We give a ten day, whole year training on growing nuts, at Holma Folkhögskola, my friends Johanna, Anders and me.
Here we are at Anders' place Rydeholm.
Anders shows one of the …
Nut trees are the best, but I also like fruit trees. They all have a role to play in a diverse food ecosystem. Therefore I visited the nursery "Rögle Plantskola" between Ängelholm and Helsingborg. It is a 45 minute drive south from here, just on the …
read moreNow that the polytunnel is up, I can plant the chestnuts in a protected environment, without hard frosts and no wind chill.
The best roots develop when you plant a chestnut on the location where the tree will stand the rest of it's life. However, most …
read moreIn the end of the fall, I purchased a wood chipper that works as an attachment on the 2-wheel tractor. It is a sturdy wood chipper that uses the engine of the 2-wheel tractor in stand-still mode. Instead of servicing two engines, one for the tractor and …
read moreI have always been interested in cultures. In the past, I travelled a lot, and contributed an inordinate abount of carbon to our common atmosphere. Everywhere I came, I tried to learn some language, customs, traditions, norms and values. In some respects, people are people everywhere, but there …
read moreWe have had two weeks of splendid weather. Cold and dry and beautiful.
Some days the mercury dipped below -15C, which is quite unusual here in Southern Sweden. Therefore, we have taken every opportunity to enjoy the freshness of the snow and the silhouettes from the frost …
read moreBeing back in Sweden after 20 years living abroad, I notice some things that have improved and others that have degenerated or decayed. One of the disappointments flew in my face when I biked off to buy beer.
I realized that almost all beer in my local supermarket …
read moreTo grow healthy trees, it is good to remove rhizomatic weeds like quack grass before planting. I tried the method of "tarping". In September, I put large plastic sheets to cover blocks of the newly fertilized and tilled field. The plan was to solarize (block sunshine) the soil …
read moreNow that the days are getting shorter and Nature is slowing down, trees are losing their leaves and go into winter rest. The trees suck nitrogen from their leaves, and shed the empty hulls. All the nutrients are stored in the roots and in the …
read moreSometimes, I wonder how a pathway to a better life after the ecological transition will look like. I dream about the "RetroSuburbia" world that Holmgren has depicted. I fantasize about the "Local Futures" of Helena Norberg-Hodge. And sometimes I see a fragment of a better future, that has …
read moreI love trees. And I also love wood-chips. Is there a contradiction here, maybe? Wood chips are excellent soil improvement agents, and can be used to cover soil and strengthen soil life. Especially chips made from "ramial wood" is supposed to be excellent. At least according to the …
read moreLast week we had the first frosty mornings and we just shifted from daylight savings time back to solar time. I hope this is the last time.
It seemed like a good idea in 1980, when it was introduced. It was done on the back end of the second …
read moreI moved out of this country 20 years ago and now I am back. Sometimes, it feels like time has stopped here in the countryside. Especially on a cold autumn morning with the first frost of the year:
We are here, my wife M and …
read moreOne of the great things this summer and early autumn has been to taste new apple varieties. Not in any kind of shop or orchard, but along the old roads and railways in the neighbourhood. There are apple trees every kilometer or so, full of summer-ripe fruit …
read moreLast week-end I took a walk in the woods with my old mates David and Linus. We walked for two days on a trail that runs along the southern edge of my municipality.
My municipality Laholm is approximately of the same size as the province …
read moreharrowing /ˈharəʊɪŋ/ adjective - acutely distressing.
These are times that rip through the fabric of the illusion of normality. What we knew in the past is no longer true. New realities will congeal, but I think that we are not yet there. We are stuck in several dilemmas.
Families …
read moreAs a world economy, we are addicted to fossil fuels, of which we are running short. Not to talk about the climate chaos. The 50 years anniversary of the "Limits to Growth" this year has sadly been a celebration of stupidity. We (globally) have tracked the "business-as-usual" scenario …
read moreWe are starting up our new nut tree nursery here in South-West Sweden and the two most common questions are:
Can I really grow chestnut and walnut trees here?
When can I buy one?
... since we obviously answer the first one affirmative.
The chestnut and walnut …
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