European Gardening: Where are you in Europe?, 1 by rannveig

rannveig wrote:
Thank you for your warm welcome Lizzy - it's decently warm up here at the moment around 15°C (above average!) but rainy :-( I can't complain though since last week was sunny and warm! You're right I often wish I could just skip sleeping in June and make it up in December when it's dark most of the time (only 5-6 hours of daylight then). I've often stayed out in the garden until midnight; the latest was around 1 am. There's nothing that can beat that on a warm still night!

I guess the summers here might be close to Alaska although I don't know - but the winters are much warmer here. It rarely gets below -10°C. It's really hard to figure out what can be grown and what can't because I don't think there is any place that compares to it. The hardiness ratings only tell half the story; I'm in zone 7 according to minimum winter temps. but the summers aren't anything like zone 7. Plants with hardiness zone 4-5 usually do OK; zone 6 needs special care and I don't even need to bother with zone 7 plants. Also gardening is pretty new in Iceland. 100 years ago the only things grown here were potatoes, turnips and maybe cabbage. People couldn't afford to waste time and space on something as vain as growing decorative plants! There wasn’t much progress until around 1950 or so when a few very optimistic people started importing plants and trying them out. The oldest "forested areas" are from around 1950-1960 I think. When I was a child (1970's) the only "forest" I had seen was a pine grove with trees that were maybe 2-3 m high and I could walk between them if I ducked down a bit. I loved going into the "forest" which has grown since then so now we can walk up straight through it! (There's an Icelandic joke that goes - "If you ever get lost in an Icelandic forest you just have to stand up to find your way!")
So there are still so many plants that haven't been tried yet - I guess that's what makes it interesting ...it's always a treat when we find out that something can be grown that we thought couldn't. As an example I have an Acer palmatum plant growing outside that has only been sold as a greenhouse plant here. I had it in a pot that I took inside my greenhouse during the winter but last summer I was getting tired of moving it back and forth so I decided to risk it and plant it outside. Last fall I tucked it in for the winter with a shelter of burlap and it turned out just fine this spring despite the windy cold spells in May! That was a real treat! Of course last winter was unusually mild (I don't think the temps ever dipped below -5°C) so I still don't know if it'll make it through a regular winter.
The photo is taken this morning in my garden :-)


This message was edited Aug 23, 2006 10:45 AM