Survival garden southern Finland, no-dig, no watering, heavy mulch

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Plan was this time not to leave 2 weeks between visits, but had more important things to do and when I had the opportunity last week weather was just unpredictible enough to make the trip. Yesterday was also overcast with danger of rain and I kept looking at the radar, but nothing showed in the radar nor did it rain. Unlike today, which made it urgent to get something done as getting to the plot would get more wet for few more days.

Weeds had again taken over and I’m starting to think supressing weeds with hay mulch isn’t going to work with well established perennial weeds. It’s a little too much work to keep them under control, but it’s also little too much competition for plants that I actually want to grow. Weeds are also unevenly distributed which makes competition selection pressure unfair. For next year I’m planning to cover the main plot fully with black biofilm. It has worked well in my other plot even covering the edges, although weeds have tried hard to push it up. I was hesitant to use it as plan was not to use any added help (black surface making growing conditions warmer), but this much weed pressure is a bit overkill.

Besides favas, all species that I grew here last year are a little behind. Even though even last year getting seeds was difficult, I’m not quite yet worried. Last year they had an early start, but growth must have been close to half what it could have been because of the drought. Later this week it’s supposed to warm up more long term and with the ground soaked I’m hoping they can catch up a little. I did now some fast weeding and culling. Some spots still have extras, but quite a many spots had had maybe little too heavy weed pressure.

Some maximas with fairly little weeds.

Some summer squash with a bit heavy weeds.

Tomatillos poking through. Small seeds and heavy weeds with insufficient weeding don’t mix that well. Still some had managed to grow quite a bit. Still not ideal, but should have enough time to make some fruits.

Favas weren’t all lost, but just late. I’d say about third have emerged now which should give fairly good seed increase. Then next years I’ll make more selection based on early germination.

Best tomatillo ready to take over he world.

One of the biggest maximas.

Two of the best summer squash right next to each other. There seems to be enough space on either side that I don’t need to cull one, but if one doesn’t like to set fruits early then it has to go.

Best moschata. I don’t have high hopes, but I’m still hoping some of the better can make male flowers that I can use to pollinate fruits on the other plot.

Best cucumbers don’t look much worse than the ones on the other plot with better conditions. Last year they were so fast once they got going that I wouldn’t be surprised if they really take over with warm weather.

Side plot I didn’t have time to do much more than check progress. Weeds are growing well there also. Have to make time to weed this part also asap. Luckily there isn’t that much to do on the other plot at the moment.

Graincorn still in good pace to ripen in time. Beans also doing well. Little weeding to be done.

Parsnips are strong enough to push through weeds.

Tops of carrots are just visible.

Some potato berries must have fallen there. This year I’m planning on planting fruits or pieces of them in the fall to save me the hastle of saving seeds.

Tps sown in early june are coming up. Them I needed to weed or they’d be completely covered.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Finally got most of weeding done on the side plot. Had the chance to come earlier, but it’s been too hot to make long days of arduous work. Yesterday wasn’t much better, but at least a couple of degrees cooler with some clouds. Corn are a little lanky and it’s a little hard to say how they fare now that they have more light and less competition. It’s hard to say how far of from flowering they are because of their shape. At least some of them look like tassels might start to show within a week. In that case they should have just enough time to make cobs, but how they handle making it is another story. Have to see at the end of the month.

Carrots were looking quite good. I sowed quite a bit of extra, but there aren’t that many to thin and if there are more like skinny weeds. Only the strongest had access to light. Biggest are as thick as small finger. They have about 2 good months to size up so should get to good size if they manage the nutrien poor soil. Also remains to be seen how they fare against bugs. I’m happy to get at least something to grow seeds from next year.

One of the best corn.

On the main plot not much more than grass grows well. There are about half a dozen of both maximas and summer squash that have really started to grow and look like have time to make seeds. Last two years has taught that little less selection pressure would be enough. It’s not that I need a big harvest, but I don’t want to work hard to make conditions just poor enough for a few plants to make seeds. At least now I know the limits better and can make better plans in years to come.

Couple of better summer squash.

One better summer squash and one more average looking.

One of the better maximas and one that actually is better than average, but too close to clearly better so it had to go. Colour on these better plants look really healty compared to most so they must have something more going for them than just luck.

Another of the better maximas with what should also be maxima, but looks like a summer squash. Whatever it was it had to go to make room for the other.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Could say I’m slightly giving up for this year. Not putting any more effort to anything that doesn’t seem likely to produce something. Start anew next year.

There are some summer squash that are starting to fruit. There aren’t any plants that are as strong as last year, but they might be couple days earlier. Maybe get some seeds out of them.

Best maximas starting to vine. They might be a little earlier than last year and growth has been faster, but still not sure if they will have time. Will make some trips next week and if there are male flowers, I’ll bring some back to pollinate ones on the main plot.

Some tomatillos starting to flower. They should have time to produce seeds, if they just get cross pollinated. Still not that many flowers that these might not develop, but hopefully there is just enough time to make some fruits.

Especially this year I have thought a lot about what are the challenges with this plot, and how much weeds play a role. Soil might be quite poor (I have not amended it much) and layer of it at places might be thin. At least favas seem to like it. Or at least few of the plants seem unaffected. Thay are quite sparsely sown because something else besides grass was supposed to grow there. Well, if everything goes well I will have plenty of favas to plant on this plot.

Weeded parsnips on the side plot and thinned carrots. Interestingly there are some with purple(ish) tops, which in itself isn’t surprising as I think I had some variety like that. Difference is that they seem to come with variety of root colours. Also some others came with douple tops from the start. Even the smaller have some small roots. With couple months to grow I should get some decent sized roots.

[stephane_rave]

it’s amazing to see some of yourplants planted later than in my garden in the middle of France, growing faster on your land!

The higher latitude and lower temperatures seem to be less of an obstacle than the heatwave and drought for vegetable production. The cards are redistributed with climate change !

[ThomasPicard]

On a side note we should never forget that daylight is another parameter making growing really different in Scandinavia than southern Europe.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Yes, plants grow fast even in short time of “ideal” weather. They did not germinate or grow fast early in the season, but little bit in waiting for the right conditions. You might also need to start earlier. At least squash seem to be very tolerant to cool weather. I was I bit worried when I sowed these for how cool the ground felt, but they came through. So it seems frost is only thing, maybe besides big deluge, that can cause problems and even very light frost should only damage some leaves. The earlier they can establish roots deep in the ground, the better they can tolerate heat and drought.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Probably, but I don’t know how exactly or to which plants, besides daylength sensitivity. At least it might be difficult to compare temperatures based on averages if here there is 18-20h of light and further south maybe get only 12h when the temperature averages are the same. This time of the year here, when there has been extended period of hotter weather, is quite easy weather even if highs are more seasonal (a little over 20C/68F). Long days as well as warm sea, lakes and ground keep nights warm(ish) and coolest part is very short. If the heatwave is very early as it’s been the case many of recent years, the whole summer is really ideal growing conditions, at least temperature wise.

[ThomasPicard]

@JesseI

The earlier they can establish roots deep in the ground, the better they can tolerate heat and drought.

From next year on, I’ll be working around this line by anticipating all sowings comparatively to date of direct sowing in use : - 1 month for everybody: in my part of France cucurbita sown 15th of April instead of 15th, melons and watermelons 25th - 30th of April instead of 25th-31st of May.

Thanks for inspiring you @JesseI and @polarca

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

I tried to look weather statistics in your area. I found several stations within 50km and based on those it looks like your may is quite equal to my june. Maybe little warmer which is compensated with longer nights. What looks to make your early sowing easier is warmer winter and spring before season starts so maybe it doesn’t need that long periods of heat to get things going. I did see that past years there has been some terrible mays (2021 looks quite bad) , but if it’s a loss 1/5 or 1/10 years I think it’s still worth it. If you never risk, then you never can improve on that. Maybe one year it’s sufficiently hard for 1% to survive and next time they fare similar conditions better. Many of the years it looked to me like fairly good early season weather from early may or even mid april. Especially for squashes and cucumbers. Watermelons and melons are more susceptible to cold and rain.

[stephane_rave]

for example here certain vegetables remain blocked more than several days by increasingly frequent climatic “anomalies” 40°c in June or September, or then like today 9°c tonight while in 2 days it is announced 40°C and 24°c the nights… this must however also arrive at your place with cold weather but not followed by extreme heat in a few hours. This is what seems to me the hardest thing for plants to overcome.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

I’m not sure if cold temps there are what is affecting much. To me it seems that cold affects mostly by lowering soil temperature, which takes time during middle of summer. High temps are what can have immediate effects on above ground growth by how it affects respiration of the leaves. I’m not sure if it is going to get that hot here during my lifetime, except maybe for day or 2 in a decade or two. Temperature record of Finland was measured almost exactly 15 years ago. It was then 37C in the east and where I live it was 36C. It gets to 32-33C for some days every few years at least, but rarely above that. I think it’s been over 34C only less than 10 days in the last 100 years in the whole country. Generally problem is lack of rain with the heatwaves. I do expect that there will be some freak event one year as year to year variation has been less than it was 100 years ago. Hottest julys in recent years have been only barely warmer than those hundred years ago, but there has been more of those and coldest julys in this millenia have been several degerees warmer than the coldest 100 years ago. To me it sounds like we are due for abnormally hot july. Which might not be that much of problem if it is for the rain, but it makes growing here a little unpredictable when coldest summer is barely enough to grow warm loving crops and hottest is very easy temperature wise. It’s like gambling with the weather whether you can grow something or not.

[stephane_rave]

@JesseI

I’m not sure if it is going to get that hot here during my lifetime

don’t be worried with this climate you describe which corresponds to the summer of my childhood, you should in 2 or 3 decades also be caught up by warming! Just Wait

but yes you are right the cold is not problematic if only one night the soil doesn’t have time to cool down… but I still noticed that some plants take a shock especially Eggplant and Peppers which don’t like these alternations.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

@stephane_rave

don’t be worried with this climate you describe which corresponds to the summer of my childhood, you should in 2 or 3 decades also be caught up by warming! Just Wait

Weak sun doesn’t allow temp highs to rise that much, but what will happen is these extended heatwaves with continuous heat. Even if it’s not that extreme in terms of southern countries. Long days tend to keep temperatures high. Even if it goes barely over 30C it might hover around that temperature from late morning to almost sunset. Add just couple more degrees to that and it’s quite intense continuous heat. In the tropics it at least starts to feel cooler after 6pm.

@stephane_rave

but yes you are right the cold is not problematic if only one night the soil doesn’t have time to cool down… but I still noticed that some plants take a shock especially Eggplant and Peppers which don’t like these alternations.

Growth can get somewhat slower, but I haven’t noticed it to go that much down during midsummer. Nights are ofcourse shorter here (and the longer they get the more cool nights affect), but it might also be varieties or genetics I have growing. I have had to go quite a rigorous selection on those species, but I have had varieties that weren’t as happy even in better conditions here. You can have as many seeds from me as you like. They haven’t had hotness selection, but I think it’s more natural trait for those species and might not be adversely affected by cold selection.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

To not repeat myself in two topics I just copied myself . Same weather conditions affected survivor plot as the other plot, but effect was worse and thus assesment a little different. I could expect this place to be more prone to frosts than the one closer to the lake, but still frost this early was a big surprise. First I thought this would change things, and it will to some extend, but it seems like this is quite unlikely to completely change my approach. I would estimate based on statistics the change of frost this early to be 1/10 years which really isn’t that bad. Realisticly I should also have everything much futher along by this time as even without frosts I can’t expect growth to continue full speed most years late august and early september before first frost comes or temperatures go too low for any growth. In the future I can use this lesson to better estimate if there is a danger of frost early in the season better, but otherwise I think I wont let it affect what I do. Changes that I will do are to better supress weeds and give little fertilization. I hope that these changes will be enough to speed up growth just enough that early frosts become more irrelevant.

As for damages, there wasn’t really much that I was expecting to get something out of and thus nothing really was lost. Beans probably would have made some seeds, but I can’t say if they still won’t. Plants themselves might still be alive and able to continue ripen seeds. Have to wait and see. Some corn had started silking early enough to have a chance to ripen seeds, but those didn’t have any pollen. Most likely due to being too stressed from growing conditions. Some better plants did have normal tassels, but were too late to have a realistic change. Rest of the frost tender plants didn’t have anything except one summer squash, which I left there just in case as the plant probably is still alive and could form seeds.

Frost hardy plants are doing fine considering other conditions. Favas have their first dry pods. Hard conditions are limiting amount of pods, but it still looks like a good seed increase. Selection pressure is also sufficient as some have more pods than others. Carrots are starting to be already quite big and they still have a month or more of good weather to grow. Some had bolted and were removed if possible. It’s starting to be hard to thin them as they are so well rooted. Based on what I was able to thin, roots are mainly smooth and straight without damages from insects. One had split. Hopefully there is at least enough to plant plenty of different roots for seeds. Parsnips are also starting to form roots. At least there are something “save” to grow on these plots coming years.

"Had the earliest frost on this place last week. Based on statistics it’s really unusual. Current closest station had it’s 4 lowest august ground level temperatures ever 4 days in a row, although that only has measurments from august since 2019. The temperatures there were between 0.6-1.5C, but on my plot it must have gone little lower at spots. Even before 2019 from the old station coldest after 2007 (to 2018) is -0.2 and that station was generally 1-2C colder at ground level than current station so this might have been colder than then. There aren’t statistics from ground level before that, but it seems there has been some even worse years. "

[Lary (Larry Morris)]

When I grew up I live just outside of Anchorage Alaska and by September usually we had snow so I don’t know where your at that’s if you’re at the same latitude or not but back then all we could grow with cold crops

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

I’m at the same latitude, just on the other side of the world. Climate is a bit warmer here due to golf stream and sligtly more continental climate. Summers are similar to interior of Alaska with milder winter. There are spots where frosts can happen any day of the year near where I live (although mid june to mid august even those would be really mild). I don’t know if this spot is quite as exposed, but it definetely isn’t as favourable as the other plot I have that is 300 meters from a large lake. We usually don’t get snow in september, but occasionally there might be little late in the month. There can be hard frosts in early september, but our climate is very variable battlefield of southerly/westerly and northerly winds. It can roften get to 25C/76F this time of the year and the next week be highs of 10C/50F and hard frosts. Although usually they come in longer intervals. A couple of weeks of this and a couple of weeks of other weather type.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

Harvested carrots already a month ago, but haven’t had time/motivation to update here. Better later than never. I didn’t need to harvest them that early, but after seeing some that had been gnawed and some split I thought I would need to try to salvage them. Also temperatures went so low that growth might not have made a difference. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot of damaged roots. Just a half a bag on top the ones I had harvested earlier. Total had about 70 liters with 20 liters saved for seed. That was 41 roots from which I eliminated one after seeing that it had some bug damage (to be fair it wasn’t much and could have been used, but I already had a lot of different purple types) and 4 more after tasting. Those didn’t have any discernible sweetness. I didn’t have very high bar for sweetness, just that it could be tasted. Will do more selection on sweetness and taste in the future generations. In terms of growth I selected the biggest for the areas and for colours. First row had bigger roots as I had weeded it earlier and done at least some thinning. So that’s why some are clearly smaller. Colour was secondary to size or I didn’t look carefully through the smaller roots if there would be some special colours. Not that I would have seen them easily before washing. One yellow I only found after I had cleaned them. Whites look like they have disappeared from these. Can’t say if it even made it through the winter to make seeds last year. Lighter orange colours seem to have come from orange F1 varieties and range of purples from purple F1s. Oranges might be from staple orange varieties or F1s that have kept the colour. Yellow seems different to yellow I had, which was a staple variety, so maybe that is also from orange F1. Bug damage seems to have been low this year, but it seems there were less in the ones I selected for seed in the field, even though I could not see the damages there. Must be some correlation between growth and bug damage, but which way around I don’t know.

Even bigger roots grow quite well close to each other.

Better bed after harvest. A lot more and bigger than I was expecting.

Some of the bigger roots. Biggest was about 500g.

Selection for seed.

Some of the misbehaving roots that got eliminated. Not many of these though.

Total harvest.

After cleaning.

Some variety of purple types.

Some of the more 2 coloured purples.

Dobble tops were quite common. Not sure if it’s a benefit or not. Only disadvantage that I could see is when thinning it’s easy to pick these.

Some of the purples cut open. Some had little splits inside, but I didn’t judge them for that this time around. Might need to make bigger growout out of seeds of these roots to make more selection later.

Parsnips I harvested later at the same time I went to plant out carrot roots for seed. They didn’t succeed that well. Germination seems to have been low for some reason. There were about 10 better roots to replant for seed.

Found one carrot sticking out of the hay in the main plot, around the spot where I had grown carrots for seed last year. It was such an accomplishment that I planted it for seed even if it was just regular orange and likely(ier) to be just from stable variety.

Carrots and parsnips planted out for seed and covered with cardboard to kill of weeds. Part is outside of the area that was in cultivation this year to not waste area were there is less weeds and at the same time expand the area of cultivation.

[avery.bowron]

Really nice carrots, Jesse. Thanks for sharing. Do you leave the cardboard all through the winter? Does it break down on its own or do you have to remove it eventually? I like this approach, but I’d be worried in my mild climate that it would damage the carrots, too. They pretty much never stop growing foliage here, just slow way down.

[JesseI (Jesse Ilonen)]

I have no experience using it so I’m not quite sure how it behaves. It should survive through the winter and I suspect it will or would remain without decomposing in the first year if it is not covered and can dry once in a while. Only possible problem might be that it reamins wet and some perennial weeds are strong enough to break it close to the holes where I have plants growing. I can add layer of hay as a weight to keep them down, but at the same time it will keep the cardboard wet and facilitate decomposition. Could also add another layer of new cardboar later. So basically I have a lot of possible options and I have to wing it. I did have some pieces of cardboard under hay on the other piece and it seemed like the weeds couldn’t penetrate it so I’m hopeful that I can manage it somehow. Goal of next year is to get most of the weeds supressed, as some will get through the holes where my plants are supposed to grow, and finish the job (by adding another layer) the year after.

[UnicornEmily (Emily Martha Sorensen)]

I like to put down cardboard, and then put a foot of wood chips on top, and leave it for about a year. After that, I can move all the wood chips (the top layer will be wood chips; the bottom layer will be compost), and the grass and other weeds will be dead, and I can plant into it. I successfully killed my front lawn that way! Now I’m working on killing my back lawn, so that I can plant an edible meadow in its place.

In my experience, most of the cardboard has broken down by that point, but there will still be the occasional scrap of it that I run into. After two years, I can’t find any of the old cardboard at all: it’s all composted.