Gardenjournal in the Eco-village - March!
I'm on to it! I have anticipated writing a garden journal for our new place for a loong time, and now on the very last day of the #gardenjournal2019 challenge, I am finally ready and undisturbed to sit down and write..! I have been so busy gardening, building and organizing the last week..! But here we go!
A lot has happened in our forest and coming eco-village Friskoven on the island Bornholm in Denmark since my last #gardenjournal. Spring is here and we have been sowing and preparing beds and made our beautiful geodesic dome greenhouse!
Spring is always supposed to come a bit later to this island because "the cliff has to warm up" as they say. The island is on a core of granite which, together with the sea holds the cold a bit longer, but on the other side it creates a wonderful warm late Summer and Autumn!
So I have maybe been a bit early with some seeds, but I couldn't wait!
mixing sowing soil - coconut fibres, perlite and organic sowing soil
Ready for soil and seeds - "pots" made of toilet paper rolls with a bit of tinfoil in a cardboard box, to not let the water destroy the box and drip through.
thin little cabbages searching for the light... Hope they can wait a bit longer to get out...!
Everywhere in the house are seeds coming through the soil ❤🌹
beetroot
fennel
Roberto starting our no-dig beds with cardboard and horse manure..
Roberto and Willow getting sticks ready for our greenhouse dome!
Nature provides! Endless fields of ramson in our forest!
More work on the dome-sticks..
this (recycled wood that we have taken down from the ceiling of an old school getting torn down)..
becoming this
more work on the beds - cardboard, horse manure and compost from the recycling station (which you can pick up as much as you want for free ❤)
some shoveling-hours later..!
I love having a piece of land where you can suddenly discover an overgrown fireplace! Gotta get this re-established!
awww <3
okay, back to the beds!
more dirt to shovel!
yes!
And look what else we found at the recycling station this time! On this island it is legal and accepted to take whatever you want from the recycling station, which is absolutely awesome!! People throw so many amazing things away, we always return with as much stuff that we go to throw away 😂
And then we've been harvesting Birch Sap!
*Read more about our Birch sap harvest in this post
And then to building the greenhouse!
this is where real learning happens!
I think I'll have to make a whole separate post about that, because I have too much to say! But in short we had some really great volunteers to help us, and again we had a visit from new families who will be a part of creating this dream!
Here's just a few shots of the progress :)
we still haven't completed the door, but else it's pretty much done :)
And I think that was that for March! I also think it's enough! ;)
Thank you @simplymike for this great challenge! And for everyone who passed by
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Hey, @frejafri.
Okay, so you've got way more than just birch sap collecting going on. :) I can tell you really enjoy all of the activity and the ability to work the land for your own purposes.
I think its brilliant using the toilet paper rolls for starter planters, too. I've been wanting a use for those rolls for a long time and now I've found one. :)
Good luck with all of that, and anything else you'll be doing. Remember, though, your greenhouse still needs a door. :)
thank you!
Yes the toilet paper rolls are perfect for planting - the great thing is also that you can just put them directly into the soil like this, since the cardboard will compost :)
Yes we still need the door, but I think we will wait until we have the inside ready, so we have easy access! Anyway, it would probably have to be open most of the time, not to get too hot in there!
Awesome, @frejafri. You made me fall completely in love, both with the land, the seedlings and especially the dome.
While I was showing my girlfriend the pics, I remembered how the place looked like when you first bought it. You have worked so hard! I also remember a moment on which you doubted whether it had been the right decision to go for that place or not. It looks there's no need to doubt that anymore ;0)
You mentioned that spring always comes a little late in Denmark - I can imagine it is totally different from the climate in Italy, lol - which made us start wondering about light, and whether you have enough hours of sun. But I assume that depends a bit on how high up you are in Denmark.
My girlfriend's niece moved to Sweden last year, and we're definitely going to visit her one day (we wanted to do so last year, but couldn't because of my back troubles). Once I'm completely recovered, we're heading there. And seeing the pics in your post, I'll make sure we make a stop in Denmark to visit your ecovillage...
OMG, I'm so jealous about that dome... 😍😍😍
Yes it's still been tough getting everything sorted, but I have come to peace with that things take time and we have that ;) I really feel that new family are the perfect people to create this dream with us and I am so glad they found us! I feel so lucky!
It still looks pretty bad inside though, but we did do some improvements (one on the things on my to-blog-about-list ;) )
Well I didn't actually mean Denmark in General, but on this island the spring is a bit later than the rest of Denmark, but the summers are generally warmer and longer in the end. It has its own microclimate and is the only place in most of North Europe where figs, mulberries and durum wheat grows well :)
And well, when we lived in Italy we lived in the mountains, so it wasn't much warmer. But a bit yes. The thing is the mountain weather, while here it's around 6 degrees in the day and 4 in the night now, down there it's 16 in the day and minus two in the night!
The sun hours finally returned - we just had the equinox - as far as I know that means same day and night length all over the world, so now the North are slowly winning in sun! We'll have plenty!
Anyway, we are not that far north, just below the Southern tip of Sweden.
Yay, you are so welcome to come by! That would be awesome! 😍
Absolutely amazing! What a great project. Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait to see more of your progress. The eco village sounds fantastic.
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Such an amazing post, @frejafri :) Love all the work you have done and those garden beds and all of those seedlings are so exciting and beautiful !!!
I've been following the geodesic dome constructions and posts and it is SUPER AWESOME <3 <3 <3
Love it, Freja! I think you're really building a very special place, I can feel the energy and the good vibes from this ecovillage of yours <3
Thank you! Yes it's definitely starting to take form! I still mean to make a post about the greenhouse construction, lets see if I'll make it! :P
That's such a different lifestyle from my own. I like it!
Thanks for sharing all these cool photos. Good luck for your crops!
thank you!
Wow. You got a lot done! It will be wonderful to see all your projects coming along.
thank you! I'm excited too ;P :D
This post is sponsored and featured by @Appreciator in collaboration with @c-squared. Just keep up the good work.
This looks really cool!
I could copy this in some way, maybe changing into sturdier panels to make sure it's a bit stronger + keeps warmth inside better, but it's really nice how you can make so fine things using recycled materials!
Thanks for the feedback!
Which of the panels do you mean? If you mean the sticks I've actually heard advised to keep them light. The heavier the structure, the more change that it will be too heavy to hold itself - at least with the hubs we used, with other methods it might be fine. The geometry is used wisely to hold itself and be aerodynamic and much stronger than non geodesic structures.
If you mean the lower panels, then the beds will be on the other side. I don't think it will be a problem to keep warmth inside, on the contrary! I'm pretty sure we're gonna need to make a window to let air flow through, else it might get too hot very quickly!
that's awesome! great to see so much activity and life springing up there! so cool you're able to take whatever from your recycling center- that's how it is in our town too and we find so many treasures! your garden beds are looking great and your land has such a magical feel to it :) happy spring!