Attention Gardeners!

[eräjärvi]

Hello green thumbs...

I'm about to start growing fruit and vegetables. I just wanted to see if there are any experienced or even not so experience people on this board that grow fruit and vegetables in Finland.

It would be great to exchange tips and experiences about growing in Finland, where to get good seeds, garden design, greenhouses, small holding experiences, best places to get garden supplies and all other green thumb related topics.

It would be nice to get in touch with a few gardeners.

Cheers!

[Rosamunda]

Hi!

I guess I'm something in between a gardener and a farmer. We grow fruit and veg for our own consumption but we have a commercial-size polytunnel where we grow stuff on a bigger scale for sale eg last year we grew butternut squash. But we're aiming more for soft fruit in the future: berries and currants. We also keep bees, sell honey commercially and we graze a few sheep which are also sold commercially.

We're in Raasepori about 80 km west of Espoo, not far from Fiskars during the summer, but I have a "proper job" in Helsinki during the winter.

If you want to rent an allotment then you need to get on the waiting list in your local municipality. If you have your own land then you can start planning now but you won't be able to do much outside until the spring (May), though usually we do manage plant potatoes at the end of April. I start off some of my seeds indoors (ie in my house, I don't have a heated greenhouse): tomatoes, cucumbers, gherkins, courgettes, leeks, pumpkins and squash. Then there are other things that I sow direct: beetroot, kohl rabi, onions, French beans, runner beans, broad beans, carrots, onions, peas, lettuce, radishes, jerusalem artichokes. I've given up with brassicas (no success) but I do try and grow enough B.sprouts just for Xmas dinner. I have rhubarb and asparagus in the ground, plus all the fruit bushes. I sometimes buy tomatoes and chilli peppers as small plants from local markets in Raasepori in May/June - and I use grow bags for those in the polytunnel.

I buy some seeds online from Marshalls in the UK (they only ship seeds, no tubers etc) but the Finnish seeds from Plantagen/Bauhaus/Prisma etc are fine.

We have some good garden centres in Raasepori: I like the Plantskola in Bilnås very much and I also go to the Tahvoset Garden Shop in Fiskars. Tahvoset is Finland's biggest nursery and they have an open day every spring (in Pohja) so I go there to buy plants (not seeds though).

I avoid any imported plants eg from Holland etc.

I don't use any chemicals, just lime/ash/compost/peat, organic fertilizers and manual pest control!

As for garden supplies, you have to shop around. I order stuff online from the UK (eg hand tools), but sometimes I find stuff in Hong Kong, Lidl, Bauhaus, Tarjoustalo etc. Agrimarket is great too but not worth the drive for one packet of seeds and a plastic watering can.

Where are you gardening?

[eräjärvi]

Great reply! Brilliant. Thank you kindly for that.

I'm gardening at my home on 1.2 hectares of land with another 1 hectare 500m up the road from where the house is.

It's situated about 50mins outside of Tampere toward the north east.

I'd love to give you a rundown on what i'm looking at, perhaps get your opinion on a few things and also some questions i might have. I'll attempt to PM you on here and it would be great to email you some information.

Thanks!

[eräjärvi]

It seems as I am a new person to the board that i cannot PM you...

Would you be kind enough to email me?

majorlabelpr@gmail.com

Thanks!

[onkko]

"gimme seeds" is what i would say but they are family and i have "experience" since toddler. Cannot be arsed to grow my own tho. Too much work.

Why dont you look old people near to you who grow their stuff and just ask? If you are growing stuff to yourself you arent competitor. I could bet that older generation is more than happy to teach you. Problem is that they only speak finnish.
If you look at older generation most of "non city people" did grow their own.

[Flossy1978]

In Sääksjärvi which boarders Nurmijärvi and Hyvinkää there is a HUGE gardening place. It's obviously a company/farm running it. It has stuff growing all year round in those big white tent things.

I wish I could remember the name of the place.

I bet you'd get lots of help and information from them, because it appears their area keeps growing and growing, every year I drive past it to go to the lake there.

My wish is to get the old style vegetable seeds which haven't been changed by science. You know traditional real tomatoes with the dark red skin and so much stuff inside of them. The different types of potatoes which aren't grown here. Purple potatoes, yellow potatoes (not from winter storage), purple and white carrots etc. There are so many traditional vegies no longer grown anymore. And all the different plants belonging to the squash and pumpkin families you never see here. I've not had the yellow UFO looking Squash in 14 years. I love that stuff. And Butternut Pumpkin, yum. They have another term I can't remember the name of. Not antique, but something along those lines.

If you have the land and time, I bet if you grow the more traditional stuff if you can, you could take it to a market and might actually make quite a bit of money from it. If there are any brave Finns who'd like something other than symmetrical tasteless red tomatoes and just crap cucumbers LOL.

[Bavarian]

They have another term I can't remember the name of. Not antique, but something along those lines.

I believe you're thinking of heirloom seeds.

[Rosamunda]

There are quite a few farmers' markets where you can find "heirloom" fruit & veg including blue potatoes and various shades of carrot. Purple, yellow and white carrots and beans are very easy to grow, you can buy the seeds in any garden store. I grow butternut squash on a relatively large scale (more than I could eat) and I sell them for example at the Slow Food Fair in Fiskars in the autumn. But get real.... this isn't really pumpkin country, the conditions are not too good: you need a long season to get decent sized pumpkins and in Finland you can't even put them into the ground until mid-May. So you need a poly-tunnel. But that makes them expensive because as soon as you put something under plastic you need irrigation... And as long as there are Italian butternuts in Prisma at 2,50€/kg no one will pay double for the local ones. So growers don't grow them.

[sbaynes]

Howdy!

I'm a budding gardener living in Helsinki and working with about 4 sq m I'm hoping to find some cheap/free sources for soil/peat moss/compost/virmiculite/etc. if anyone knows of any, and also the most productive shade tolerant vegetable/herb varieties people would recommend for Helsinki? Thanks y'all!

[DMC]

I am also interested, but ignorant. We have plenty of land here, including a field which we rent out to a local farmer because we would do nothing with it ourselves. That still leaves us with plenty of space for gardening. The only problem is that, being terminally lazy, I have more enthusiasm than industry and my efforts resemble sbaynes "acreage" rather than the extensive veg plot I should be able to have here.

Our land is overgrown and I make little progress with clearing it. Any tips on how to do so, preferably from the comfort of my armchair, would be much appreciated. Failing that, is it possible to rent a rotovator or something, and would that be a sensible approach?

I am perhaps not too far from you, eräjärvi. I am about 100km North of Tampere.

What seeds I have planted have come from various sources. Mostly local, picked up here and there in "normal" shops rather than garden places, plus some sent to me from UK by relatives. Nothing scientific or knowledgable about my choices though.

[Rosamunda]

If you hate digging then the best solution is to cover the ground with some kind of weed barrier (you can buy special fleece in the garden centres but old carpets are good too, especially the cotton rag rugs because they decompose naturally). Then you can install raised beds (make or buy) and fill them with soil, peat and compost. It's not the cheapest way of gardening but it requires the least effort. Raised beds are easy to weed (they hardly need weeding at all) and are quite effective at pest control because they are off the ground. They will need watering though in dry weather, but if you have children they might be prepared to help with that.

Another hassle-free way to grow things is with grow-bags. You can buy them in any gardening store. I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes (zucchini), bell peppers etc in grow bags. I suggest you buy small plants from a garden centre or market, rather than grow from seed, you'll get much better results (unless you have a greenhouse).

You can also grow pototoes in large pots, sacks or other containers. And I have rhubarb growing in a wooden box that I filled with compost.
You can even grow strawberries in guttering raised off the ground (but they need to be watered every day).
Blackcurrants are easy to grow and don't require much weeding or watering, just keep the grass short around them.

As for the back-breaking part... I try to limit weeding to short bursts, maybe 30 mins, or one hour and then I go and do something else. You can get serious back problems etc (I have problems with the tendons in my hands and also my heels) if you do the same thing for too long. But you can listen to music, audio books, radio while you're weeding, talk to yourself etc. Take a thermos of coffee (or whatever). If you have a lot of space you could try finding someone to share it with: invite them to share the plot with you.

Re: rotavating. My SO is a big fan of rotavators (boys and toys) and he rotavates every year. I'm against it because I think it spreads the perennial weeds (and I'm the one who does the weeding - we don't use chemicals). My suggestion would be to hire one if you really have to clear field and get it ready for planting, but try to avoid using one on a regular basis. We have just extended our veg garden and we removed the whole top layer (about 10 cms) grass, weeds, roots and all (we now have an Avant so we don't have to dig or shovel by hand any more). It's all clay underneath so now we have a monumental task adding sand, peat, compost etc to get it ready for planting. There are some good YouTube videos on rotavating (YouTube is a great source of info for gardening eg pruning apple trees etc)

It is expensive to buy in soil, but Kekkila is extremely reliable and worth the money. We have had some terrible experiences with soil acquired from other sources. If you only have a small area then it is definitely worth having a compost heap as well.

DMC, have you thought of borrowing a few sheep? They would keep the grass short for you, and fertilize the soil at the same time.

[S.richard]

It seems I am in the right place and very close to the practical hands. Please suggest as I am going to try something in my 10m * 10m gardening plot

Problem:
---------------
The soil is too hard. Clay. While it is dry, if you hit it, you will hear the sound of hitting a stone with a metal. While it is wet, it will take a new lumped shape if you hit. Actually very difficult to crush. Even the seed cant sprout properly. It seems this plot was in abandoned condition for many years.

Question:
------------
1. How to make the soil soft for gardening ? Put lot of purchased soil is too expensive for a 100 m square plot. Any suggestion to make use of the soil of the garden?

2. Regarding manure or fertilizer. I would like to apply horse manure early before the May. Where are this item is sold in big bags? How to use it? I live in Espoo.

3. Any suggestion Apart from the above questions

Regards,
Richard

[Rip]

Any suggestion to make use of the soil of the garden?

Ever thought about making pottery?
Alternatively, if you want to make it easier to handle you need a lot of something. Soil, sand or stuff that has gone through a wood chipper - or a combination of those three.
(combination would probably be best. Sand lasts longest, soil (from good source) has nutrients and the semi decomposed biomass should attract worms.

[sbaynes]

My wish is to get the old style vegetable seeds which haven't been changed by science. You know traditional real tomatoes with the dark red skin and so much stuff inside of them. The different types of potatoes which aren't grown here. Purple potatoes, yellow potatoes (not from winter storage), purple and white carrots etc. There are so many traditional vegies no longer grown anymore. And all the different plants belonging to the squash and pumpkin families you never see here. I've not had the yellow UFO looking Squash in 14 years. I love that stuff. And Butternut Pumpkin, yum. They have another term I can't remember the name of. Not antique, but something along those lines.

Heirloom Seeds: I found some great Heirloom seeds at Maatiainen Ry's small shop in Helsinki (Stenbäckinkatu this week for those who are interested! They have some varieties of vegetables/herbs, and many other perennials and annuals, etc. Majority of them seemed to be seeds from Finnish and Baltic plants. They also have an upcoming event at their Helsinki location on 23.5.2014 where you can buy, sell, and trade seedlings and plants.
http://www.maatiainen.fi/

Vermiculite (Vermikuliitti): I'm still searching for cheap sources of vermiculite/perlite and compost near Helsinki, please let me know if you hear of any.

[Rosamunda]

It seems I am in the right place and very close to the practical hands. Please suggest as I am going to try something in my 10m * 10m gardening plot

Problem:
---------------
The soil is too hard. Clay. While it is dry, if you hit it, you will hear the sound of hitting a stone with a metal. While it is wet, it will take a new lumped shape if you hit. Actually very difficult to crush. Even the seed cant sprout properly. It seems this plot was in abandoned condition for many years.

Question:
------------
1. How to make the soil soft for gardening ? Put lot of purchased soil is too expensive for a 100 m square plot. Any suggestion to make use of the soil of the garden?

2. Regarding manure or fertilizer. I would like to apply horse manure early before the May. Where are this item is sold in big bags? How to use it? I live in Espoo.

3. Any suggestion Apart from the above questions

Regards,
Richard

We have a lot of clay too. Compost and manure is the way to go. Make your own compost and maybe ask the neighbours to contribute too (but make sure they know what goes in - and what doesn't go in - the compost bin. "Leaf mould" (ie leaf compost) is a good idea too - rake up as many dead leaves as you can in the autumn and leave them to rot into the clay over winter. Or dig them in if you have the strength. Another trick is to plant clover or some other ground cover crop (even cereals like oats) and dig them in when they die off. Peas and sunflowers work too and also attract the birds. Hemp is good too but you might have problems if you try growing it in an urban area... Overall, you are talking about a very long term project and lots of back breaking digging. BUT, there are plenty of things that grow really well in clay soils (because they are full of nutrients). For the things that don't like clay (like strawberries) you can always grow them in pots or boxes.

If you want quick results and you want to avoid buying good earth(eg from Siista Piha - you can get BIG bags 660 litres for less than 100e http://www.siistipiha.fi/18-multa ) then I would go for raised beds, grow bags and big pots, tubs and boxes.

Forget about sand... you would need a massive quantity before you notice any difference at all. Or, just add sand to the places where you need it most depending on what you want to grow (eg strawberries).

Manure... there are horse stables in Espoo (Tapiola, Leppävaara, Nuuksio) - we used to get junk mail in the post box advertising horse manure. Google? Bark chippings also work well.