Catching Warmth, Growing Roots: Permaculture in Finland

This is now our third gardening year in Finland, and we’ve already learned an incredible amount. We love experimenting with different growing methods in various parts of the garden. A lot of it works quite well, but some things went completely wrong.

We’d like to share with you what our biggest challenges are and how we deal with them.

A climate that was foreign to us

Here in Valtimo, on the northern border of North Karelia, or at 63.7 degrees latitude, the gardening season is completely different from what we're used to in Switzerland. The climate is quite harsh for overwintering plants. According to the USDA hardiness zones, a classification of cold zones by the United States Department of Agriculture, we live on the border of zones 3b and 4a. This corresponds to a maximum low winter temperature of approximately -31.7 to -34.4 degrees Celsius. Only plants that can withstand these temperatures can survive outdoors without additional protective measures.

The cold winter nights also last well into May and sometimes even June, but at the same time we have almost 20 hours of daylight. This often triggers false feelings.

You want to start in the garden, start growing plants, prepare the bed, and sow seeds. But when you open the door, there's still snow or the ground is frozen solid.

Snowfall in May is also not uncommon. In Finland, this late snowfall is called "takatalvi," the return of winter.

The transition from late winter to early summer is short, and nature literally explodes within a short period of time. For us, this means we need to prepare, sow, and plant everything as early as possible and within a short timeframe so that the plants can fully utilize the short season until the first frost in September.

It also means that we need to do as much as possible early so that the plants have a head start on growth by the time they're planted out. However, we also can't start too early, so that, for example, the tomatoes don't start flowering or the plants don't become root-blocked and stop growing.

In order to plant the pre-grown plants, a minimum soil or night temperature of about 10 degrees is often required, and this is only reached relatively late in the year.

In the first year, we were very overconfident with the garden. We have almost unlimited space, so it grew far too large. We were overwhelmed by the growth explosion in early summer, and the soil was simply poor. The onions drowned in the rain, the beets were riddled with wireworms, and of the approximately 100 tomato plants, we only had a handful. Of course, there were also some successes. We had so many potatoes that we didn't know what to do with them. Peas and beans coped very well with the climate, and the lettuce didn't let us down either.

A new climate for our garden

Our goal here must therefore be to create a warmer local microclimate to achieve a shorter season extension. Permaculture uses various elements to achieve this. Most of them are so-called sun traps, where we try to store the sun's heat. These include the following elements:

• U-shaped extension with south-facing opening

• Hedges to protect plants from cold winds

• Hugelkultur

• Raised beds , also usable as cold frames

• Multi-layered planting e.g. forest gardens

  (Trees, shrubs and cultivated plants together)

• Cultivation south of dry stone walls or house walls

• Greenhouses and cold frames

Another goal is to improve the soil. We have very clayey, shallow, stony soil here with shallow water veins.

Soil fertility is also a central issue in permaculture and there are various ways to improve it.

• No chemicals or pesticides

• Compost and manure

• Mulching the beds to prevent nutrient and moisture loss

• No regular deep digging of the beds to preserve the soil organisms

• Green manures

• Plant mixed crops to improve the root penetration of the soil and promote soil organisms

• Preventing erosion

These measures were a complete success

In the second year, the first thing we did was downsize the garden. It's simply more enjoyable when you can do justice to the plants, the carrots aren't lost in the weeds, and you can see at a glance what's growing in the garden. We also built a greenhouse.

There were countless old windows in a storage shed on the property. Maika removed the old, rotten frames and reclad them. We cut the wood from our own trees and installed it. We only had to purchase the twin-wall sheets for the roof.

Although the greenhouse was finished "too late," we were able to harvest a great deal from it. We were finally able to make our own tomato sauce again, harvested cucumbers until they were hanging out of our ears, and had pumpkins and even melons for winter storage. Our garden also did better. The compost used to improve the soil was beginning to take effect. The carrots were longer, and the beets were no longer full of holes.

To improve the soil, we piled up all the duck and sheep manure next to the garden in early summer and let it rot. In the fall, after the last harvest, we added a thick layer to the bed.

Routine and New Experiments

In this, our third year, we're able to make full use of the greenhouse. We can now plant the garden house at the same time as someone in Switzerland who plants tomatoes outdoors. In addition to cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, etc., we've also planted a pear tree as an espalier as a further experiment.

The potatoes were planted in the ground towards the end of May. Once the plants are about 40 cm tall, we mound the soil so that the tips of the plants are still above the ground. The resulting leaf buds also produce fruit, which can increase the harvest. We sowed an oat-white clover mixture where the potatoes were planted last year. We hope this will produce a small oat harvest for the sheep.

We tried to plant a large flower meadow for our bees .

In addition to a raised bed, we also built a herb spiral in the spring.

The raised bed's incline puts it at a better angle to the sun in spring and fall, allowing the soil to warm up more quickly (similar to the principle of solar panels). It also warms from within through the decomposition of the materials piled up.

We are now very excited to see how these projects develop and which plants grow best this year.

If you'd like to learn more about permaculture or need help with your garden, you can get in touch using the contact form or book a consultation here. If you like our blog, share it with your loved ones or leave a comment. We look forward to seeing you again.