Nursery and gardens at Upernaviarsuk

The nursery and gardens at Upernaviarsuk date to initial tentative attempts to introduce horticulture and forestry research to Greenland back in 1953, when the first hotbeds were built. Right from the beginning, these efforts were managed by Poul Bjerge, a forester by trade, until he retired in the year 2000. Since 2007, the nursery and gardens have been run by the Norwegian gardener Anders Iversen.

The nursery and gardens at Upernaviarsuk continue to be a mixed agricultural operation consisting of outdoor areas, hotbeds and a greenhouse with a surface area of 144 m².

The outdoor areas are divided into a number of smaller units that are primarily used for vegetable production and growing potatoes. Given the right amount of calcium and fertilizer, the soil, which is slightly acidic and relatively rich in humus, has proven to be well suited to the current production.

The hotbeds are from the 1950s and 60s, and are used for the production of summer flowers and herbaceous perennials.
They also serve as "exhibit areas" for these products. In addition,
the hotbeds are used to harden vegetable plants before they are transplanted to the outdoors.

The greenhouse is divided into two units, one with heating cables from 1987 and a "cold house" unit from 2005, in other words, a unit without heating. The greenhouse is used during the first half of the season for the production of small plants, and later for growing vegetables.

A new greenhouse with 125 m^² of space has been built in the summer of 2009. This is a heated plastic tunnel-like structure which is supposed to withstand strong winds and is purported to be the most solid construction of its kind on the market. This experiment will show whether such relatively inexpensive greenhouses are suitable for use in Greenland.

Email: kim@nunalerineq.gl