Think spring and you think blossoming flowers and bees. Honey was used to cure wounds in the middle ages (as well as making a good drink called mead), so it would be nice to see a field of flowers and some bee hives with honey combs (you would need to smoke them out first).
Interesting read about bees in the middle ages:
http://carlenefederer.blogspot.nl/2011/02/monks-mead-and-madness-humans-and-bees.html
Potatoes and tomatoes. I would expect nothing less from mighty kingdom of Bohemia.
As mentioned earlier tomatoes and potateos are from the america’s not europe.
I don’t know much about it but… I’ve found Archeobotanickou databázi České republiky. Maybe it could be usefull.
They have got a map where you can find some data of few specific areas. It is sorted to early medieval, late medieval… etc.
So this should be a list of vegetation of Chrudim (closest area I’ve found) at late medieval (in Latin).
Also I found this similar list in pdf about Brno and surrounding area (both Czech and Latin terms with last page in German)
there was a really great thread about this. i think the consensus was primarily, the spruce trees would have to be reduced.
I also like to think medieval forests would have been more diverse and less well-kept; different trees standing next to each other, fallen / cut branches, clearings, burnt spots (lightning / fire). From the top it would have looked ragged.
“Although the indigenous forests in the Czech Republic have been artificially replaced mainly by spruce woods, you can still find more than one-third of forests with original tree structure. Forests typical of the Czech Republic mainly include a mixture of oaks, firs and spruce. The symbolic tree of the Czech Republic is the linden; the largest living tree in the Czech Republic is actually a linden. This particular tree is marked as a monumental tree and is called Vejda’s linden (at a point 130 centimeters above the ground, the trunk perimeter is 12.5 meters), situated in Pastviny, not far from Ústí nad Orlicí. On the other hand, the Klokočovská linden in the Železné Mountains is considered the oldest Czech tree. It’s age is estimated about 1,000 years. We are sure that was already a fully grown tree in the 14th century.”
One way to find out what sorts of trees were in the specific area of KDC (if you have no records) is asking the local heritage conservation office (Denkmalamt) what building timber was used. The local archeological office could help, too.
Yes, but wood for construction is only a part of the equation. In a region with mixed wood only certain species were used which offered the best features for various construction purposes. But one simple question could be answered by looking at the wood used for construction: whether the area offered a mixed or almost entirely conifer forest.
Be patient, I have many sources on the topic. I just need more time to review them. 
Because TobiTorbsen asked about that, here are the trustworthy sources for my two postings above (sorry, most of them in German):
Behre, Karl-Erns. Die Ernährung im Mittelalter. In: Bernd Herrmann (Hg.): Mensch und Umwelt im Mittelalter. Frankfurt am Main 1989
Scully, Terence. Food in the Middle Ages
Blume, Jacob: Das Buch von guter Speise. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004
Bitsch, Irmgard. Essen und Trinken in Mittelalter und Neuzeit: Vorträge eines interdisziplinären Symposions vom 10.-13. Juni 1987
an der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Hg. Irmgard Bitsch, Trude Ehlert und Xenja von Ertzdorff. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1987.
Kühnel, Harry, Hg. Alltag im Spätmittelalter. 2., verb. Aufl. Graz, Wien und Köln: Styria, 1986.
Van Winter, Johanna Maria. “Kochen und Essen im Mittelalter”. Mensch und Umwelt im Mittelalter. Hg. Bernd Herrmann. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1986.
Laurioux, Bruno. Tafelfreuden im Mittelalter: Die Eßkultur der Ritter, Bürger und Bauersleut. Augsburg. Weltbild, 1999.
Saalfeld, Dietrich. Wandlungen der bäuerlichen Konsumgewohnheiten vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit.
Carrol-Spillecke u.a.Der Garten von der Antike bis zum Mittelalter Verl.: Philipp von Zabern 1992
Birkhan, Helmut. Pflanzen im Mittelalter: Eine Kulturgeschichte. Böhlau Wien, 2013
Possibly, but most probably a luxuary that not everyone would be able to afford.
I seem to remember something from history lessons long time ago about the Swedish people growing garden turnips and such. And a lot of porridge.
Maybe important for the look of the fields in the game: three-field (crop) rotation.
Wikipedia: “The three-field system is a regime of crop rotation in use in medieval and early-modern Europe from around the time of Charlemagne. Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar/different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Under this system, the arable land of an estate or village was divided into three parts: one was planted in the autumn with winter wheat or rye; the second was planted with other crops (summer crop) or peas, lentils, beans; and the third was left fallow, in order to allow the soil of that field to regain its nutrients (Anm.: Or used as pasture for cattle). With each rotation, the field would be used differently, so that a field would be planted for two out of the three years used, whilst one year it “rested”. This allowed farmers to plant more crops and therefore to increase production.” (Same sources as above).
Even within Denmark. (and thats the current Denmark, and not the medieval Danish empire than was a lot bigger)
a number of different rotation systems was in uses. Very regional depending on the soil.
So I think you would have to get info about how it was in the local area.
Last week our design team went out for some research. The region of Litoměřice in the north of Czech Republic is known for its various plants which also can be found in the early 15th century. Therefore we went out to make pictures of flowers, trees, textures and the early summer setting. Do you want to sneak a peek behind the scenes? Here you go!
I just love this attention to details.
I really like that your putting effort in this research! Thats what I was hoping for
And I created a thread about this some weeks ago too. There you can find additional information:
I think it’s important to consider advances in agricultural practices since the middle ages. They didn’t have any genetic engineering or pesticides back then, at least not nearly to an extent as we have now, so wouldn’t it stand to reason that any farm fields you see would have crops a tad less majestic than you would find nowadays? Apples and corn wouldn’t be nearly as shiny or richly colored as you would find in a modern grocery store, and there would be more genetic diversity leading to more varied colors, shapes, and sizes as opposed to the uniformity in produce we are accustomed to.
Why would apples and corn be less colored or shiny? There would be a lot of different breeds of the food we know today though, I definately agree. A little off topic, but the diversity also was bigger amongst the people, regarding archeology.
Actually pesticides are hardly needed if the soil and the plant is “healthy”. Unfortunately this is not the case in modern agriculture with its excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. These kill most of the micro organisms and earthworms in the soil. This leads to a far reduced capacity of water and mineral storage and a far slower metabolism - giving way to parasites, soil erosion and leaching. So there are actually more long term penalties than short term gains on modern agriculture. Organic for the win
Kind Regards!
From what I’ve seen, I think you have to many spruce trees. The Norway spruce (picea abies) naturally grows only in the northern regions of Europe or in high altitudes. I’m no archeobotanist, but I don’t think there were any spruce monocultures, so I think it should be rather uncommon to encounter this species.
Also, it might be interesting to include some agricultural crops that are rarely seen today, but might have been of great importance in the middle ages, like buckwheat, poppy or flax (linen).
At least around Stribrna Skalice there should be less trees because it was a mining region. I read about it in the last days and it said that they needed lots of timber back then. Not only for building cooking and heating. Mining required woods nearby or rivers for timber transport. For mine construction, getting ore with fire starting and of course the smelting process.
They know it better than me. Lets see what the do about it.
