Gardens of West Sweden

We are delighted that our guest writer Susie White has shared this informative piece about her recent trip to visit some of the gardens of West Sweden.

Visiting gardens is a rich source of inspiration and ideas. It is also a chance to compare experiences which is especially useful given the changing climate. After a long wet winter, many gardeners I know have found their perennial plants have put on enormous growth and their annuals have struggled, I guess because of fluctuating temperatures and lack of light and warmth. (Banner image above: A coastal garden).

I’ve just returned from a trip around the gardens of West Sweden and it was interesting to see how similar their experiences have been, in particular the exploding numbers of slugs and snails! It was my second garden tour of this area of Sweden, and I wrote about the first for the recklessgardener website in 2017. This one was coupled with the inauguration of a garden that I had designed north of Gothenburg.

My tour gave me a chance to think about what makes a distinctly Swedish garden. There are many elements in common with our gardens and I saw the same plants used in fairly similar ways; grasses mixed with perennials, shrubs and climbers, corten steel and rusty metal sculptures and old-fashioned roses. What I noticed though is how the landscape of West Sweden with its sweeping outcroppings of granite is embraced by gardeners. And that native trees, ferns and wildflowers are combined in a flowing way with cultivated plants.

This was particularly so of Känn Sensory Garden (image above) in the outskirts of Gothenburg. It’s a half acre private garden on the edge of a nature reserve has been created by Camilla Danielsson over 20 years. She has written an illustrated book about it, Känn trädgården, which is about developing your own ideas for making a garden. The garden is on a steep slope, looking up at the house from the front and down on the roof from the back!

There are six different areas each with its own atmosphere, hence the name Sensory Garden, though Camila says that the translation from the Swedish word doesn’t quite get over the feeling. As you move from one area to another your physical experience changes from light to shade, openness to enclosure, colour to greenery.

Camilla has planted around the vast swelling slabs of granite and fashioned a lawn that is angled to one side to go with the contour (pictured above). She has used circles to counteract the squareness of the house, and these also make the garden feel larger. She says she loves green in all its nuances, shapes and forms and that is such a relief for the eye to rest on after a lot of orange pink or red. By exposing the trunks of rhododendrons she’s created interesting shapes as well as places to plant beneath. There’s something to see all year round and in common with other Swedish gardens there are numerous places to sit out.

After lunch by the lake at the garden cafe of Villa Belparc, the city park of Slottsskogen, it was an hour and a half’s drive to the far side of the large island of Tjörn in the Swedish archipelago. A five minute ride on a ferry crossed the narrow sound to the smaller and car-free Island of Härön. I particularly wanted to walk a circuit of this island for its flora and landscape and fell in love with the place.

In some ways it reminded me of Scotland with its indented coastline and numerous small skerries but the brightly painted red and white houses with their boat jetties were very Swedish. The wildflowers were lovely, especially at the remote farm of Angen still managed in a traditional way and a place that has never been been treated with fertilisers or pesticides. As I hoped, there was plenty to observe for my Guardian Country Diary.

(above: The Meadows on Härön)

Staying at the Magasinet Härön was a complete treat. My room in this beautifully renovated former oats store looked out onto the sound, the fish and seafood was superb and breakfast was on the wooden pier by the sea. I really didn’t want to leave!

Next it was to the island of Lilla Askerön, where I visited Bartley Gardens, a very young garden from scratch begun by Victoria Bartley only two years ago (image left). This 19th century farm by the sea is backed by a dramatic cliff and Victoria has plans to make the most of this by adding to the existing oaks and ferns, transforming it into a forest garden.

When people visit she loves to tell them of her plans and ambitions but already she has made flower borders – salvias, perovskias, origanums and grasses – and created a kitchen garden enclosed by a typically Swedish fence of coppiced wood.

The existing old fruit trees had disease and their pears and apples were black so she treated them with BinabT, a biological control not available here as far as I know – within a year all the leaves were healthy.

After another good lunch (!) at Sundsby Manor which has its own bakery and farm shop, I was taken round the gardens by Head Gardener Joakim Wenner.

The large kitchen garden, enclosed in a red painted wooden fence, supplies food for the restaurant and I saw the sweet cicely that had decorated my lunchtime potatoes. Formal beds of beans, peas, garlic, onions and potatoes were added to with less common vegetables, scorzonera, globe artichoke, salsify and colourful varieties of lettuce.

Preserving produce for the winter was a priority for the historic Manor garden (image below) A stone building once stored fruits, and grape vines that are nearly 200 years old still flourish in the small vine house. I was particularly interested in the paths made of crushed seashells.

I stayed the night at the delightful Dahlbogården, the farm that Maria Oscott grew up on and has converted to accommodation in the old granary, with a restaurant, garden terrace and vintage shop. She cooked the Swedish version of fish and chips which was delicious! There are two architect designed wooden tents by the lake for a quiet off grid stay. Around the farmhouse and barns, Maria has created a series of lovely informal gardens.

Next day it was the inauguration of my garden at Nolhaga Park in Alingsås (image right – credit: Matilda Hellman). It had been a difficult remit, recycling my previous garden at Jonsered Manor which needed to be moved because of building works.

I drew the plan in the winter without really knowing how many plants would survive the move and this was the first time that I’d seen it in actuality.

There were a couple of hundred people at the opening despite the rain and there were speeches and singing before I talked about the design of “Susie’s English Garden“.

A classic mixture of perennials, ornamental grasses, topiary and sweet peas on hazel teepees, it was already attracting bees to its nectar plants. Then the celebrated Swedish-English gardener and author, Simon Irvine, and I tied together the ribbons of our two countries, as a symbol of collaboration and friendship.

If you would like to learn more about the gardens of West Sweden please visit: https://www.vastsverige.com/en/cultural_experiences/gardens

Susie’s latest book ‘Second Nature: The Story of a Naturalist’s Garden‘ is published by Saraband.

Susie is a Guardian Country Diarist and columnist for My Weekly magazine. She is a member of the Garden Media Guild and the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild as well as an RHS Listed Speaker. She tweets as @cottagegardener and her website is www.susie-white.co.uk

Unless otherwise stated all images are strictly © Susie White