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One thing I ’ve learned after almost a decade in Sweden is this : Under no circumstances should you move here in November . I did . I provide New York , a city that glitters twelvemonth - daily round and where there ’s almost always some green in Central Park , and move to Stockholm . aliveness went from Technicolor to black and clean . If you ’ve witness Ingmar Bergman’sThe Seventh Seal , in which a man plays chess with dying , that ’s how I palpate as I walk around the house switching on lights at 3 o’clock on a November afternoon .
Limestone Nordic gods defend the grounds of Häringe Slott , a hotel turn up on a nature reserve to the south of Stockholm , Sweden . Photo by : Pia Ulin and Gemma and Andrew Ingalls . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
For someone whose career as a writer and editor involved a cracking raft of time spent in gardens in England and America , it was n’t just the darkness that number as a shock . Sweden , one of the less - populated country in Europe , has an abundance of commonwealth but what seemed to me a shortage of gardens . Was it potential that the Swedes , unlike the British , simply choose their nature untamed ?
“ horticulture in Sweden is a rather fresh playing field , ” explains Ulf Nordfjell , one of Sweden ’s most prominent landscape painting designers and succeeder of the salutary in Show award at the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show . “ It was started with a need to grow veggie after World War II . You ca n’t compare a Swedish garden with one in Britain or France or Italy ; it ’s not possible . We have country gardens where people pass time during their summer , but it ’s a rather unique relationship — more a slice of nature , maybe with some strawberry and roses . ”
Since the 1800s , Rosendals Trädgård , a garden turn up on an island in central Stockholm , has gas an broad appeal of rarified industrial plant , admit , at one point , some 400 yield tree . Today , the garden offers veg and cut flowers for sales event and classes on biodynamic gardening . Below , Dahlia pinnata and calendula uprise in row outside a greenhouse . exposure by : Pia Ulin and Gemma and Andrew Ingalls . SEE MORE photo OF THIS GARDEN
Ah , the Swedish summertime . As with winter , nothing prepares you for it , but this time the shock is a nice one . Days are tenacious , nights are warm , and the light has a silver quality you find nowhere else . After its long winter slumber , nature goes into overdrive , and Swedes want to be in the thick of it . abruptly , liveliness is lived outside .
Even though Stockholm has one of the high rate of 2d - home possession in the world , local do n’t need to leave to get back to nature . At various spots around the city there are koloni — one - room wooden shanty with garden around them , rather like British allotment gardens . hoi polloi sign up on waiting lists for koloni and munificent love on them when they get them . The city ’s commons are also full in the summer , and there are places like Rosendals Trädgård , a public garden with a coffee shop and glasshouse on the island of Djurgården that is compact whenever the sun shines . People picnic in the orchard , cut bloom , bribe plant , or feed dejeuner in one of the field glass theatre .
Before I move here , I thought of Swedish design as being all about white minimalism . It is , in fact , full of reference work to the rude world . “ Nature is a great inspiration , ” says Victoria Skoglund , owner of Stockholm ’s hip industrial plant nursery , Zetas . “ Many creative person , designers , and creators use wood , plants , and urine as the basis of their macrocosm . ” you could see this at Svenskt Tenn , an inner designing stock in downtown Stockholm best known for its collection of furnishings and cloth by Josef Frank . Frank , an Austrian designer who fled to Sweden in 1933 as the Nazis rose to power , drew hard on nature , design vivid patterns filled with tulip , lotus flowers , ferns , and all sorts of imaginary varieties . One of his most iconic man is his Flora cabinet that ’s solely covered with botanical print . His influence on Swedish design and architecture is immeasurable , and even at Ikea you ’ll find all kind of objet d’art inspired by Frank ’s work .
AtGrythyttans Gästgivaregård , orGrythyttan Inn , established in 1640 , a shed ’s grassy roof comprise an onetime - school take on the green roof concept while the brick red , or Falu red , exterior exemplifies the go - to color for wood construction throughout Sweden . Photo by : Pia Ulin and Gemma and Andrew Ingalls . SEE MORE photo OF THIS GARDEN
So while even one of the most famous gardens in the earth — that of Carl Linnaeus , the trailblazer of taxonomy , in the town of Uppsala — is quite modest when liken to English or Italian specimen , the born populace permeates this country ’s esthetic in a style that rivals even the most garden - centrical societies . This can be seen on a domesticated level — there ’s never a shortage of beautiful flush in Swedish homes , no matter the prison term of year — and on a deeper ethnical plain in the etymology of so many Swedish surnames . Hasselblad , for instance , means “ hazel foliage , ” and the hoagie of Stieg Larsson ’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy , Mikael Blomkvist , has a last name that roughly translate as “ flower twig . ”
now , as Skoglund points out , the ever - practical swede are commit their garden to increasing use to uprise unusual foods . “ requirement for utilitarian berries like goji and buckthorn has never been majuscule , and citizenry ’s involvement in growing their own vegetables seems to just get big and bigger , ” she says . “ Customers are no longer slaked with traditional potatoes ; they ask for the Gallic daintiness potatoes . Different kinds of chilies , tomatoes , and lettuce varieties are on their shopping lists . ”
Nordfjell notice that there ’s also an increased interest in blueprint among Swedish gardeners , who now experiment with plant kind , shapes , and materials . “ attitude have been interchange over the last 20 days , ” he order . “ People are using timber , steel , and granite . ” And while gardeners here have an oculus on what ’s happening in the rest of the world , Swedish landscapes stay unique . “ Six calendar month of snow , ” says Nordfjell , “ influences a slew of what you could do in your garden . ”
A Swedish SojournTo good relish Sweden ’s natural knockout , plan to gossip between May and September ( though be forewarned : Many Swedes take a calendar month - long vacation in July , leaving the cities feeling empty and many of the restaurants shuttered ) .
For accommodations in Stockholm , consider the well - designed newcomerHotel Skeppsholmen , located on a small island connected to the urban center shopping centre by a bridge circuit . Neighbors admit the Museum of Modern Art and the Swedish Museum of Architecture . Stallmästaregårdenis a 49 - room inn date from the 1600s butt the Royal Park of Haga ( Hagaparken ) , which features walking paths and a large tropic greenhouse . To sample Sweden ’s take on the “ new Nordic ” culinary art , which favour realistic techniques and Norse ingredients , brain toMathias Dahlgrenat the Grand Hôtel , where one can taste a theme song dish of in the altogether and smoke Greenland caribou with whitefish roe . AtRestaurang Volt , the likes of lamb tongue , spruce , sea ribgrass , gooseberries , and ash are serve in a coolheaded , minimalist quad .
If you ’re traveling to Sweden , check into any ofc / o Hotels ’ telling , unique properties scattered around the country , includingHäringe Slott , Krägga Herrgård , and Grythyttan Inn , among others ( careofhotels.com ) .
Stephen Whitlock was once an associate editor atGarden Design . He lives in Stockholm and writes for legion magazines .
