Visited with the Lakeland Horticulture Society (LHS) on June 7th, 2014.
Our afternoon and last garden visit of the day was a private garden on the wooded slopes of Lake Ämmern. Our hosts, friends of George and Dorothy Feather our tour guides, have been visitors to the mountainside LHS garden at Holehird in Windermere, England's Lake District. They graciously welcomed our group to visit their secluded garden retreat that borders a National Reserve and Lake Ämmern.
Our host provided us with weather and orientation information at the start of our exploration of the garden comparing their Sweden garden with the LHS Garden. Annual rainfall is about 19-23 inches (500-600 milimeter) at Lake Ämmern, approximately half of what you would find at the Holehird Garden. With Holehird at 492 feet (150 meters) above sea level the garden on Lake Ämmern which is near Rimforsa’, is at 328 feet (100 meters) above. Their latitude at 58 degrees is the same as the northern parts of Scotland with winter temperatures as low as -20 degrees F. or 26-27 degrees centigrade below freezing point. In comparison The Lake District winters would be considered mild due to it's proximity of the warm Gulf Stream currents from Africa.
The garden of 2 ½ acres faces in all four directions and runs 656 feet (200 meters) in length. The lower woodland garden was pasture before 1945.
Paths for “retired” people have been established as the terrain has large boulders left by ice age melt. There is a small beck but the water dries up in the summertime.
The rocky hillside is planted with rhododendrons that are fed with organic fertilizer. No insecticides or toxins are used in the garden.
To fill the sizable areas between moss-covered boulders large plants and mass groupings of hosta, ferns and ground cover are used. Compost is used in a soil that is heavy clay with rock underneath.
The woodland garden is a natural garden without strict borders or concern for tidiness. They choose plants plants that fit into their landscape, discussing their choices with each other. Plants are obtained as many gardeners do, by exchanging plants with friends, propagation and commercial purchases.
Masses of colorful primula in several different varieties were in bloom on the forest floor. Ferns fill in the spaces between moss covered boulders.
Carl Linnaeus's charm, the Linnaea borealis was in bloom in the woods. When Linnaeus saw it in the old forests in his travels in Lapland he called it my “herb.” He wrote of it,” A plant in Lapland, short, overlooked and disregarded with only a brief time in bloom. This plant is named for Linnaeus, who is like it.”
Linnaeus friend George Gronovious named the plant after the Greek god Boreas of the north winds, in honor of Linnaeus. It may be easy to overlook the few short plants with their nodding bell shaped pale pink flowers growing on the forest floor but the province of Linnaeus's birth has not overlooked Linnaeus's favorite plant as the twinflower is the flora emblem of Småland.
Several birch trees have nesting boxes. A variety of birds, insects, 60 species of different butterflies and the stag beetle, a protected species whose larva takes five years to develop into a beetle, are welcome inhabitants in the insecticide free garden. In the winter time our host feeds the tits, green-finches, tree sparrows, yellowhammer and great spotted woodpeckers. Over the lake they watch white tailed eagles.
Prominent trees in the landscape are Scottish Pines, birch and the juniper trees whose berries are the last resort for the birds.
Moving out of the shade, the garden looses the carefree but managed appearance of the tangled woodland flora. Sunlight allows the placement of structured and defined tidy beds.
A warm sunny space for quiet reflection is created. The coolness of the woods that shelter and provide food for the numerous variety of birds and other wildlife is a natural backdrop.
The open garden space allows the planting of fruit trees. A walking path is mowed through the fruit orchard with large swatches of grass left to grow with wildflowers surrounding the fruit trees. Vegetables and herbs in raised beds inter- space with the ornamental perennials of poppy, digitalis, lupine and aquilegia parading their June blooms.
Our hosts have lived by Lake Ämmern for fifty years and the two of them have designed and maintained this garden over the past twenty-five years. Their lakeside home and garden is a private retreat (not open to the public), where they do welcome friends and people they know. Our LHS group was fortunate to have been invited as guests to engage in conversation with our generous hosts and explore their multifaceted garden; a spiritual sanctuary found in sheltered woods and continued along the open shores of Lake Ämmern.
TRAVEL REFLECTIONS
Late afternoon we arrived at the Hotel Corallen on the Baltic seaside port of Oskarshamn for a nights stay. With the northern long daylight hours there was time in the evening to enjoy a clear evening outside by the harbor and take a few photos of Sweden's symbolic swans and the pleasure and fishing boats retired for the night along the docks.
I woke up in the morning about 3:15 and slipped quietly out on the balcony from our hotel room to take a photo of the sunrise. In mid June in the north of Sweden the sun does not set and in the south only for an hour or two. Midsommar celebrations would begin in two weeks celebrating the summer day with no night. I was not the only one taking a snapshot of the early dawn. Vivian was also on her balcony taking a photo. For both of us it was a short night with interrupted sleep.
Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel for an afternoon three hour ferry ride to the Island of Gotland as our destination for a week stay. In the morning though, we traveled by coach over a 3 1/2 mile bridge that connects the mainland of Sweden with the Island of Öland for a quick visit. Once again we were back in step following the “footsteps of Linnaeus.”
Photos by Deborah McMillin