Life, with the garden
Location: Lund, Sweden • • • Visit: May 2017
It is rather small, the botanic garden in Lund. Situated behind a solid brick wall on the outskirts of the old town, it is like a green little universe of its own. The high, old trees shelter the garden from the noises outside, and it is easy to forget you are in the middle of a bustling town once you’ve entered through the gates.
It was late May when I visited, and summer was just about to arrive. I was doing my first round of interviews for my PhD project, with civil servants. I spent most of my time in Kristianstad – but returning from the administrative county board’s office in Malmö, I took advantage of an afternoon without interviews and got off the train in Lund. The second oldest university town in Sweden. As it turned out, both the town and its botanic garden a perfect place for a well-deserved and needed break in the middle of my interviewing tour of southern Sweden.
I ate strawberries and chocolate under a northern red oak, strolled through the beech and linden groves, the width of the trunks revealing the great age of the garden. It has been in its current location since 1862, after being relocated from the spot where it was originally established in 1690. The beds of herbs behind the greenhouses reminiscing of a fully stocked medicinal garden.
The small greenhouses were neat and well-frequented by primary school children. I took shelter there away from a heavy spring rain – but weather is fickle that time of year. No sooner had it stopped raining, than the sun came out and turned the whole garden into a glittering, fragrant concentrate of late spring. The rhododendrons were in full bloom, colorful and heavy with lingering drops. I admired the wild meadow flowers, everything open, saturated, the air pregnant with the smells of approaching summer. Peonies, tulips, herbs and clovers. A real gem in old town Lund.
Katja Malmborg 