Swedish garden designer Annika Zetterman, author of New Nordic Gardens, brings to life gardens that seamlessly extend the natural Swedish landscape. For clients on the island of Värmdö in the Stockholm Archipelago, Annika took inspiration from the sea, the surrounding vegetation, and even New England.
With an active family who lives and plays outdoors most of the year, the clients asked for a garden that would be an ode to the Swedish landscape—and their own love of the outdoors. (The archipelago is a collection of 25,000 islands off the coast of Sweden that attracts summer and year-round residents wishing to escape busy city life.)
“With a lot of water close by, the climate is milder here than on the mainland,” says Zetterman, “but can also suffer from dry summers with less rain and strong winds, hence knowing what plants that thrive and locating the best area for seating away from strong winds is very important.”
Let’s take a tour of the garden.
Photography by Annika Zetterman, courtesy of Zetterman Garden Design.
The plot is on three levels: The top and bottom sections are used for parking, and the central area hosts the main entrance of the house and a separate garden space that was created to be an area in which to relax and enjoy nature and the sea. On the other side of the garden is a pathway to a private beach with a beach house, a wooden deck with an outdoor kitchen, and a shower.
Granite was used for pathways and walls, and slate for paved sections. There were some stones originally on the plot that Zetterman worked into the landscape. The area is very sunny, so the lawn was kept to a minimum; instead, Zetterman chose sea gravel for its low-maintenance nature and to echo the colors and mood of the sea.
Annika describes her overarching design sensibility for this garden: “The garden is created with soft and smooth shapes in both hard and soft landscaping, with irregular paving and round stones and gravel. The layout of the planting is carefully planned in several sections among the gravel as well as softening retaining walls, embedding the garden yet leaving it open, with choices of low-growing plants and moving ornamental grasses, creating a sense of freedom.”
Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’ grasses stay fresh from spring until autumn and connect the domesticated garden to the wild landscape. Prunus pumila var. ‘Depressa’ keeps the garden maintenance-free in the summer.
Says Zetterman, “To work with enough soft landscaping is foremost. In this case, the client has a love for the countryside and likewise the sea, also seen in the interior.”
See more of our favorite romantic landscapes in our curated Garden Design 101 guides, with tips for Roses: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design and other Perennials, including Salvias and Lamb’s Ear. See more landscaping ideas:
- 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from Scandinavia
- Seaside Gardening: 10 Ideas for Serene Coastal Landscapes
- 10 Best Garden Design Trends for 2018
- A Beautiful Seaside Garden at the End of a Dirt Road
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