A pioneer in biodynamic farm-to-table gardening and eating is our topic for this episode.
Visit us at maedunbroc.com
Music by Jason Shaw at AudionautiX
To find your next favorite book, visit our Bookshop.
Featured image courtesy of TripAdvisor.
Transcript:
Hey there, Garden Lovers,
Today is March 5, and this is A Garden a Day with Mædunbroc Gardens. Thank you for joining me today.
There are so many kinds of gardens to explore — formal, informal, cottage, Italian, Japanese, rain garden, butterfly garden, cactus garden, container garden, rose garden, herb garden, tea garden . . . The list goes on and on.
There are also so many styles of gardening practice — conventional, companion planting, core, hydroponics, lasagna gardening, no dig, permaculture. This list goes on and on, too.
Today’s garden practices biodynamic agriculture. If you are not familiar with the biodynamic practice, it’s very similar to organic gardening in that it does not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Biodynamic goes a bit further, though, in that it is a practice for building up the greater ecosystem by working with the seasons and the natural rhythms of nature. The health of the soil is a fundamental concern, and composting is a major part of the practice.
Today’s garden has been practicing biodynamic agriculture for almost forty years. Located in Stockholm, Sweden, today, we are exploring Rosendals Trädgård or Rosendals Garden.
What visitors see today began as a restoration in the 1960s, but the area has a longer history as a garden.
In 1817, the Swedish king Karl XIV Johan purchased the land where today’s garden resides and turned the area into a park. Two years later, a royal castle was built there. A winter garden was installed to allow the cultivation of tropical plants in winter.
In 1848, the king’s son, by this time himself the king, Oscar, I, had an orangery constructed on the property, but it was his wife, Queen Josephina, who had the greatest influence on the garden.
She consulted with the Swedish Gardening Society which brought forth an academy for gardening in the area. The garden academy lasted for fifty years. After the academy closed and the Swedish Gardening Society ceased operation, the garden fell into decline until the 1960s when the local authorities agreed to restore the garden to its former glory.
Since 1982, the garden has been operated by The Trust Fund of Rosendals Trädgård. The fund is completely self-supporting through sales from its shops and bakery and receives no outside support.
Several areas of the garden are notable.
The Fruit Orchard includes more than fifty varieties of apples, cherries, plums, and pears. During the years when Queen Josephina and the Swedish Gardening Society were active with the garden, many fruit trees were introduced and encouraged farmers across Sweden to plant their own trees.
The Rose Garden includes more than 100 different species of rose, mostly bush roses, as those fair better in the Swedish climate. Many of the rose bushes in the garden today were planted in the 1860s.
The Wine Garden allows for the fermenting of biodynamic wine. Seven different varieties of grape are grown, and from those grapes, the garden makes biodynamic wine with no chemical additives — only the sun and the nourishment of the earth are included in each bottle.
The garden also includes a market garden with fields for growing produce and flowers. In summer, the garden invites visitors to pick their own flowers for purchase.
There are also greenhouses for growing herbs and teaching classes in organic gardening and an educational garden for children.
The garden is free to explore. The only money you need to spend is what you choose to spend in the shops or bakery.
The Greenhouse Cafe serves lunch from 11:00 to 3:00. As one of the pioneers of the farm to table movement, Rosendals uses many of their own garden-grown produce in the dishes served at their organically certified cafe.
They operate a garden shop carrying just about anything anyone would want for the garden including flowers, plants, seeds, and garden tools.
There is also a farm shop where customers can buy produce grown at the farm as well as homemade preserves and pickles and a carefully curated selection of books and artisan crafts.
A bakery is located in the farm shop specializing in heritage grain breads and cakes. The selection changes with the availability of organic produce grown in the garden.
Hours may vary throughout the year, but the garden is usually open between the hours of 11:00 and 4:00. They do close at various times throughout the year, so maybe check before you go.
Well, that’s about it for today. I do hope you’ve enjoyed this episode.
Join me here tomorrow to find out where we are going next.
As a reminder, I release a new episode every single day. You can find past episodes anywhere you listen to podcasts or you can find them at our website — agardenaday.com.
Thanks for listening. If all goes well, I’ll be right back here tomorrow. See you then!
To learn more about Rosendals Garden, check out these links:
https://swedishgardens.se/en/garden/rosendals-garden/
https://www.swedentips.se/stockholm/rosendal-garden/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosendals_Trädgård
https://www.rosendalstradgard.se/about-rosendals-tradgard/
https://royaldjurgarden.se/en/eat_do_sleep/rosendals-tradgard/
https://www.visitacity.com/en/stockholm/attractions/rosendals-trdgrd
Leave a Reply