Sweden's Kolonitradgårdar - Community Gardens With a Twist

 Ithaca’s Community Gardens provides small garden plots and resources so individuals and households without the income or space can still produce their own food, flowers and herbs. This essentially is also what Sweden’s kolonitradgårdar are. But with a twist. They typically include tiny summer cottages as well, that owners can customize inside and out but not enlarge beyond certain limits.

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One of the cottages, garden and gardener

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Aerial view (from NYTimes)

Södermalm - an island that is one of Stockholm’s inner-city neighborhoods - has a number of these kolonitradgårdar, several of  which we visited. They are actually quite amazing, not only picturesque and rural, but also set side-by-side within the dense urban fabric. The ones we visited were separate associations close to each other, with over a hundred allotments each. One is on a hillside with some cottages having great views of other parts of Stockholm.

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A street in the community, with a view

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They were established early in the 20th century for the working class population of Södermalm, copied from similar creations in Denmark. Today they have long waiting lists and working class people have long been gentrified out of Södermalm. These are associations, with municipal leases and rules about building methods and seasonal use, as well as size. Many people live in their cottages in the summer - mini summer houses (many more well off Swedes typically spend summer vacations - 5 weeks paid - in their 2nd homes).

While at one time these were common in Western Europe, the numbers have now decreased. But Sweden's kolonitradgårdar have remained popular and well-integrated into urban planning, maintaining some of the original socialist vision of allotment gardens. Today, there are around 50,000 allotments in Sweden, just over half with cottages on them, the rest are pure agricultural plots. But there is a need for more and the national Allotment Garden Association is pushing municipalities to arrange more places for those who want to grow.

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