Sweden: How a year on my allotment taught me to appreciate the Swedish seasons

A common complaint from people who moved to Sweden from elsewhere is the climate – sometimes it feels like Sweden is grey for 80 percent of the year.

By Becky Waterton
The Local
Nov 14, 2024

Ok, admittedly, Sweden is not exactly a gardener’s paradise. The summers don’t get particularly hot, we have a lot of rain and wind, and the winters are long, dark and cold.

Now that winter is here, it’s easy to get depressed at the lack of light and cocoon yourself indoors until the sun comes back in May (it’s what most Swedes do during the colder months, after all).

Even though the long Swedish winters make it far from the ideal place to grow vegetables, having an allotment – an odlingslott or kolonilott if it has a small house – is surprisingly popular.

That’s probably because when you have a garden or allotment, it’s hard to dwell on the season you’re in as you’re always planning ahead for the next one. It’s a lot easier to find the motivation to get outdoors and plant some bulbs in November when you imagine the sea of flowers which will be growing there come spring.

Here’s what I learned after a year on my allotment.

January

It’s the beginning of the new year and you feel like the skies have been grey for months (probably because they have). The trees are bare, the ground is brown sludge (at least down here in Skåne, if you live further north you might be lucky enough to have snow), and you’ve almost forgotten what grass looks like.

Summer couldn’t feel more of a distant memory, yet if you grow your own veg this is about the time you dig out all your seed packets and start planning the next year in your garden or on your allotment.

The growing season in Sweden is short, so unless you have a greenhouse, any plants which come from warmer climates like chilis, peppers, artichokes or aubergines (eggplants) need a long time and a lot of light if you have any hope of a crop before the winter hits again.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed – there’s so much to do! But don’t worry. Finally there’s an upside to the long Swedish winters and you’ve got a few weeks left to get everything ready for the year ahead.

Nothing else will get you more excited about the spring than digging out your seed trays and plant lights, sticking some seeds into potting soil and checking them every morning for signs of germination.

February

Winter in Sweden can sometimes feel endless, and despite the fact that February is the shortest month of the year it sometimes feels like it lasts about six weeks.

Normally, you’d be deep in your SAD at this point, but how can you be sad when the first little leaves are popping up on the seedlings you planted in January?

They’re so small but they grow so fast, and millimetre by millimetre they remind you that every minute, every day, is one step closer to the spring and summer.

It’s hard to not be amazed at the power of nature when a tiny little seed smaller than the nail on your pinky finger can grow into a huge plant – and even feed you – in just a few months’ time.

If you planned ahead last autumn you might even be lucky enough to have some bulbs popping up already – snowdrops, crocuses and early-flowering daffodils can all bloom as early as February, or even January in some areas. A much needed pop of colour before the leaves on the trees and bushes have even grown back.

March

Your plants are starting to outgrow your windowsills, and the days are getting long enough that you might even be able to pack away your growing lights and rely on nature from here on out.

You think back to January, when it felt oh-so-early to be putting seeds in the ground, but here you are just a few months later with actual plants! It’s not quite spring outside yet but it definitely feels like it inside your apartment.

March and April are great months for bulbs to bloom. If you’re lucky, you might have a pot of hyacinths and daffodils ready in time for Easter (there’s a reason daffodils are called påskliljor or Easter lilies in Swedish).

April

Maybe, just maybe, you’ve started to get a few warmer days. Maybe one or two where you haven’t needed to wear gloves and a scarf, and you’ve taken your spring jacket out of storage. You might even have had your first sunburn of the year after a particularly sunny weekend fried your skin, which hasn’t seen a ray of UV light since September.

You need to slowly acclimatise yourself to the return of the sun, and it’s time for you to do the same with your plants too.

A few weeks ago you were thinking ‘these plants are so small, maybe I can sow a few more’, but now your windowsills are so full you can barely see daylight anymore, and all your plants are desperately crying out for more soil, more space and more nutrients.

Get ready to harden them off, or in other words put them outside in the sun for a few hours a day until they’re ready to be planted in the ground.

May

The last frost date has been and gone and summer is just around the corner. Maybe you’ve harvested your first few crops, or even eaten some of them at your Easter dinner in April – some radishes? Fresh herbs, baby lettuce leaves or pea shoots?

Nothing makes it feel more like spring in Sweden than tucking into primörer or fresh spring vegetables like asparagus, new potatoes or wild garlic. Wondering what to do with all those nettles you just weeded? Make nettle soup, a classic Swedish spring dish.

You might even be able to pick your first few homegrown bouquets of flowers this month.

June

Finally, summer! Or, almost. Midsummer is approaching fast and you’re eagerly waiting to see if you’ll be tucking into homegrown strawberries, radishes and new potatoes at the end of the month and save yourself an exorbitant amount by not having to buy them in the shops.

You might even be able to make a flower crown from plants you’ve grown yourself.

The days are almost at their longest and you can see it in your garden – look away for five minutes and it feels like everything has doubled in size, including the weeds.

Normally you’d be complaining about the wet Swedish summer, but now you’re just happy when it rains so you don’t have to go out and water the garden.

July

July is the quintessential Swedish summer month, where most Swedes clock out for three weeks or more and disappear off to their summer houses.

Finally you have time to just hang out in your garden, watching the bees and butterflies pollinate your flowers, enjoying the fruits of your labour (literally).

READ ALSO: How to grow your own fruits and vegetables in Sweden
Wander around and decide what to have for dinner, and maybe pick some sweet peas and cornflowers to put on the table – if you’re anything like me, you’re probably drowning in courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes by now, so make sure to turn some of them into sauce and freeze or preserve it to enjoy in the depths of winter.

Despite strawberries being an iconic midsummer fruit, they’re often best after Midsummer in July, so make sure to eat as many as you can while they’re still warm from the sun.

Think back to grey, dreary January, when you were imagining summer in your garden. Does it look like you expected?

Don’t forget that you can still sow seeds in July! Radishes and lettuces, which tend to bolt during the long, warm days, can be sown again from the end of the month as the days get a bit shorter, and turnips and carrots can often still crop by autumn if you sow them in July.

August

For most of the country summer is over by now as Swedes head back to work, but this is where things really start to get busy in the garden.

Fruits like apples, berries, pears and plums are probably ripe, and those plants like peppers, chillies and aubergines that you started way back in January might finally be ready, too.

You can barely manage to eat everything you harvest, so you spend your evenings making sauces and soups to stock your freezer with, as well as giving bags of produce to anyone who will take it.

September

Autumn has arrived, but what you might not realise until you start growing your own veg is that the weather is often quite nice in September, too.

Mild, shorter days are great for leafy greens like spinach, and autumn crops like pumpkins, butternut squashes and sweetcorn, which have probably taken over half your growing space by now, are finally ready. Who would have thought you could grow all this in Sweden?

October

The first frost has probably hit by now and it’s hard to imagine that you were picking kilos of tomatoes and strawberries just a few months ago.

Somehow, things are still growing in the garden, with crops like kale and Jerusalem artichokes both getting sweeter after the first frost.

Root vegetables like parsnips, turnips and swedes (how can you not grow swedes when you live in Sweden?) are also in their prime at this time of year.

November

As winter really starts to draw in, it’s time to start thinking about next year in the garden. Plants like garlic and onions which grow from bulbs need to get in the ground before it freezes, as do spring bulbs like tulips, daffodils and crocuses.

Your garden probably looks very brown and wilted at this point as the summer plants have died back, so it’s worth clearing everything away and getting your garden ready for its winter hibernation, if you haven’t done so already.

Instead of getting depressed about the long, cold winter, grab a seed or bulb catalogue and start planning for next year – which bulbs are you going to plant? What colour should those tulips be? Is this the year you’re finally going to try a löklasagne or bulb lasagne, where you plant bulbs in layers for constant flowering in the spring and early summer?

December

You’ve reached the end of the year. You’ve got a few winter vegetables left which you harvest now and then, but essentially the garden – and you – are having a well-deserved rest.

That doesn’t mean you’re not still eating anything from the garden, though. You might have some potatoes or root vegetables left or even a few bulbs of garlic you harvested in July, not to mention the sauces and soups you made from your glut of tomatoes and courgettes earlier in the year.

You can plant a few winter greens like lamb’s lettuce or mustard greens under cover for winter salads if you want, or even plant some berry bushes or raspberry canes if the ground isn’t frozen yet.

What you should really be doing this month, though, is poring over seed catalogues and to decide what you’ll be growing next year. What did you have too much of this year, and what do you wish you had more of? I definitely only need one courgette plant next year, and my homegrown garlic had run out by September. Time for a month or so off before everything starts again next year.

Complete story here.

Source: https://cityfarmer.info/sweden-how-a-year-on-my-allotment-taught-me-to-appreciate-the-swedish-seasons/