Garden Trends: Create a Scandinavian Style Garden

The traditional English garden of neatly manicured lawn fringed by neatly pruned rosebushes has far from had its day, but many people are looking further afield for their inspiration. A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the trend for Moroccan style patio gardens, this week we thought we’d share tips for how to create a Scandinavian style garden.

Scandinavian Summer

The Scandinavian summer season is shorter than ours. Although their southern climes are a similar latitude to the UK’s northern climes, the Scandinavians don’t have the benefit of the Gulf Stream – a warm flow of water that travels up from the equator to warm our islands. The Scandinavian gardeners makes the most of their shorter growing season by focussing their efforts on stunning flowers.

Scandinavian Flowers

The summer blooms that give a short but spectacular display are key to a Scandinavian garden. Delphiniums, Peonies, Foxgloves and Marguerites: anything that can tolerate dry soil and long exposure to the sun. 

Scandinavian Lawn

This may come as a shock to your British sensibilities, but the Scandinavian cottage garden does not feature a large lawn. Some have no lawn at all just a winding path that takes you around the various flower and herb beds.

Scandinavian Paving

Decking is a popular garden feature in Scandinavia – perhaps the wooden slats remind them of the longships of their ancestors. Paving has its place, too. The Scandinavians are seldom far from a wilderness, so a small patio of natural stone is a great place to sit and contemplate nature.

If you are feeling inspired to rip out the lawn and the rosebushes and replace it with something a little more Danish or Nordic, then don’t forget that Knights Paving and Landscaping offer a full landscaping service. We’ll put in the labour to reshape your garden and lay all the new paths and patios. To book a free survey, please call 01603 360548. Check out our gallery for examples of our previous landscaping work.

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