Once again, I have a garden, and, as you may have guessed from the scarcity of my posts, this is where I spend most of my time nowadays. If you spend even a short period of time in Sweden, you learn to make the most of the fine weather.

Do you know that joke about Swedish summer? The Swedish summer is the most wonderful day of the year. It’s no surprise then that one of the most popular songs in Sweden is Sommaren är kort (the summer is short).

These are the first two flower beds I made. I really want the garden to be a bit wild, so you won’t see formal beds and manicured laws here. We have a wilder part in the back yard, with ancient trees and a small hill, so they fit perfectly.

It’s also a very wildlife-friendly garden. Above, you can see one of the insect baths in a sea of purple salvia that butterflies and bees love. I also have several birdbaths and one larger water container for hedgehogs and deer. I do try to plant flowers and plants that the deer wouldn’t eat, but it’s a lottery, really.

A bumble bee drilling into a flower of Calamintha nepeta.

Another bumblee bee completely buried in a foxglove.

Bumble bee on Salvia nemorosa var. Ostfriesland.

The small squirrel is from Skansen souvenir shop.

Herr Kanin (Mr. Rabbit) comes from my favorite plant nursery, Ulriksdal. I spend an unreasonably amount of time (and probably money too) at Ulriksdal, but it’s a great place. They have a wide range of healthy plants and many lovely garden decorations, like Herr Kanin here.

Do I have flamingos and garden gnomes? Why, yes! This garden was not made for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Not so wild wildlife in the garden: Minette the tabby on patrol. I’ll be straight behind her for my daily garden stroll, checking on all plants, deadheading, and swearing over one or another snail.

That’s it for now, but you can be sure there’ll be more garden updates soon.

---

If you liked this post, share it on your preferred social network or forward it to a friend.

---