{"id":31234,"date":"2025-07-08T09:11:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T09:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31234"},"modified":"2025-07-08T09:34:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T09:34:03","slug":"swedens-secret-to-well-being-tiny-urban-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31234","title":{"rendered":"Sweden\u2019s Secret to Well-Being? Tiny Urban Gardens."},"content":{"rendered":"
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On an unseasonably warm June morning in Stockholm, Stina Larsson, 98, stood among fragrant lilacs, lilies and lavender, inspecting the garden that she has tended for more than 40 years. Rabbits had been nibbling the nasturtiums, she noticed, and there were weeds that needed pulling.<\/p>\n

Ms. Larsson\u2019s garden, situated on a postage stamp of land beside the Karlbergs Canal, is one of more than 7,000 garden allotments, known as kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdar, in Stockholm. The gardens, established as part of a social movement around the turn of the 20th century, offer city dwellers access to green space and a reprieve from crowded urban life.<\/p>\n

Though most are modest in size \u2014 Ms. Larsson\u2019s garden is about 970 square feet \u2014 kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdar are prized for providing a rare kind of urban sanctuary, a corner of the city where residents can trade pavement for soil, and the buzz of traffic for birdsong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sofia Runarsdotter for The New York Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ms. Larsson has tended this garden plot since 1979. She recently passed it on to her granddaughters Ellen and Hedvig.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing here, it feels like you\u2019re out in the countryside really quickly,\u201d said Ellen Gustavsson, 33, who bikes to the garden a few times a week to water plants and host get-togethers with friends.<\/p>\n

Many kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdar come with simple cottages where residents can clean vegetables, prepare meals or even spend the night.<\/p>\n

Ms. Larsson\u2019s cottage, which is painted classic Falu red, is equipped with electricity and cold water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The garden programs were specifically designed to improve the mental and physical health of city dwellers, said Fredrik Bj\u00f6rk, a lecturer at Malm\u00f6 University who specializes in environmental history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was that a working-class family would be able to spend the summer there and work together but also have some leisure and fun,\u201d Mr. Bj\u00f6rk said on the phone from his own kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rd in \u00c4rtholmen, a garden association in Malm\u00f6 that dates back to the 1940s.<\/p>\n

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On an unseasonably warm June morning in Stockholm, Stina Larsson, 98, stood among fragrant lilacs, lilies and lavender, inspecting the garden that she has tended for more than 40 years. Rabbits had been nibbling the nasturtiums, she noticed, and there were weeds that needed pulling.Ms. Larsson\u2019s garden, situated on a postage stamp of land beside the Karlbergs Canal, is one of more than 7,000 garden allotments, known as kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdar, in Stockholm. The gardens, established as part of a social movement around the turn of the 20th century, offer city dwellers access to green space and a reprieve from crowded urban life.Though most are modest in size \u2014 Ms. Larsson\u2019s garden is about 970 square feet \u2014 kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdar are prized for providing a rare kind of urban sanctuary, a corner of the city where residents can trade pavement for soil, and the buzz of traffic for birdsong.Sofia Runarsdotter for The New York TimesMs. Larsson has tended this garden plot since 1979. She recently passed it on to her granddaughters Ellen and Hedvig.\u201cComing here, it feels like you\u2019re out in the countryside really quickly,\u201d said Ellen Gustavsson, 33, who bikes to the garden a few times a week to water plants and host get-togethers with friends.Many kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rdar come with simple cottages where residents can clean vegetables, prepare meals or even spend the night.Ms. Larsson\u2019s cottage, which is painted classic Falu red, is equipped with electricity and cold water.The garden programs were specifically designed to improve the mental and physical health of city dwellers, said Fredrik Bj\u00f6rk, a lecturer at Malm\u00f6 University who specializes in environmental history.\u201cThe idea was that a working-class family would be able to spend the summer there and work together but also have some leisure and fun,\u201d Mr. Bj\u00f6rk said on the phone from his own kolonitr\u00e4dg\u00e5rd in \u00c4rtholmen, a garden association in Malm\u00f6 that dates back to the 1940s.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31236,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31241,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31234\/revisions\/31241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}