When we hear the word “Scandinavian,” we usually think of associations like “modest,” “neat,” “calm.” And that is really true: residents of Scandinavian countries prefer modesty in everything — from clothing to interior design. In Sweden, for example, there is even the concept of “lagom” (which can be translated as “adequate,” “sufficient”), and the majority of people in this country try to follow this principle in many aspects of life.
So what is the Scandinavian style in landscape design? The head of the company “Land&Shaft,” landscape designer Evgeny Rai, tells us about it.
First of all, of course, it is the absence of loud colors and a heap of different plants as in an English garden. It is the dominance of conifers and grasses, pastel shades, and the use of stone and wood in the design of plots.
The Scandinavian style implies a greater emphasis on the natural landscape already present on the site, which can only be advantageously highlighted with certain details. It is characterized by simple lines, a minimal amount of decor and artificial materials (preference is given to wood and stone), as well as maximum harmony with nature.
Most often, the Scandinavian style is chosen by owners of forest plots with predominantly diffused light. However, nothing prevents using this style fragmentarily in a garden with other natural conditions.
Forest zone
If a plot is located in a forest zone or near it, the pines and spruces growing on it are usually left untouched, and in the free spaces small groups of conifers, grasses, and non-bright flowers are arranged (priority is given to white, gray, pale pink, and pale blue). If trees on the plot have to be removed due to serious diseases or death, new seedlings of any coniferous plants (spruce, pine, cedar, juniper, fir, etc.) are planted in their place.
The basis of new islands of greenery in such zones is most often creeping or horizontal junipers, of which there is a great variety of shades, and with a competent selection you can create an amazing pastel picture with smoothly shifting colors — from dark green and blue to yellow-golden. In addition to the fact that junipers are very soothing to the eye with the smoothness of their lines and the airiness of their crowns, they also release phytoncides that purify the air, helping to destroy harmful bacteria while exuding a unique aroma.
In a Scandinavian-type garden, conifers are often accompanied by grasses, which add dynamics to a calm pastel paradise: even a slight breeze can bring the scene to life with swaying stems and seed heads of ornamental grasses. Today, very popular for such design are feather reeds — Overdam with white-blue leaves and the reed grass Karl Foerster, which holds its shape perfectly even in winter. Also suitable are blue moor grass, tufted hair grass of different varieties, meadow foxtail, blue fescue, foxtail barley, pennisetum, miscanthus.
Of course, the fact that the Scandinavian style mainly implies a calm color palette does not mean that it cannot have brighter accents. And if there is “enough greenery,” as Lyudmila Prokofyevna from the film “Office Romance” says, you can look at other plants.
Directly in the forest zone, various types of barberries, sage, veronica, groundcovers (snow-in-summer, creeping phlox, Saxifraga x arendsii, Irish moss, thyme, periwinkle, creeping jenny, stonecrops, etc.) will help add color to the composition.
Thunberg barberries can at the same time be a continuation of the pastel story and bright accents on the territory, depending on the variety chosen.
One of the important plants in a Scandinavian garden is the rhododendron. In the northern regions of Russia, the variety Grandiflorum has shown itself to be the most winter-hardy. This evergreen beauty coexists perfectly with conifers, emphasizing the landscape even without flowering, but the latter sometimes provides stunning accents: the large flowers can be white, cream, pink, red, purple, lilac, yellow, and other shades. Usually rhododendrons are planted in the depths of the garden as a specimen plant or used to complement a composition with conifers where color is lacking.
If you want louder accents, you can plant a bright deciduous tree in the distance on a sunny part of the plot, for example, Dodong. This is a very beautiful, lush rowan variety which, by the way, was bred in 1976 by Swedish botanist Thor Nitzelius. Its beautiful crown is wonderfully curly in spring and becomes fiery red by autumn. Today in Scandinavian countries it is often used in gardens as a specimen plant (a separately planted plant).
Around the house
Naturally, the closer to the house, the more bright and accentuated the design can be.
Here, in addition to conifers and grasses, there may also be deciduous trees, shrubs, and flowers. In addition, stones can play a special role in Scandinavian design of the area around the house.
If a plot is located in a rocky area, sharp-pointed rocks are ideal for organizing the space, and if it is in a flat or lake area, rounded boulders are best. Often these two types of stones are mixed in one rock garden or rockery, and then people puzzle over what is wrong with the composition. The answer is simple: it is not worth mixing natural stone types, just as it is not worth mixing different styles. Nor should you overdo the amount of stone on the plot: sometimes a single medium boulder will look wonderful together with a single grass plant, and if you plant groundcovers around it, the picture can become almost perfect. If you are not sure about the result, it is better to look closely at the surroundings, study the relief, understand what will look adequate in a particular environment, and start small.
Sometimes the relief of a plot is very uneven, with large elevation changes; in this case, when choosing the Scandinavian style, huge stones are often used to reinforce slopes, form levels, and plantings are guided by the principle of “wild nature,” using many grasses, groundcovers, and flowers.
Most often, stones in landscape design look most effective when there are stone pathways. If the latter are made of wood (for example, terraced paths of durable larch), other techniques are usually used for decoration, such as mixed borders of grasses, sage, and other flowers.
Despite the restraint in color, Scandinavian color schemes are not the fashionable monochrome garden in the pure sense (when only two colors are used in the garden design) and allow combinations of fairly bright colors in mixed borders (for example, yellow barberries, lilac sage, and white snow-in-summer). Add to this a thousand shades of the main color of any garden — green — and you will understand that a Scandinavian garden is not boring at all. It is something that can simultaneously calm and delight the eye, and also teaches us maximum unity with nature, style, and skillful emphasis.
Closer to the house, decorative conifers such as thuja (the north-western Smaragd, and globular varieties like Danica, Tiny Tim, Globosa, Bowling Ball, etc.) are often used. They would look out of place in a forest zone, but near the house, planted in a mixed border, they can give the area more elegance and order.
Although hydrangea does not fit very well into forest landscapes, Scandinavians love it very much, usually planting it directly next to the house. Since it prefers acidic soil and feels great in the company of various spruces, pines, and firs, it is quite capable of forming an interesting composition together with them.
It is important to remember that when designing flower beds and rockeries in a Scandinavian garden, as in any other case, it is important to follow the principle of the alpine slide: groundcovers are placed in the foreground, behind them come low flowers or shrubs, in the center are the most compositionally significant plants (a medium/tall focal point or a spreading conifer), and in the background are the tallest — grasses or conifers. That is, from small to large. At the same time, it is important to try to place the plants so that they look impressive not only from one side.
And probably the most important thing is to understand that each chosen plant looks different in different periods of the year, that is, the picture of your plot will change depending on the season and even the month. Therefore, before buying plants, it is better to find out full information about them, including flowering time and changes in color.
If a plot is very sunny, open, and has almost no coniferous corners, it may not make sense to implement a Scandinavian landscape project there, and a style close in spirit — “Provence” — may be more appropriate, which also implies the use of a large number of grasses, low flowers, and groundcovers, but in a broader color palette.
You often hear from clients: “We want a coniferous garden so that we don’t have to care for it.”
For some reason, it is commonly believed that a Scandinavian garden is low-maintenance due to the dominance of conifers and the almost complete absence of deciduous plants. This is not quite so: despite the fact that in autumn, without leaf fall, such a garden will certainly look tidier, coniferous plants often require no less attention and care. They also get sick (sometimes even more often than deciduous ones), are affected by pests, dry out, rot, etc. Ornamental grasses also need proper care, timely seasonal pruning, and treatment.
In my opinion, low-maintenance gardens do not exist; this is a myth: all plants deserve special attention and full care. However, you can significantly reduce physical effort if you do not plant half the garden with a coniferous “fence,” as is common here, but instead draw up a design and create several neat flower beds successfully integrated into the natural landscape and the architectural ensemble of the buildings already on the plot.
So, the main thing in a Scandinavian garden, no matter what plants and colors are chosen, is not to overdo it; everything should be adequate, calm, and sufficient — in other words, everything should be “lagom.”
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