Tracey Paddon - Ålunden
We moved from Britain to Sweden in 2017. And in 2020 we bought a tiny farm of 2.1 hectares, Ålunden. In the 70s it had been a strawberry farm. When we bought it it was a field of compacted clay which flooded in spring and autumn and was like concrete in the summer.
Luckily I found Charles and no dig .Living in zone 4 with snow and temperatures of -20, I had to learn a new way of gardening and sadly many plants I grew in the UK will not overwinter here! My bay trees and globe artichokes are favourites. I have even tried winter gardening, which involves using snow and boxes to germinate seeds. It sometimes works!
We have a big greenhouse and various beds made of compost, well rotted manure, grass clippings, leaf mold and sand. We add a lot of grass clippings to keep the moisture in, the weeds down and provides a bit of extra warmth and nutrients. It seems to work really well as we seem to grow ginormous veg! Our veg grows in amongst huge sunflowers and other flowers which pop up everywhere. We grow without fertilisers, pesticides etc and rely on my happy toads, ladybirds and ground beetles to sort out my plants problems.
Now 4 years later I am growing fruit, veg and herbs and selling my produce to the local community from my little honesty shop and directly to customers as part of a local producers network.
Our website is alunden.se
Our email address is info@alunden.se
