PRIVATE GARDEN OF STEFAN HAASE AND HELEN WAHLSTRÖM
Visited June 11th, 2014 with the Lakeland Horticulture Society
Leaving our beach cabin Wednesday morning in Tofton we traveled south to the eastern side of Gotland Island to the small parish of Lau to visit the garden of Stefan Haase and Helen Wahlström. They had bought an eighteenth century era farmstead in 1987. It took them three years to modernize the traditional farm house and barns and then prepare the ground for gardening.
To establish the perennial garden at the front of the house they removed stone dry clay replacing it with new soil. They put down stone paths around small islands of plantings with a Koelreuteria paniculata as a specimen tree.
Helen methodically built the dry stone walls during the winter with many of the stones brought in from the fields. The stone walls define an intimate space where they grow plants that adapt to hot dry summers and harsh winters.
A tiny fig tree that survived a winter was hugging against the warmth and sunlight reflected off the house.
Geraniums in purple and pink, chives, pink dianthus, salvia, white blooms of the cerastium with pale pink roses and hardy cranesbill geranium were hardy specimens within the walled garden.
The Paeonia lutea var Ludlowii, a shrub with cup shaped yellow blooms shared space with the creeping perennials growing along the rocky pathway.
Additional perennials: Iris, lily and peony are planted as borders in the kitchen garden.
Stefan is a tomato and potato connoisseur with 14 different species of tomatoes and 20 species of potatoes in his extensive vegetable garden.
The vegetable beds are surrounded by various types of deer and rabbit fencing.
Spring asparagus appeared close to picking. Grass mulch is used to retain moisture and hold back the weeds. Tomatoes for winter use are cut and dried in the oven and then frozen. A cellar will hold the potatoes over the winter.
The barn is spotless. Stefan uses the barn for plant breeding and the storage of seeds which he places in brown paper bags after he meticulously sorts and labels them. When needed some seeds are bought as he does not save cabbage or carrot seeds.
It was time to leave Stefan and Helen’s homestead where they live with an appreciation of the open landscape with no neighbors, self-sufficiency and a sense of humor of being residents of the parish of Lau where 300 horses outnumber 210 permanent inhabitants. It was our last day of garden visits on the island and we were looking forward to lunch in the tourist packed town of Visby.
Photos by Deborah McMillin