Skolträdgårdar på Gotland -vilka rekommendationer influerade deras utformning och innehåll?

Abstract

Since the mid-19th century, many well renowned gardening designers have argued for the introduction of gardening as a part of the normal school curriculum. Three garden designers that have published handbooks and reports on educational gardening and the design and components of school gardens are Eneroth, Retzius and Lind. The influences and recommendations on school gardens that stem from these publications are worth a closer study. This study has been limited to gardens used for educational purposes in Gotland, Sweden. Both school gardens and gardens for teachers are included in the study, in combination with teachers’ gardens that are used as a part of school curriculum. Archival material has been retrieved directly from archives and registries. Information on the influences and recommendations which dictated the establishment of educational gardens were sourced through the analysis of historical records, literature, and the curriculum and guidelines for educational gardens in schools. Earlier statistical information regarding the educational system has been studied to trace the extent of the use of gardens in school activities. 34 out of the 57 layout designs of educational gardens, which were retrieved from the archives at Arkivcentrum Gotland, are included in this study. Nine of these gardens included school gardens and 25 included gardens for teachers. The results of the study of the educational system statistics shows that Gotland has followed the national school bylaws, and has therefore had a higher implementation of gardening in schools, compared to Sweden nationwide. The study also shows that Eneroths handbooks about school gardens used for educational purposes have had little influence on the actual appearance of school gardens in Gotland. Influences pertaining to the selection of fruit tree varieties can be traced to Eneroth, even though they should have mainly been influenced by Lind, despite many good recommendations by Retzius. It was not possible to determine if either Retzius or Lind have had a stronger influence on berry plants used in Gotlandish school gardens. There is a similar reasoning regarding the layout of school gardens, even though we can conclude that both Retzius and Lind have had a stronger influence than Eneroth. It should however be acknowledged that the layout and design of school gardens in Gotland were only inspired and influenced by, and therefore not directly created from, the recommendations of these gardening designers.