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Bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift Nordic Journal of Settlement History and Built Heritage Author Joakim Seiler Title Historic Lawn Management Regimes. The skill of the gardeners at Gunnebo House Issue 75 Year of Publication 2018 Pages 8–25 ISSN 0349−2834 ISSN online 2002−3812 www.bebyggelsehistoria.org Historic Lawn Management Regimes The skill of the gardeners at Gunnebo House by Joakim Seiler awns are a cultural product, not a natu- The concept management regimes is used ral landscape element, and as such a sig- to describe the ideology of maintenance and L nificant structural component in histori- care of garden through the uses of means and cal gardens. The lawn as a structural element allocation of resources. The historical gardens of Swedish formal gardens emerged during of Gunnebo House outside of Gothenburg, the seventeenth century. The management for Sweden are used as a laboratory. Gunnebo lawns was significantly changed with the inven- House was originally built as a country house tion of the lawn mower in 1830.1 Lawns used for the merchant John Hall and his family to be a rare element before the spread of the in the late eighteenth century. The estate lawn mower. The lawn’s exclusivity was due in was designed by the town architect in part to its costly need for management, espe- Gothenburg, Carl Wilhelm Carlberg. cially if the lawns were large. This has changed He had just finished a Grand Tour gradually during the last two hundred years with throughout Europe when he got the spread of the lawn mower. The lawn has the assignment. Gunnebo was become ordinary and ubiquitous in our society. designed in a European con- The aim for the research presented in this text with influences from article is to investigate historic management for country houses that the lawns during the 18th century and compare and architect had studied in evaluate historic and modern methods for use France, United King- in contemporary gardens with cultural histori- dom and Italy. cal significance. The study is part of a research project concerning management regimes in his- toric gardens involving lawns, hedges and gravel paths. The research is practice directed and ad- dresses the balance of the garden’s horticultural characteristics and the contemporary context with respect to the use, management capacity and long-term goals. The expected result of the project is a theoretical concept analysis with a focus on the relationship between cultural herit- age, horticulture and handicrafts, as well as a more practice-directed analysis on lawns, walks and hedges. This paper presents the practice- directed research on historical management re- gimes for lawns. 8 bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 Gunnebo House has to a large extent been century. What does the notion “efficient” stand well preserved and gradually became considered for, at an estate like Gunnebo House? What as a cultural heritage during the 20th century. does “rational” mean in a context like this? Comprehensive restoration and reconstruction has been undertaken since 1949. During the last Research questions and method twenty years, particular emphasis has been given This study began while the author of this ar- to recreating the formal gardens and kitchen ticle and the gardener Daniel Lundberg were gardens, and to reconstructing the surrounding engaged in lawn care duties in the garden at buildings. Every year 350,000 guests visit Gun- Gunnebo, where one of the guiding concepts nebo. Craftsmanship has played a central role is historical credibility. The question that arose and served as a unifying link in every reconstruc- was, How did they manage these lawns in the tion project. Craftmanship is in this paper per- eighteenth century? The question led to a re- ceived as traditional gardening craft involving view of historical literature and images depict- hand tools and personal craft skill. It is linked ing historical lawn management practices. His- to the everyday management at Gunnebo, not a torical garden literature and images of gardens spectacle for public events. provide clues to the practice of garden man- However, there is a noticeable tension be- agement. However, literature of the eighteenth tween the desire for historical credibility on one century mainly deals with theory and esthetics hand and time efficient management on the and rarely with management. Even when prac- other. Historical credibility is a concept which tical manuals increased in number during the in this particular case relates to the time of the eighteenth century they seldom described the creation of Gunnebo House and its gardens in management of lawns. This is addressed already the 18th century. Both objects, like the lawn, and by Philip Miller in 1731 who says of the garden the management activities related to the object books of the time, “… scarce any of them con- can be assessed as more or less historical descending to write of the Manual Operation”.2 credible, i.e. consistent with the 18th One reason for this could be that lawn manage- ment was common knowledge at the time. As the accounts are scare both Swedish and foreign sources are used in the study. It is reasonable to include foreign sources as Swedish gardeners figure 1. Plan of the Gunnebo estate. illustration: Nils Forshed. bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 9 joakim seiler at castles and manors commonly possessed lit- volve the fine lawns around the main building erature and interacted with gardeners and socie- at Gunnebo. The total area is approximately ties in other European countries, and not least 2680 square meters, about half of it mown with from England.3 Descriptions of lawn manage- a scythe and the rest with push reel mower.4 ment become frequent when there is a shift in The fine lawns of Gunnebo are neither the per- technology and new methods emerge that need fect front lawns commonly found in the United to be described. That can be seen in the mid- States nor the impeccably manicured lawns of nineteenth century with the shift of technology the grand estates in the United Kingdom. Many from scythe to lawn mower. Some of the prac- of the fine lawns at Gunnebo have been recon- tices described in the accounts were tested in structed during the last twenty years, but some the garden. From this development work a sys- are older. In the reconstructions the choice tematic research project was initiated, using the of lawn type has been one of the usual types gardens of Gunnebo House as a case and also a found on the market – no special composition laboratory for experimental craft research. of historical species. The reconstructed lawns Lawns can generally be categorized into at have been made with roll-out grass sod, not by least two types: fine lawns and utility lawns. sowing seeds. Generally the lawns facing north These concepts can be traced back in garden consist of moss and grass and those in more history. However, their meaning and use have sunny locations consist of grass and herbs.5 The changed. A fine lawn today, and in this paper, is garden in itself does not provide clues for this a manicured lawn with conscious management. type of craft experiments. Traces of tools and It is not a lawn for use like play, sports and management techniques vanish quickly on living walking. It is a decorative element of the garden material like the lawn unlike the traces by build- to be enjoyed by the sight. A utility lawn on the ing craft in a historical building. other hand is a lawn for activities like walking, One motive for the craft-based experiment, playing and sporting. These are the contempo- similar to traditional experimental archaeology, rary concepts. The historical concepts are differ- is to test and verify or refute the hypotheses ent. In the 17th and 18th century the fine lawn about the gardening method, and to calculate was an ornamental element but also an area for time requirements and assess results. However, play. The habit to play bowling called for short another important aspect is the augmented un- grass and is in fact one aspect of the origin of derstanding of the historical skills.6 The hypoth- the historical fine lawn. The concept of utility esis embodies the practical act and its context lawn did not exist in the 18th century. The con- of environment, tools, materials and other re- temporary concept fine lawn is in this paper sources. The method of this craft research sets expanded since it is managed with a historical out from a dwelling perspective, with reference management regime and deviates from the short to Tim Ingold. The study of skill, Ingold states, mown lawn of today. “demands a perspective which situates the prac- The study explores a number of questions. titioner, right from the start, in the context of What management regimes were applied to fine an active engagement with the constituents of lawns during the eighteenth century in Sweden? his or her surroundings”.7 The hypothesis does What tools did they use? What kind of crafts- not originate from textual interpretation only; manship and skills were required? How much it is also formulated based on experience, em- time did they take? What did the result look pathy and creative processing in the action of like? Are historical management regimes possi- doing. The research process form an iterative ble today? and dialogical structure between interpretation Information from text and image sources of text and image sources and the affordances are interpreted as hypothetical procedures and provided in action. The significance of the an- tested in a practical context, which is the lawn gle of a scythe blade or gardeners body posi- care at Gunnebo House.