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Bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift

Nordic Journal of Settlement History and Built Heritage

Author Maria Ignatieva, Clas Florgård, Katarina Lundin Title in Sweden. History and etymological roots, European parallels and future alternative pathways Issue 75 Year of Publication 2018 Pages 26–47 ISSN 0349−2834 ISSN online 2002−3812 www.bebyggelsehistoria.org

Lawns in Sweden History and etymological roots, European parallels and future alternative pathways

by Maria Ignatieva, Clas Florgård & Katarina Lundin

awns are today among the most common example described in the book The American features in urban landscapes world-wide. edited by Georges Teyssot.7 L The advantages of lawns are that they There has been very little research to date on supply positive ecosystem services for urban the history and development of lawns as an im- environment (recreational and cultural opportu- portant element or analysis of reasons nities, helping to mitigate global warming, con- for widespread use of lawn in Swedish , al- tributing to infiltration of rainwater). Disadvan- though lawns comprise 50% of the total urban tages are that they are expensive and consume green areas in Sweden.8 This means that lawns resources, with millions of litres of municipal are the most visible and dominant element in and tons of chemicals being used. Inten- all open urban areas, and need to be studied in sively managed grass areas contribute negatively depth from different points of view. The only to the environment due to the need for constant study taking Swedish lawn as a subject of deep mowing using machines powered by fossil fuels. historical research is Joakim Seiler’s work based There is also recent evidence of lawns con- on theoretical and practical analysis, as applied tributing to unification of urban environments. by reconstructing historical management re- Similar green areas, consisting of a few grass gimes in Gunnebo .9 However, there is species (grown in large nurseries), are used eve- no research on the development history of con- rywhere, leading to loss of local identity and ho- ventional lawns and possible alternatives. The mogenisation (ecological similarity) of lawns.1 main hypothesis in the historical research of the Thus, there is a growing search for alternatives LAWN project, conducted at SLU 2013–17, was to lawns that are more environmentally and eco- that lawn is quite a young feature in Sweden nomically friendly.2, 3 and started to be the dominant type of urban Despite of the widespread use of lawns, there green open space only about 100 years ago. is limited research on the subject. Most previous The present study, which this article is based studies have examined ecological and social as- on, takes an innovative interdisciplinary angle pects of lawns in the USA, UK4 and Germany.5 by attempting to connect the etymology of Only recently, with the globalisation process the word lawn with the development history bringing lawns to cities world-wide, has there of lawn as an important green open space ele- been some research in other European coun- ment. At the same time, the study traces inspira- tries, for example in France.6 Historical and cul- tion and the use of lawn alternatives in Sweden, tural aspects of Anglo-American lawns are for which can contribute to the creation of a new

26 bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 figure 1. Active use of lawn for recreation on SLU Campus, Umeå. photo: Maria Ignatieva 2017. generation of sustainable green areas. Sweden The aim of this particular part of the LAWN was used as a case study in the analysis, to dem- project was to demonstrate the importance of onstrate the specific trajectory of the universal historical and etymological knowledge in an in- garden feature of lawn, and its dependence on terdisciplinary study. Main research questions local cultural, political, economic and geograph- were: can words used for describing grasses and ical conditions. lawns be the key to understanding the and origin of Swedish lawns? Can we decode their similarities to European counterparts and Research questions and methods identify differences related to the peculiarities This study examines the cultural and ecological of geographical and historical development of origins of conventional lawns in Sweden, their Swedish society? Another important issue was to historical development and the connection to investigate the development history of alterna- lawns in , and the evolution of Swedish tive solutions to conventional regularly cut lawns terminology relating to lawn (gräsmatta). This and examine whether ancient and more contem- work was an important part of transdiscipli- porary Swedish thoughts and practices can be nary project “Lawn as ecological and cultural used for development of a new generation of phenomenon. Searching for sustainable lawns sustainable lawns in Sweden. The analysis also in Sweden”.10 The aim was to obtain interdis- aimed to understand the historic vision of lawn ciplinary quantitative and qualitative data on as a specially created purely decorative garden lawns in order to estimate the values of differ- element (pleasure ground) and trace its develop- ent lawns, critically evaluate them, and connect ment in Europe and in parallel in Sweden from to people’s needs and finally suggest a new medieval times to the present day. planning, design and management paradigm. The main study object was lawn as an ele-

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ment of private (house, mansion, palace and and flowering depicted in the gardens. castle) and public green areas (, garden Even though some painters could have used and multifamily residential area) and its devel- their imagination, when painting motifs such as opment through the history. Lawn management gardens and their details, those artists obviously ( control, use of fertilisers, equipment and portrayed important events and visions of their machines) and specific questions such as the use surrounding world which we can interpret and of particular mixtures in Sweden are only understand. mentioned in the context of particular garden Information gained during historical re- periods. We refer the reader to Seiler’s research search on lawns, presented in this paper, in- for details of lawn management in Swedish his- spired the creation of practical demonstration toric gardens (see Seiler, pp. 8–25, in this issue). experimental sites of alternative lawns at SLU Aspects of lawn’s (higher vascular Ultuna Campus in Uppsala (2014–2017), includ- , pollinators and earthworms) were re- ing tapestry (grass-free) lawns (lawns which searched as part of the LAWN project and the have only low growing perennial native species results were used throughout this study. and no grasses), Swedish meadows (perennial The work was based on a review of the lit- meadows consisted of grasses and flowering erature (sources in English and Swedish) relating perennial species) and a -mat bench primarily to the lawn’s history and lawn as a (prefabricated turf-mat with low growing grass- garden element. es and perennials). The results obtained from A full-scale etymological survey was not the these alternative experimental sites have been main goal of this study. Etymological discussion published in a practical manual for Swedish is supposed to contribute to a new perspective stakeholders.13 that supports the main research question re- garding the origin and development of lawns in Sweden. The main sources for etymological Definition of lawn and its essence origins of terms were well-known sources such Due to the very complex ecological and cultural as SAOB, the Svenska Akademiens Ordbok11 and nature of lawns, there is no single definition of the Swedish etymological dictionary published lawn in recent scientific publications. It seems as in 1922 by Elof Hellquist12, which was the first though lawn is an accepted entity that is known comprehensive work of the development of the to everyone. The situation is further compli- individual words in the Swedish language and cated by the fact that the terminology relating the etymology of words. to grassed areas is interpreted differently in dif- Images such as paintings and engravings by ferent languages (e.g. in English words such as Old Masters (fourteenth-fifteenth-sixteenth cen- ‘lawn’, ‘turf’, ‘grassland’, ‘meadow’). In addi- tury, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Flemish tion, the definition and understanding of lawns and French) and postcards from the nineteenth seem to be dependent on the researcher’s back- and twentieth centuries portraying lawns in dec- ground and the purpose of the study. orative and gardens were researched in Eu- Botanists and lawn practitioners, in their def- ropean museums (the Swedish History Museum, inition, acknowledge first of all the man-made the Medieval Museum of Stockholm, Skansen nature of lawns. They view lawn as a “type of Open-Air Museum, Malmö Museer, the National man-made meadow-like community which Gallery in Denmark, the Gemäldegalerie in Ber- is made by sowing or planting of turf grasses lin, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre (predominantly perennial graminoids) and Museum in Paris and the Hermitage Museum which is used for recreational, aesthetic, in St. Petersburg). The main goal of analysing and other purposes”.14 The approach is botani- paintings by Old Masters was to chart the evo- cal (‘plant community’), but the most crucial lution of lawns through the imaginary interpre- feature of lawn is considered to be its function tations of grass-dominated decorative elements for people (see Figure 1).

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The garden history aspect of lawn is very ing certain species of grasses ( perenne, clearly expressed in a most trustworthy source, pratensis, and species, Alo- the Oxford Companion to Gardens 15 : “Lawn is pecurus pratensis, Cynosurus cristatus, Dactylis a plant community in the natural sense and lawn glomerata). cultivation concentrates on maintaining the bal- According to Fort18 and Möller19, the English ance between the different species of grasses.” word lawn is derived from the old French laund One of the most crucial elements of lawn is (or old French lande), which means heath, moor thereby identified: the importance of cultivation or barren land. According to Woudstra and and maintenance of grasses, which are often the Hitchmough20, however, laund meant “a grassy first aspects that spring to mind when the word compartment in a deer park”. Mosser 21 suggests ‘lawn’ is mentioned. that lawn is “the corruption of the Middle Eng- Based on analysis of existing definitions and lish word launde, designating a field or place of our previous research on lawns, we suggest our wildflowers”. There are also opinions that the own detailed definition of lawns16, where we word lawn could come from the Breton lann acknowledge that lawn is a special plant com- (heath).22 munity created exclusively for human pleasure, In English, the word lawn appeared for the a plant community consisting predominantly first time in 1548 in Thomas Elyot’s dictionary of grasses (but with possibility of presence of and was described as an open space among herbaceous flowering plants) and must be main- trees.23 From that time onwards, the very im- tained. One of the most important aspects of portant function of the lawn as a special, con- lawn is the turf (sward, ), which is the upper nected element in the landscape was recognised. level of soil closely covered by grasses and forbs In France the term gazon, believed to be rooted with intertwined roots and in symbiosis with in the Frankish wason, was widely used for “des- soil fauna, which actually makes a lawn. ignating a ground covered by grass”.24 Gazon A common characteristic of lawns is their could also be related to the word laune (which specific construction technique (preparation sounds very close to laund), which is associated of soil and seed mixtures, designed to achieve with the French of Laon that is famous a certain density of sod) and management re- for its interesting and irregularly textured linen. gime (mowing, fertilising and watering) aimed Teyssot argues that the etymology of the word at maintaining selected grass species, controlling lawn “captures the possible alignments between and mosses, and keeping desirable grass the ancestral activity of weaving and the techno- height and even green colour. logical activism of the industrial lawn”.25 How- ever, the origin of the word lawn is still being The origin of lawn debated by etymologists and garden history re- searchers.26 The origin of European lawns and the word ‘lawn’ in English and French When were the first ‘true’ lawns There are different hypotheses on the origin of created? lawns. Some believe they derive from natural It is not easy to say where and when the first or anthropogenic grazed grasslands in Europe. “true” lawn, as a grass-dominated community de- Actually, in ‘meadow’ is also grass- signed mostly for decorative purposes (pleasure land, but is ungrazed or used for only ground), was created. The word lawn was not after being mown to produce for live- known in medieval times. Many authors believe stock. Smith and Fellowes17 believe that lawn’s that in Europe, cut turf (sod) from meadows or history most likely started in north-west Europe grasslands was most probably used in monaster- (Britain and northern France), because of the ies and castle gardens. Many European paint- particular climate with mild winters and warm ers portrayed images of cut turf with numerous humid summers, which was favourable for grow- flowers (daisies, carnations, plantain and oth-

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our Sinclair Rohde introduced the special term “flowery mead” for medieval lawns, which had many flowering forbs among grasses.28 Modern garden historians argue that medi- figure 2 a: ‘Emilia eval monasteries and the gardens of the nobility in the garden’ by Barthélémy d’Eyck contained some plots of cultivated short-grass (1460–1465), where turf. This had connections with the meaning of Emilia is sitting the colour green as a symbol of rebirth, resurrec- on a grassy bench. tion and spiritual happiness.29 English authors Illustration for the are especially successful at searching for traces Giovanni Boccac- of protolawns – smoothly cut grass-dominated cio book Théséide. 30 Österreichische areas. Thacker believes that Albertus Magnus, Nationalbibliothek, in his book De Vegetabilis (1260), provided the codex. 2617, f. 53, first instructions for creating grassed plots. He Vienna. recommended clearing the area of the roots of weeds by digging them up, then applying boil- figure 2 b: ‘Plea- ing water and finally placing turf cut from sure garden in Ruralia commoda’ a “good” grassy meadow. Finally, the turfed (1305) by Pietro de area was rammed down with wooden mallets. Crescenzi, where a The goal was to create a surface resembling a couple are sitting fine-textured cloth. This recommendation was on raised grassy familiar in many European countries, since De turf seats. photo: Vegetabilis was published in Latin. www.pinterest.se Woudstra and Hitchmough believe that from the Middle Ages on, there were “two types of grassy sward: either a kind of green velvet (‘lawn’) or a flower-rich sward”.31 The latter was achieved by planting additional native and ex- otic herbaceous plants in existing grass-dominat- ed turf. Existing garden images from medieval times confirm the existence of two types of grassy surfaces. In some pictures, it is easy to see more or less short-cut grasses (Figure 2). In other paintings there are clearly depicted turf benches with flower-rich turf surfaces, as shown in the painting from the fifteenth century portrayed in Figure 3. Turf benches or raised turf banks were made ers), referencing the Garden of Eden.27 Owing to from timber, brick, earth or stones and filled in the widespread use of Latin by monks, the Latin with rubble and some soil, and finally topped word pratum was mostly employed. This word with turf (cut from the nearest available is translated into English as mead (meadow), or grassland) or planted with scented plants. It from the Old English medwe. Each wild flower is important to understand that short-grass areas portrayed in tapestries, engravings and pictures in European gardens were created as a pleasure had an important religious symbolic meaning. ground and were directly connected to notions They were connected to Bible stories and were of safety and political stability. For educated probably inspired by real meadows in surround- and wealthy people of the sixteenth century, it ing landscapes. English garden historian Elean- started to be possible to create new gardens in

30 bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 the swedish lawns which larger spaces, such as lawns, were dedi- cated solely to pleasure and aesthetics.

The origin of Swedish lawn: figure 3. Etymological roots ‘Madonna by The Swedish word for lawn is gräsmatta (pl. a grassy bank’ gräsmattor), a compound word that means (1425/30), by “grass carpet”. The word gräsmatta was first Robert Campin used in the Swedish dictionary in 1852 in the workshop, where current meaning of a green grass carpet or “mat- the Virgin Mary is sitting in a like quilt made by (fine and impenetrable) grass flowery mea- 32 covering the ground”. dow. The turf- Before that date, other words were used to topped box brick describe grass-covered surfaces.33 The use of the seat behind the word gräs from ancient times reflects the de- figures contains velopment of Swedish agriculture, where grass- wild flowers (dandelion, plan- covered areas had great significance for stock tain, violet, wild rearing since 4000 BCE. Grazing of cattle was strawberry). performed not only in meadows, but also in for- photo: Maria ests (wood-pasture), and resulted in domination Ignatieva in the of grass species and heather, which replaced the Gemäldegalerie original ground cover vegetation.34 in Berlin, 2017. It appears that the word gräs was generally used in a broader meaning in old Swedish than nowadays.35 In old German, Gras could contain as grass plats or plots” in medieval times and the meaning grao (eat), grastis (green fodder, up to the eighteenth century.40 However, the fodder-plant) and gro (grow).36 Gräs also meant word gräsplats is not commonly used nowadays something edible and good for grazing animals. in Sweden. Nowadays, the first meaning of the word gräs is a ground cover with a large proportion of The origin of Swedish lawns: species belonging to the (grass Historical conditions family). The oldest known form of deliberately cultivat- In the Swedish Bible (1526 translation), the ed land in Sweden was lövängar, grazed mead- compound word gräsplats is mentioned: Och ows with trees. Trädgård (a tree-covered place) the satte sigh j roota taal på gräszplatzanar 37, is now the Swedish word for ‘garden’. At the meaning a place overgrown with grass. Words beginning, it was probably a meadow with fruit relating to gräsmatta are also noted in the word trees.41 The cut grass was already part of Swedish gräsplan, ‘grass field’. It was used already in1761 culture when lawn as a special garden decorative to refer to a field in a garden or park covered feature arrived in the country, probably after the with grass.38 The related word gräsplats, ‘grass acceptance of Christianity around the eleventh court’, i.e. ‘grass place’ was used in 1807 to re- century. Because of the development of church- fer to a place/court covered with grass, with es and monasteries, the Latin word pratum specific added information regarding a type of (meadow, hay-field) was also known in Sweden. grass considered particularly nutritious among For monastery and castle , patches of English species of grass when feeding animals.39 sod were probably lifted from . Sweden This corresponds with observations by British has a long tradition of using cut turf from exist- authors, who argue that areas of uniform cut ing grasslands for green roofs (torvtak). In that grass regarded today as lawns were “referred to case, however, the turf was strictly utilitarian

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figure 4. Reconstructed green roof on one of the wooden buildings in the Disagården open-air museum in Uppsala. photo: Maria Ignatieva, 2015.

and aimed to protect a waterproof layer made seventeenth century. Smooth short grass sur- of birch bark sheets. This practice was used in faces were essential features in open space el- some houses in Scandinavia up to the end of the ements: tapis vert (literally ‘green carpet’) and nineteenth century.42 (Figure 4) – open space adjoining the house, laid Turf benches and meadows can be found in out in a regular decorative pattern with use of some paintings acquired by Swedish churches. live (plants) and inert elements (coloured earth One example is the altar paintings dating from etc.). The formal French park was a continua- the 1500s and attributed to the Antwerp mas- tion of a palace under the sky, where ters. The painting in figure 5 was obtained by were seen as garden floors within which lawns Vaksala Church in Uppland, Sweden. In one of were essential living elements.43 The acceptance the parts of the triptych, St. Clare is portrayed of the French garden style in all European coun- sitting next to the Virgin Mary on a turf surface tries by the late seventeenth-early eighteenth cen- (Figure 5). tury resulted in the introduction of the particu- lar French words (parterre, and gazon), Lawns in European gardens into other European languages. For example, in Russia the word gazon was first recorded in the of seventeen century and written Russian language in 1708 as a word of their influence in Sweden French origin44 and related directly to the time of the introduction of European garden culture Lawns in formal gardens to Russia by Peter the Great in the early 1700s. Lawn played an important role in the develop- In Sweden one of the first appearances of ment of the French style of the the word gazon was probably in the Le Jardin

32 bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 the swedish lawns figure 5 a, above: ‘St. Clare and Virgin Mary’ (1500s), by Antwerp workshop, Altarpiece. Courtesy of the Swedish History Museum, Stockholm. photo: Maria Ignatieva, 2016. figure 5 b, below: Inspired by medieval images, this meadow-mat picnic bench with native Swedish plants was installed in Ultuna Campus in 2016. photo: Maria Ignatieva, 2016.

de Plaisir by André Mollet, published in French, German and Swedish in 1651. Mollet aimed to introduce, to the Swedish kingdom, his expe- rience of French gardening and to adapt his knowledge to Swedish conditions. He describes several types of parterres. One of these was the parterre de broderie, which uses a continuous flowing line of box (Buxus sempervirens). An- other was the compartiments de gazon (‘em- broidery of grass’),45 parterres composed of different geometric pieces filled in with short cut grass (Figure 6). The latter was Mollet’s at- tempt to offer alternatives to a very complicated embroidery parterre and employ patterns that would be easier to achieve in the cold Nordic climate. Except from southern Sweden, the boxwood could not withstand the harsh con- ditions.46 According to Swedish art historian Göran Lindahl 47, the technique of working with cut surfaces of grass was used in Swedish gar- dens and was known as gräsritningar (grass designs). Mollet particularly mentioned the im- portance of keeping turf in the parterres “after the English manner”48, i.e. of very high quality, thus recognising English leadership in the culti- vation of lawns. The English definitely favoured lawns with very short and evenly grassy surfaces, taking advantage of their favourable climate.49 Lawn was a very time- and money-consuming element. It required use of special seed mixtures (or good quality turf from pastures) and estab- lishment techniques and an intensive mainte- nance regime.

Triumph of lawn in European and Swedish landscape parks Most authors claim that lawn really came into its own as a closely-tended, short grass, which could cover quite extensive areas, in the middle

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figure 6 a. Compartiments de gazon. Parterre composed of different geometric pieces filled in with short cut grass. from: Mollet [1651], facsimile edition 2006, Gyllene Snittet HB. Plansch XXII. figure 6 b, next page: Example of Compartiments de gazon in Vaux-le-Vicomte Park, France, 17th century design. photo: Maria Ignatieva, 2017.

of the eighteenth century.50 The English land- , for example , San- scape or “natural” style, based on serpentine guisorba minor and Plantago lanceolata.55 lines of lakes and green belts, openings with Smooth, green surfaces with fine grasses that grazed grasslands and natural shaped groves, re- were closely mown or grazed became easier to placed the geometrical ideology of parterres and create with the development of special nurseries . Laird 51 described division of landscape for producing lawn seed mixtures in the second gardens into three parts: the park, the pleasure half of the eighteenth century. ground and the flower garden. The landscape From that time, many countries began using ideal was to position a house within the pleas- the French word pelouse, meaning “the surface ure ground on the short, smoothly mown or oc- of the lawn”.56 This word originated from the casionally closely grazed grassy surfaces. Thus thirteenth century adjective pelous, meaning pleasure grounds had most intensively managed “hairy” from the Latin pilosus, “covered with lawn areas. English scholars recently confirmed hair”. The use of this word in the Swedish lan- that in the time of , it was not guage relates directly to the development of possible to sow pure grass .52 For more in- landscape parks in Sweden by the end of the tensively maintained “dressed” pleasure ground53 eighteenth century. The most famous pelouse lawns and more relaxed parkland grass areas, was established in the royal park Hagaparken in they used ready turf or had to collect seeds from the 1780s for Swedish King Gustav III. The king a “clean” pasture.54 Thus, such lawns in was fond of French culture, so adoption of this always had several grass species, as well as some French term seems logical. In Sweden, the lawn

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in Hagaparken is known by its definite form, Pe- The era of the lawn: lousen. It was never grazed, except for a short Nineteenth century Europe period of grazing in the 1930s (Figure 6). In the eighteenth century, it was cut by . and Sweden The development of Swedish landscape Triumph of lawns in England parks has its own peculiarities, especially in John Claudius Loudon, the true father of the the countryside. Hagaparken was the first “real nineteenth century gardenesque style and mod- landscape garden in Sweden”57 with pelouse and ern Western gardening, gave a first clear defini- other irregularly shaped open grassy spaces be- tion of lawn: “The term ‘lawn’ is applied to the ing essential elements of park design. breadth of mown turf formed in front of, or In Swedish country estates there were exam- extending in different directions from, the gar- ples of a hybrid approach, where some elements den in front of the house.” 60 In the nineteenth of formal gardens (for example closely mown century, the lawn was one of the absolutes in grassy parterres) were partnered with landscape gardening. It offered a perfect match with the garden features such as meadows and pasture.58 Victorian philosophy of eclecticism and exoti- Based on documentary evidence from the cism, demonstrating the triumph of art over na- Gunnebo estate, it has been concluded that in ture. The art of the skilled gardener was most the eighteenth century, grass-dominated areas in clearly visible in the care of lawns. The Victo- the Swedish parks were managed by three major rian attitude towards improving people’s lives garden tools: scythe, roller and broom.59 resulted in finding a particular “format” and cat-

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figure 7 a: Hagaparken’s Pelouse, Stockholm, being grazed by sheep in the 1930s. photo: Wikipedia.

egorisation for the lawn.61 Introduction of the the Swedish compound word gräsmatta, when in the 1830s launched the era of first published in 1808, was not a living cut-grass the “industrial lawn” and contributed to its mass surface, but a rug or mat made of dried grass: adoption. matta förfärdigad av (torkat) gräs.63 The sec- From the nineteenth century, lawn was given ond part of the word, matta (from the old Ger- metaphors such as carpet, canvas and green vel- man matte or old English maette, in both cases vet. Lawns in the gardenesque style were defi- stemming from the Latin matta), had the spe- nitely the canvas upon which the house, trees, cific meaning ‘a mat of rush’ (Swedish sävmat- , sculptures and exotic unusual flowers ta). When the word gräsmatta was first intro- should be “painted” and demonstrated in the duced in the nineteenth century, its component most effective way.62 Lawns were the essential -matta related to textile mats used on floors or part of the public parks, which also employed walls. The etymological origin, however, was ‘a the gardenesque principles. mat of rush’, where rush botanically is a semi- grass (Schoenoplectus lacustris). Matta (noun) Lawn in Swedish public parks in Swedish in its first meaning denotes various Sweden was among the European countries crude or thick textiles, produced through weav- which adopted the gardenesque fashion, mak- ing, braiding or knotting, and probably from the ing lawns an essential part of Swedish public Phoenician and Hebrew noun mitthah, mean- parks. There was even a special word, gräsmat- ing “cover”.64 In its transferred meaning, as in ta, which was introduced to designate this im- gräsmatta, it is a figurative expression, denoting portant garden element. The initial meaning of a ‘grassy court’ or ‘grassy yard’, referring to a

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figure 7 b: The Pelouse as it was in 2012. photo: Maria Ignatieva. ground cover consisting of growing (fine) grass Here, bourgeois had their showground. or similar material: mattliknande täcke av (tätt Parks provided a pleasant environment and o. fint) gräs som täcker marken (mat-like quilt played a role in “strengthening the family”, be- made of fine and impenetrable grass covering cause they were said to take people’s minds off the ground).65 drinking and gambling.66 More broadly, urban The appearance of the special Swedish word parks played a role in improving hygiene and gräsmatta entirely dedicated to lawn as a dec- living standards in and decreased the fire orative garden and park surface was directly risk. The even green carpet of lawn, with its correlated with the spread of public parks in neat and clean appearance, was an excellent aes- Sweden. A new upcoming class, the bourgeoi- thetic enhancer of urban public spaces. In many sie, had become the main driving force in early photos of urban parks, lawns are typical planning, instead of the former upper class in gardenesque displays framing rich flowerbeds Swedish society. In a democratic spirit, this class and bordered by gravel paths (Figure 8). needed parks and thus lawns became available However, lawns in Swedish public parks were to everyone. Establishing lawns was a way for not really truly accessible for public recreation the Swedish bourgeoisie to show their wealth (walk and play) until the very late nineteenth and significance. These lawns conformed to the and early twentieth century 67 and in some places nineteenth century English meaning of lawn as even later. In private gardens, lawn began to be a green carpet for use, since Swedish parks at seen as a place for leisure activity and as a mat- that time were particularly valued as places for ter of prestige. A perfect lawn was a kind of a socialising, good health and “moral education”. testament to the owner’s skills and status.

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where lawn was a dominant feature. Such an environment was expected to play a major role in ‘saving nature’ in cities. Holger Blom, head of Stockholm’s park administration from 1938 to 1971, wrote: “The park loosens up the city; the park makes space for recreation; the park is a meeting place; the park preserves nature and culture.” 69 In that time of overcrowded living conditions with no space at home for activities other than cooking and sleeping, parks were seen as the living-room of the poor. Blom and his colleague Erik Glemme created parks where large lawns were essential. These lawns were de- signed for use as informal areas for or rounders, places for sunbathing or picnics, or simply open spaces giving the city a comprehen- sive “green” structure. Thus lawn practically re- placed the notion of “real” nature. The political policy of providing the Swedish people with af- figure 8. Lawn in one of Uppsala pu- fordable housing during the time of the Swedish blic gardens. photo 1905. Carpet beds, welfare state, in the 1930:s to the 1950:s, resulted shrubs and trees are displayed on lawns as in a museum exhibit. Colored post in large numbers of new dwellings (“folkhem”). card. Provided by Roger Elg, slu. Many of these were designed in the form of three-storey houses with publicly accessible large with lawns and playgrounds. (Figure 9). However, there was still a dearth of residen- tial houses. Therefore, an ambitious public hous- Lawns in Swedish cities in the twen- ing, the “Million Programme” (miljonprogram- tieth and twenty-first centuries: met), was implemented between the mid-1960s Towards a Swedish ‘model’ and mid-1970s. In order to minimise the cost of From the second half of the nineteenth century, construction and maintenance (cheap but func- the process of transformation from an agrarian tional spaces), lawns were a perfect component country to a highly industrialised nation began of the surroundings. Extended lawns, together and resulted in accelerating urbanisation. with uniform plant material, shaped almost eve- The Swedish economy developed rapidly in ry Swedish city. This standardised psychology fit- the early twentieth century due to democratisa- ted well with the modernist rationalistic aesthet- tion, industrialisation, urbanisation and creation ic of simplification of landscape elements (even of a strong welfare state. In the 1940s, urban prefabrication) and limited variation in design development was socially orientated and public and plant material schemes. Even city and castle housing received very strong government sup- parks were influenced by the modernistic design port. After World War Two, a new generation of and used the simplified conventional lawn. housing areas and apartment blocks were built By the beginning of the twenty-first centu- throughout Sweden. There was a call to improve ry, lawn was firmly entrenched in all types of living standards and specifically for greater at- green areas in Sweden. In 2001, regularly cut tention to the outdoor environment in residen- grass lawns, which are called “utility” lawns in tial areas.68 The idea was to bring light and air Swedish municipal documents, covered about 55 by using blocks of houses with a small footprint per cent of grassed areas in Swedish towns and located in a park-like outdoor environment cities.70 In a time of globalisation and urbanisa-

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figure 9. Lawn in multifamily housing area in Tunabackar, Uppsala. photo: Maria Ignatieva 2017. tion, lawns have become an indispensable ele- also searching for a national identity in the early ment of open space design. One of the latest twentieth century. Thus, grasslands were very trends in Sweden is the use of artificial (plastic) much authentic natural elements in some public lawn in playgrounds, exhibition gardens or even parks (Figure 10). private gardens. One example of the preservation of indig- enous vegetation is Slottsskogen Park in Goth- enburg, which was established at the very end An alternative perspective of the nineteenth century. Meadows and natu- on lawn in Sweden ral tree-covered hills were included in the park. Despite following European garden fashion, es- The most important feature was a lawn for pic- pecially from England and Germany, countries nicking and recreation. In the Municipal Park with which Sweden traditionally has strong gar- in Jönköping, established in the same era, it den and horticultural links, there were attempts was decided to clear a forest glade and provide to implement some authentic Nordic ideas into space for more natural vegetation rather than the development of lawns during the nineteenth designed and trimmed lawns with flowerbeds and twentieth centuries. One of the traditions and groups of decorative flowering shrubs.72 included the use of parts of native landscapes The use of native meadows and grasslands (which Sweden has in abundance) preserved instead of lawns was one of the doctrines of in parks and other green areas.71 This included the so-called Stockholm School of Parks devel- natural or semi-natural vegetation such as for- oped in the 1930s and 1940s. This school advo- ests and woodlands, as well as meadows and cated a new park style, in contrast to the neo- pastureland. This approach was part of the Nor- classical regular and well-proportioned ideals.73 dic School and Nordic classicism, which were To a large extent, green space development was

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adapted to the existing landscape. This planning of the harm of using and and design approach also included preserva- on conventional lawns has resulted in a ban on tion of semi-natural pastures, although proper chemicals on public lawns in all Swedish munici- management was absent in many cases.74 Native palities since the 1990s. However, this sustain- meadows were used in addition to conventional able attitude on municipal level was largely dic- lawns. This approach became very popular in tated by the poor economic situation in Sweden the urban landscape and had also influences on in the 1990s and related endeavours to reduce corresponding green space development in Nor- the maintenance costs. way and Finland. One of the best examples of a Since 2000, there have been several attempts park of this kind is that in connection to Norr to identify alternative urban ground-cover veg- Mälarstrand in Stockholm.75 etation, for example Mårtensson reviews ex- At the end of the twentieth century, alter- periments on urban meadows in Sweden in the native lawn solutions developed abroad became 1980s and 1990s.79 Moreover, private companies quite influential in Sweden. English experiences producing exclusively Swedish wildflower seeds were particularly popular because of the long- have been started.80 They aim at saving natural standing cooperation between UK and Swedish grasslands and promoting use of different mead- municipalities and researchers.76 For example, ow plants around Swedish urban dwellings. there were studies on the maintenance of urban Seeds are collected directly from native plant meadows.77 In many park administrations and communities in different districts of Sweden. garden companies, new management regimes for lawns were developed. In addition to con- Grass-free lawns ventional lawn (regularly mown), new types of The LAWN project prioritised models inspired high grass and meadow lawn have been intro- from natural grassland ecosystems and me- duced to Swedish municipalities.78 Awareness dieval gardens, where meadow and ground

figure 10. Former grazed area in which lawn (gräsmatta) was established. Such a lawn consisted of 50 per cent non-grass species.81 photo: Sten Florgård 1947.

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figure 11. Visitors enjoying the experimental tapestry lawn on Ultuna Campus, SLU, Uppsala. photo: Maria Ignatieva 2017. cover plants played an important role. One Discussion and conclusions suggested solution was the tapestry/grass-free The history of Swedish lawns as dense and regu- lawn. The idea was influenced by recent Brit- larly mown grassy areas created purely for pleas- ish research,82 which claims that such lawn can ure has many similarities with lawns in other combine sustainability aims (less energy input European countries. Trade, royal and religious in maintenance and achieving a biodiversity-rich connections contributed to Sweden accepting plant community) with ‘cues to care’ (visibility the same artistic styles, garden terminology and of human care)83 and at the same time a pleas- even garden maintenance technology. It is espe- ant aesthetic appearance of the ground surface cially important to note the native origin of the (decorative perennial species with attractive foli- main grass species in Swedish pastureland, which age and flowers). were later used in artificially created lawns. In Nordic planning traditions can be a good Swedish, the authentic word gräs peacefully co- breeding ground for these new ideas.84 The existed with the word pratum used by medieval Swedish version of tapestry lawns involves us- Christian monks. Swedish monasteries and cas- ing appropriate low-growing native perennial tle gardens most likely used lawns for decorative species that can provide a similar level of dense purposes (turf benches for sitting and contem- plant cover to a conventional grass lawn and at plation) and were based on cut turf with grasses the same time cope with the harsh Nordic cli- and flowering perennials. In comparison with mate (Figure 11). Such lawns require less cutting, many other European countries, the Nordic na- since the plants are not very high and most of tions already had a long tradition of using pieces our suggested plants already spontaneously ap- of cut meadow for roofs. pear in conventional lawns. The use of “true” lawns in the modern un-

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derstanding of smooth, dense, decorative sur- and had several grass species and other herba- faces came to Sweden via its royalty and nobility, ceous plants such as , yarrow or plantain. which had close connections with fashionable After World War Two, many of newly estab- France and England. This led to the use of lished conventional lawns with the succession French words such as gazon and pelouse. How- process transferred into more species-rich sur- ever, these fancy foreign words were not part faces. of the everyday life of Swedish peasants, who Nowadays, many Swedish lawns, especially comprised the majority of the inhabitants in the in residential areas, also look quite ‘relaxed’ country. Moreover, decorative lawns were very and contain not only original grass species but time- and resource-consuming and thus afford- also many spontaneously appearing forbs. Swe- able only in small amounts and in certain garden den even has a very progressive classification of places (parterre or intensively cut lawn next to lawns, which by the early twenty-first century the house). Unlike England, Sweden introduced included the categories “high grass” and “mead- a special word, gräsmatta, in recognition of this ow-like areas”. On the other hand, too much new social and cultural phenomenon, quite late centralised control by communities and munici- in the history of lawn. Gräsmatta clearly land- palities does not provide an opportunity to re- marked a new political, cultural and economic view the existing rules or offer any alternative era in Sweden. From this moment, lawn started vision and solutions on lawns in a large scale. In its reign and conquest of Swedish cities. In the the past decade in Sweden, lawns have been the twentieth century, the Swedish model of eco- first victims of the densification process, with nomic and cultural development gave lawns dramatic loss of green areas. A new phenome- particular democratic status as one of the most non in outdoor housing space is synthetic lawn, accessible and most common elements of all ur- which has appeared in parks and housing areas ban open green spaces. Compared with the An- as part of a new era of ecological simulation.85 glo-American planning model with The justification for this replacement of nature and development of private individual housing is that the material has better durability and can (where private lawns play a crucial role), Swe- withstand the high recreation pressure in dense den used the approach of creating publicly ac- urban environments. Thus, by 2010 the second cessible lawns in multi-family residential areas. part of Swedish word gräsmatta acquired its lit- Private gardens still exist in Swedish cities, but eral meaning, as a green mat or rug. multi-family residential housing In Sweden and many other European coun- are the most common typology. Due to the po- tries (UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands), litical and economic specifics of Swedish life, there are traces of past searches for an alterna- municipalities play an important role in outdoor tive to conventional short-cut lawn. environment regulation, including management The recent environmental crisis and climate and maintenance of lawns. This brings many ad- change have dramatically intensified the search vantages. For example, awareness of the nega- for sustainable solutions and have resulted in tive consequences of using pesticides and her- the emergence of Swedish firms growing and bicides for the environment and people’s health advertising native meadow plants and introduc- forced Swedish municipalities to prohibit use ing various types of alternative lawn vegetation of chemicals in lawn management. This is quite in urban environments. different from the situation in other developed Our recent interdisciplinary study of Swedish and developing countries, where harmful lawn lawns showed deep attachment to lawns among management practices are still quite common. the public86, since from their very first steps Our research shows that due to the climate urban residents see green carpets everywhere. and practice of using sods from grasslands, However, the same study showed that people Swedish lawns even in the seventeenth, eight- and municipal authorities understand the neces- eenth and nineteenth century were quite diverse sity and importance of providing more variety in

42 bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 the swedish lawns the urban environment and of introducing new clas florgård, Landscape architect, professor sustainable solutions. One of the important pre- Emeritus in Landscape Architecture at the Swed- conditions for success in changing the existing ish University of Agricultural Sciences in Upp- lawn paradigm is education and, in the Swed- sala. Throughout his career Clas Florgård was ish case, providing demonstration sites showing a consultant in varying governmental organisa- alternative lawns in municipal parks and univer- tions and private firms. He has worked with sity campuses. This is the perfect moment for projects on the planning and design of urban changing human lawn psychology, by exploit- environments and done long term research on ing the tremendous potential of Sweden’s mea- the ecology and resilience of natural vegetation gre nature and its garden history of biodiverse as parts of urban parks and the urban environ- meadows and pasturelands and resurrecting the ment. He continues to work in his private com- notion of national identity. pany (planning, design and research projects). One of his recent books, published in 2017, is Torpet Nytorp – en skärva svensk historia. Acknowledgments [email protected] We would like to acknowledge a grant by For- Borgmästarvägen 3 mas, the Swedish Research Council for Environ- 193 35 Sigtuna. ment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (225-2012-1369), which enabled this research to katarina lundin, Associate Professor in Scan- be performed, and Professor Per Berg, SLU, dinavian Languages, Centre for Languages and Ass. Professor Åsa Ahrland, SLU, and Dr Eka- Literature at Lund University. She received her terina Malskaya, St. Petersburg State University, PhD in Scandinavian Linguistics from Lund Uni- for assisting with some sources and literature. versity. Her two main research interests are in educational sciences, with a focus on grammar and written language development, and in lan- guage use in contexts. Katarina Lundin maria ignatieva, born in St. Petersburg, Rus- is also the Head of Section of Centre for Lan- sia, PhD from Moscow State University. Profes- guages and Literature. sor in landscape architecture, Swedish University [email protected] of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden and Centre for Languages and Literature Senior lecturer in landscape architecture, School Lund University of Design, University of Western . Ex- Box 201 pert in urban ecology, plant material, history of 221 00 Lund http://www.sol.lu.se/person/KatarinaLundin landscape architecture and garden restoration. She has worked in Russia (St. Petersburg), USA (SUNY ESF, Syracuse, New York), New Zealand (Lincoln University) and in Sweden (SLU, Upp- Notes sala). Her latest FORMAS project was dedicated 1 Wheeler et al. 2017. to the lawn as cultural and ecological phenom- 2 Smith and Fellowes 2014. enon and a symbol of globalization (www.slu. 3 Bormann et al. 2001. se/en/lawn). 4 Thompson et al. 2004. 5 Müller 1990. [email protected] 6 Bertocini et al. 2012. [email protected] 7 The American Lawn 1999. Division of Landscape Architecture 8 Hedblom et al., 2017. Department of Urban and Rural Development, SLU 9 Seiler 2017. PO Box 7012, SE 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden. 10 Ignatieva 2015. School of Design. University of Western Australia. 11 The Swedish Academy is an independent cultural insti- M433, LB 5000 Perth, WA 6000 Australia tution founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to advance

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Swedish language and literature. The regulations of 1786 48 Jakobsson et al. 2007. require creation of a dictionary on every word in the 49 Mollet 1651, plansch XXII. Swedish language published since 1521, a task expec- 50 Dawson 1959; Schultz 1999; Jenkins 1994. ted to take some years. By 2016, Svenska Akademiens 51 Laird 1999. ordbok (SAOB) staff had reached the letter V, while 52 Phibbs 2010, p. 42. revising facts relating to words starting with previous 53 Pleasure ground is specially dedicated space (usually letters. (Svenska Akademien homepage, 2017). next to the house) within the English landscape style 12 Hellquist 1967. garden where colourful flowers and flowering shrubs 13 Ignatieva 2017. as well as more intensively managed lawn area can be 14 Laptev 1983, p. 5. located. Laird, 1999. 15 The Oxford Companion to Gardens 1991, p. 331. 54 Dawson 1959, p. 15. 16 Ignatieva 2017, p. 6. 55 Phibbs 2010, p. 48. 17 Smith and Fellowes 2013. 56 Mosser 1999. 18 Fort 2000. 57 Olausson 1993, p. 562. 19 Möller 1992. 58 Olausson 1993. 20 Woudstra & Hitchmough, 2000, p. 31. 59 Seiler 2017, p. 43. 21 Mosser 1999, p. 50. 60 Fort 2000, p. 72. 22 Online Etymology Dictionary 2016. 61 Smith and Fellowes 2013. 23 Fort 2000. 62 Ignatieva 2011. 24 Teyssot 1999, p. 7. 63 SAOB 1929, 2009. 25 Teyssot 1999, p. 7. 64 Hellquist 1967. 26 Mosser 1999. 65 Lundström 1852, SAOB 1929, 2009. 27 Hobhouse 1992; Mosser 1999. 66 Andersson 2013. 28 Rohde 1928. 67 Nolin 1999. 29 Ignatieva 2011. 68 Dahlberg 1985. 30 Thacker 1997. 69 Blom 1947. 31 Woudstra and Hitchmough 2000, p. 30. 70 Svenska Kommunförbundet 2002. 32 Lundström 1852. 71 Florgård 2009. 33 The letter G, covering Gräs (grass), was published in 72 Nolin 1999. Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (SAOB) in 1929. Etymo- 73 Sernander 1926; Florgård 1988. logically, the old Swedish word gräs, corresponding to 74 Florgård & Forsberg 2010, p. 84. the old Danish and Norwegian græs, is derived from the 75 Sundström 2004. ancient Nordic grasia, in turn probably from the Ger- 76 Tregay & Gustavsson 1983. manic grasa-. The word gräs in Swedish appears in the 77 Hammer 1987. New Testament, dated 1526, spelled grasz. This radix 78 Andrén 2008. can be found in the old Swedish gras, old German gras 79 Mårtensson 2017. and old English græs (SAOB), today’s English grass. The 80 http://www.pratensis.se/; https://www.vegtech.se/ original meaning of the old Germanic and old Swedish 81 Florgård 2009. prefix gra- is something that literally sticks out, sticks 82 Smith & Fellowes 2014. up, crops out and appears. It is related to the Swedish 83 Nassauer 1995. word gran, which in turn is composed of a radix mea- 84 Gustavsson & Ingelög 1994; Florgård 2009. ning sticka fram, ‘stick out’. Gran means the tree Picea 85 Francis 2018. abies (Norwegian spruce), which is believed to have 86 Ignatieva 2017. been named for its needles sticking out from the twigs, like grass sticking up from the ground. 34 Vera 2000. 35 Hellquist 1967. References 36 Kluge & Seebold 2002. 37 Mark 6: 40, referred to Svenska Akademiens ordbok Andersson, Torbjörn, 2013, ”1920–1990”, in D. Hallemar & (SAOB), 1929. A. Kling (eds.) Guide till svensk landskapsarkitektur 38 SAOB 1929, 2009; Hellquist 1967. (pp. 225–238). 39 SAOB 1929, 2009. Andersson, Thorbjörn, Tove Jonstoij & Kjell Lundquist 40 Woudstra & Hitchmough 2000, p. 31. (eds.), 2000, Svensk trädgårdskonst under fyrahundra 41 Andersson et al. 2000. år. 42 Jim 2017. Andrén, Hans, 2008, Utemiljö. 43 Ignatieva 2011. Bertoncini, Alzira, Politi, Machon, Nathalie, Pavoine, San- 44 Dictionary of Russian Language of the 18th century, drine, Muratet, Audrey, 2012, “Local gardening practi- 1989. ces shape urban lawn floristic communities”, Landscape 45 Lindahl 2004a, p. 169. and Urban Planning, 105 (pp. 53–61). 46 Lindahl 2004a. Blom, Holger, 1947, ”Kampen mot stenstaden”, Svenska tu- 47 Lindahl 2004b. ristföreningens årsskrift, (pp.224–259).

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Bormann, Herbert, Diana Balmori & Gordon Geballe, tion of the origin of green roofs”, Urban Forestry and 2001, Redesigning American Lawn: A Search for Envi- Urban Greening (pp. 32–42). ronmental Harmony. Kluge, Fredrich & Seebold, Elmar, 2002, Etymologisches Dahlberg, Sven, 1985, Från Per Albin till Palme: från samför- Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. 24th Auflage. stånd till konfrontation i bostadspolitiken. Laird, Mark, 1999, The Flowering of the Landscape Garden. Dawson, Robert, 1959, Practical Lawn Craft. English pleasure grounds 1720–1800. Dictionary of Russian Language of the 18th Century, 1989, Laptev, Aleksei, 1983, Lawns. Y. Sorokin (ed). 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Florgård, Clas & Forsberg, Oskar, 2010, “Vegetation chan- Mårtensson, Linda-Maria, 2017, “Methods of establishing ges 1954–2006 in pastures preserved as parts of the species-rich meadow biotopes in urban areas”, Ecologi- urban green infrastructure at Vällingby and Järvafäl- cal Engineering, 103, Part A (pp. 134–140). tet, Stockholm – Case study”, Changes Over Time Möller, Lotte, 1992, Trädgårdens Natur. in Remnant Rural Vegetation within Built-up Areas. Mollet, André, 1651. Le Jardin de Plaisir – Der Lust Gart- Recreational use, Vegetation Dynamics and Conser- ten – Lustgård (Facsimile edition 2006, Gyllene Snittet, vation Assessment, Attachment III. Acta Univ. Agric. Uppsala). Sueciae. Mosser, Monique, 1999, “The Saga of Grass: From the Hea- Fort, Tim, 2000, The Grass is Greener: Our Love Affair venly Carpet to Fallow Fields”, in Teyssot Georges (ed.) with the Lawn. The American Lawn (pp. 40–63). 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46 bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 75/2018 the swedish lawns

Lawns in Sweden History and etymological roots, European parallels and future alternative pathways by Maria Ignatieva, Clas Florgård & Katarina Lundin

Summary We live in a world of lawns. They are among the Our results demonstrate the importance of best loved and well-used eco-friendly features in history and etymology in interdisciplinary re- all types of green area, urban and even rural. search. We show that the lawn in Sweden is a The positive aspects of lawns are widely recog- quite recent phenomenon, which followed de- nized, but concerns have been raised about their velopments in Europe from the very small turf costs, consumption of resources and contribu- benches of medieval gardens, to Baroque par- tion to . To date there has been terres de gazon, through to English-style parks little research on the history and development with wide pastures and lawns. The introduction of lawns, or the reasons for their prevalence in of a specific word for lawn, gräsmatta, in 1852 Swedish cities. We have examined their relation- marked a new political, cultural and economic ship with Swedish natural grasslands, and have era in Sweden, which would lead directly to the looked at the origin and historical development development of the 19th-century public park. of decorative lawns, including parallels with In the 20th century, the Swedish model of eco- European examples. We have also analysed the nomic and cultural development gave the lawn evolution of Swedish lawn terminology (gräs- a distinct democratic status as one of the most matta, gräs, gräsplats). Moreover, we have ex- accessible, common elements of all urban open amined the literature; the etymology of terms in green spaces. Yet the 21st century has seen an Swedish dictionaries; visual sources (paintings in increasing search for complementary, more art galleries and museums, and postcards); and eco-friendly options such as tapestry lawns or the results of interdisciplinary research on the meadows consisting of native Swedish plants, lawn as a Swedish ecological and cultural phe- harking back to ancient meadows. The task of nomenon. This has allowed us to compare the developing a new generation of Swedish lawns meaning of Swedish words with the evolution of is underpinned by modern environmental ideas English and French lawn terminology. and a desire for greater biodiversity.

Keywords: History of lawn in Sweden and Europe, lawn and gräsmatta etymology, alternative lawns

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