Lekhagen (the play meadow) – the heart of the gardens
Play, free and wild, has a central role in Astrid Lindgren’s life. It is through play that children learn to deal with life. It is through play that we dare to test limits. We simply need to play to become strong and free individuals. Here, behind the barns, children have always run and played, and that’s why we’ve made play a theme of its own in this part of the garden.
Lekhagen (the play meadow)- for the person who’s full of play
The site has been allowed to retain its wild and somewhat overgrown nature, to be permissive and exciting with not too many delicate features to worry about when the play becomes wild. We have incorporated woodland with blueberries and lingonberries to provide soft edges along the footpath, and the snowberry thicket is left to bind together old sheds and fences. Wood has been given a central role here, a ‘squirrel nest’ of sturdy robinia branches, a few block mounds and a flow of alder and birch firewood with a meadow above form play installations that give space to the room.
“How we played, my brother and sisters and I! From dawn till dusk. Tirelessly, full of excitement and joy, sometimes with our lives at risk – but that we didn’t understand. We climbed the tallest trees, we jumped between the timber piles up in the sawmill. We balanced across the ridge of our house – it was quite high and had we fallen down, I’m afraid it would have been game over. /…/ The games, yes how they filled our days! What would my childhood have been without them! What would any child’s childhood be, by the way, if there were no games in their lives?’
Astrid Lindgren, from ‘Samuel August från Sevedstorp och Hanna i Hult’