Insufficient intake of vegetables is a reason for micronutrient deficiencies and malnutrition in developing countries. With urbanization, globalization and a growing world population it is of major importance to secure sufficient food supply for the world?s population. Part of the solution to increased food security among the world?s poor could be the introduction of vegetable Home gardens, plots for small scale vegetable production which can provide households with sufficient vegetables as well as serve as an extra income source. The study Improving peri-urban Home gardens aims at examining the existence of vegetable Home gardens in the peri-urban areas of Hyderabad, India.

The thesis explores the phenomena of historic school gardens connected to elementary schools on Gotland, Sweden. Gotland had the highest percentage of school gardens connected to the elementary schools in Sweden, and by investigating this area much can be learned about the Swedish conditions. The study focus on the period in time when the school gardens were most frequent and used the most, to the point in time when they start losing ground. To bridge over the past to the present the thesis also investigates what is left and play with the thought of possible ways to treat the remains. The main question for the thesis is: How could a school garden on Gotland be constructed and be used 1907 ? 1947?And a follow up question is: What could still be there today and how can/should the remains be treated and conserved? The thesis begin with an overview look at the school gardens of Sweden, closes in with on Gotland and completes with a deeper investigation of two examples of school gardens; Bunge and Stenkumla elementary schools.

Uppsats för avläggande av kandidatexamen i Kulturvård, Trädgårdens hantverk och design, 21 hp, 2011.

The BA thesis Front Yard Gardens ? spatiality, design elements, expression and social aspects is a summary of the entrance and front yard garden phenomenon ? where the entrance is the set design and the designer is the director. The thesis touches the social context of which entrances have been and still are shaped. The various appearance of the entrance and front yard gardens throughout the history, starting with the first entrance by the edge of the wood and coming up to the front yard gardens of today, is described. It touches the present day through an analysis of some entrances and front yard gardens of modern residential areas.

It is sixty years since Sweden's first star-shaped housing estate was built in Gröndal, a suburb of Stockholm. Olle Engkvist, the building contractor, was the driving force behind the residential area and it was designed by architects Sven Backström and Leif Reinius. The estate comprises detached star-shaped houses suited to a more hilly terrain and terraced star-shaped houses on the flat land. The eight gardens of the terraced houses form the shape of a hexagon. It is these gardens, designed by Sven Hermelin and Per Friberg, which are the main focus of this thesis. The buildings on the estate have recently been renovated and it is now time for the gardens to be restored.

In this essay I analyze the meaning of the concepts home and at home and the feeling of coming home. What is a home and what different interpretations are there regarding the concepts of home and being at home? What kinds of feelings are aroused by coming home? The world we live in offers great opportunities to travel, which in itself creates a perspective on the meanings of the concepts. The world we live in also forces people to move from their homes, families and countries due to various reasons, which creates various problems and a certain urgency concerning the concepts. I describe basic terms concerning the concepts, both regarding concrete definitions and more abstract notions, and then compare them with my own reflections.         Based on my writing project Coming home I discuss these questions in various ways.

The population growth in Europe and with that in Sweden was enormous under 18th century. The results became housing shortage in large part of Europe. Tight residency/ inhabited, poverty and emigration were series of social questions in Sweden. Private house (egnahem) as in the beginning was an idea from England and Germany became a political measure and the answer at those miserable social circumstances in Sweden. The purpose with the private house (egnahem) was to help those new people moved in to towns with place to live and counteract movers to towns and emigration. With the governmental loan and land availability that some municipalities and wealthy people contributed with, could people get a place to live with the small garden. The city garden (trädgårdstaden) with their future idealistic idea/utopia, English gardens, ideas with roots in the old-fashioned gardens (allmogeträdgårdar) and lots of books and periodicals were the source of inspirations. From these the private house gardens (egnahemsträdgårdar) were born. Object for my study is my and my family?s own house in Limhamn, south west of Malmö which was built in 1912 under private house gardens era. The garden and the building have still trace and element from the time of private house. My suggestion is inspired by the private home style with a new thinking design that answers to daily need and the busy life style; a rather easy to maintain for green environment. A more relaxing and peaceful garden with simple design, a garden despite that it is surrounded by neighbours and streets invites in harmony and dreams..

This study aims to explore how a gardening project with elderly living in Djuröhemmet, a nursing home outside Stockholm, affected them regarding psychological well-being and their experience of participation during the planning and construction of the memory garden. The gardening project is new in its kind by allowing the residents to influence the design of the garden by sharing the project leader their gardening memories from previous parts of their life and by wishing for specific plants and items.  The method being used was qualitative interviews where we interviewed seven people living in Djuröhemmet who participated in all or parts of the project. The theoretical framework is Molins (2004) definition of participation, but also theories of meaningfulness, social needs and gerotranscendence were applied. The results indicate that the participants did not realize that their involvement during the planning helped developed the garden.

The movement of the allotment gardens reached Sweden in the beginning of the last century. The allotment gardens quickly spread among the big towns from Malmö in the south and to the far north of the country. Today, there are about 42 000 owners of allotment gardens in Sweden. This work will show the differencies and similarities comparing the original ideas of allotment gardens with how they are used today. The specific questions were; what are the reasons to acquire an allotment garden; is it used for raising vegetables and fruit or only for growing flowers; is what is cultivated there also gathered and used or is it cultivated only for the pleasure of gardening; and finally how the owners of the allotment gardens spend their time there ? by cultivating the land or by recreational activities. Literature studies were made as well as an inquiry at one allotment garden area i Lund. The ideas of the original allotment gardens in the beginning of the 20th century were as much based on the need of getting out of the aparment to a healthy environment, as cultivating vegetables for economical reasons.

Biological pest management is defined as control of pests using their natural enemies. This method has been used in Sweden since the 1970´s and it has been developed ever since. Biological pest management is today relatively common among commercial growers but there are good possibilities to apply this method in the Home gardens as well. The aim with this thesis is to compile a report from both the companies that are marketing the products and the home gardener´s point of view. This should give a better understanding of the market and how it could be improved. We will give examples of products that represent the different kinds of organisms that are being used in biological pest management. Our hope is that this will be an introduction to all interested in biological pest management. The legislations regarding registration of organisms are still a matter of discussion and are causing problems to producers, distributors and the market in general. Why isn´t biological pest management more common in the home garden? The main reason appears to be the lack of knowledge in the subject. What are the benefits using biological pest management when it requires so much knowledge and it´s more expensive than conventional pest management? With the environmental problems we face today, we hope that every single gardener has an interest in developing an environment as clean as possible, even if only in one's own backyard..

Our environment affect us, not least gardens. By practising the ancient Chinese art feng shui, one could find tools how to create harmony and balance in gardens. By paying attention to different energies working with colours, shapes and materials one can create a nice garden with good feng shui. The philosophy, however, includes much more than what plants or what hard materials to choose in the garden. It describes different energies, the movement of energies, which we can learn to live in harmony with.

This is a BA thesis in landscape planning at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate why Japanese gardens, created in Sweden, often lack the feeling connected with Japanese gardens. The thesis includes a short study of Japanese history, spanning from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, to create a mild understanding of how the Japanese society changed, due to political, religious and cultural influences. The traditional Japanese garden styles, developed during this period, have been concisely compiled separately to create a homogeneous image of each style. In order to display opposite views of garden design in the European garden styles, some of the european styles have been concisely compiled as well. To produce a higher level of understanding of the Japanese garden, a consice compilation of the fundamental design principles has been included, as well as variuos types of decoration typical to the Japanese gardens, since the miss-use of these is a certain way of losing the feeling of a Japanese garden. The thesis is concluded by a consice compilation of possible reasons as to why the feeling connected with Japanese gardens is absent, as well as some attempt to include the feeling in the Swedish versions of Japanese gardens..

Garden center and market gardens are a growing trade, undergoing great changes with new actors and purchasing habits. The interest in gardens and plants is steadily increasing, official statistics show an increase of garden plants and flower consumption, of an annual 3 per cent. Garden centers and market gardens are in great need of development to be able to tackle the prevailing competition, and maintain a steady growth. Many companies are heading for a generation shift and are founding it difficult to find and employ younger managers. The aim of this report is to examine different strategies of garden centers and market gardens through the manager/ owner?s views and opinions about competition, growth and success.

The proportion of elderly people in Sweden is increasing. Many of these live at home and as their age increases so does the likelihood of health problems and the need for support, medical attention and care. Personnel working with home help provide a large part of this care, including areas of home-based care that are the responsibility of the district nurse. The purpose of this paper is to describe how home-help personnel perceive their work in the area of home-based care, as their views are an important factor in the ability to provide a care system that funktions successfully. The method employed here is phenomenografic and nine subjects from a home-help group have been interviewed.

Few rectory gardens are today remaining in their former design and the cultural heritage that they represent are disappearing. Since 1987-88 the parishes are no longer bound to keep housing for their priests, which means that they, for economical reasons, are starting to sell their rectories. With this in mind, a group of people, growing up in rectories in Småland and Öland between the 1930th and 1950th, formed an interest group to save the memory of their rectory gardens. On the basis of their memories, they have written a couple of descriptions of the rectories, which describe the gardens content, design and the life they once lived there. With this compilation of the 14 rectory gardens I want to keep the memory of them and create a ground for future work in this field. Historically the rectory gardens played an important roll as patterns and examples in the countryside.