The SLU Knowledge Garden is a botanical garden located at SLU Uppsala, where it is used for teaching and researching built environments. The garden is also a place for recreation and inspiration that is open to all.
An educational garden
The Knowledge Garden is a curated whole, offering glimpses of the character of landscape architecture and a composition of plants, materials and furniture are brought together into a series of attractive and diverse “rooms”. Around 500 students regularly use the park as part of their SLU studies.
In 2022, the Knowledge Garden became a certified botanical garden in accordance with the Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and ArbNet standards.
In 2016, the Knowledge Garden was awarded its first Green Flag Award. Campus Ultuna has continued to win this award every year since.
The Knowledge Garden’s mission is to:
provide students of landscape architecture and landscape engineering and many others with a wealth of opportunities to study types of paving, walls, stairs and equipment alongside a wide range of trees, bushes and perennials that are adapted to the climate of central Sweden;
act as research infrastructure for outdoor and garden trials;
offer the general public a meeting place where they can experience SLU through guided tours, information points and events involving horticulture, the environment and natural resources;
provide a beautiful park environment for walks, meetings, conversations and reflection. The Knowledge Garden contributes to making Campus Ultuna an attractive and popular destination.
At the southernmost part of the garden, you will find the main entrance – Staden / The City. The entrance connects with Almas allé – a stretch of greenery running from east to west, forming the largest cohesive space on campus. With its clear structure, Staden’s environments reflect cities themselves; straight lines, relatively dense and shaded with a row of trees reminiscent of urban boulevards and environments, brought together with planting that ties in with urban contexts. Manicured hedges create clear boundaries, as medium-sized trees form roofs over gravel paths. The distance between the trees differs throughout, providing examples of measurements and proportions while demonstrating that different trees require different space. A rich collection of conifers lines one side.
Staden leads us into Trädgården / The Garden – where the focus is horticulture. The mood is different here, more open, playful and less structured. The Garden is built around a series of circular hedges staged over several terraces. Each varies in size and composition, with the beds becoming drier the higher up they are. A rockery filled with dry meadow plants forms the upper terrace, whereas water-loving perennials can be found furthest down. In the Garden, you will also find borders from various eras and parts of the world. Small, blossoming trees are dotted around the grounds. There are displays arranged by colour, a cherry tree grove, and a butterfly border.
To the east of the Garden lies the Ullbo Woodland Garden. Surrounding the bewitching pond is a more natural area with an array of plants that thrive in shaded and moist environments.
To the very north is Odlingen / The Plantation – an experimental space for various garden trials and the Oktavia information pavilion. A rose garden contains a collection of lower-maintenance roses, sampling areas for various grass varieties, meadow-like patches and a wealth of fruit trees and berry bushes.
In the future, we hope to see the creation of a third area to the north of Trädgården – Parken / The Park. Parken will have a different character, with a collection of larger park-friendly trees, free-growing hedgerows that frame vast, circular park spaces and generous grassy areas.
The West Knowledge Garden display includes natural planting and demonstrates different inclines.
