Epsilon Open Archive

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to deepen the understanding of the rural garden as “the flower of
agriculture” or as a model for farming by analyzing the relation of the garden to agriculture in the 19th
century on the basis of the building up of two model farms in the province of Skåne, Sweden. The thesis
argues that the model farm in general, and during its establishment period in particular, offers a rich
material for a study of the multidimensional relations between garden/gardening and farming. The
material and visual discourse as well as the networks of key actors are studied in order to reveal these
relations.

Chapter 1 provides a background and introduces the aim and structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 sets
the stage for the case studies by introducing the discourse on the model farm and the personal networks
and associations involved in attempts to develop such farms in the 19th century. In Chapters 3 and 4 the
two main case studies are presented: the private model estate of Trolleholm and the initial development
of Alnarp Agricultural Institute. Whereas the cases aim to reveal how horticulture has been a model for
farming, they also contribute to a wider understanding of the history of the establishing of these model
farms. Chapter 5 summarizes and discusses the results of the thesis.

The thesis demonstrates that the garden, both physically and metaphorically, played an important role
as the intensively cultivated model for farming, as a laboratory for innovative experiments, as a
pedagogical part of education in farming, as a metaphor for self-improvement and as a vision of good
governance; as an agricultural nursery, and as a representation of farming. The importance and strength
of the metaphorical links between garden and knowledge on the one hand and culture and cultivation on
the other are illustrated throughout the thesis; the different aspects of garden/gardening as a model are
thus hardly separable from each other. The complex discourse of practice and ideas linking gardens to
agriculture was formed within personal and professional networks on national and international levels.

The thesis shows that garden culture forms an important element in staging the model farm. By doing
so it contributes to a deeper understanding of the radical transformation of the agrarian landscape during
the 19th century. The study also illuminates the role of the garden as part of the larger narrative of
civilization that captures the essence of the 19th-century belief in progress.