Photo: Johanna Westerlund.
Preparations for the upcoming summer season have started already at the Arctic Garden and there is much to do. Gardeners Elise Stöckell and Tuomas Määttä are working in the garden until the end of October.
Spring in the Arctic Garden starts with reparations of winter damage as well as cleaning the ground. Surprisingly, this year quite many disposable hand warmers have been found around the area. In May Stöckell and Määttä are busy with raking, putting up name signs for the plants and cutting branches.
Elise Stöckell is preparing the garden for the summer. Photo: Pihla Mensonen.
The garden will reach full bloom after midsummer. On both sides of Arktikum’s iconic glass tube can be seen ruskarinne and tunturirinne with beautiful flowers and plants.
“The view from the top of the Arktikum’s glass tube is incredibly stunning especially on summer mornings”, Stöckell describes.
The viewpoint by the Ounasjoki River also attracts visitors through the seasons. In winter, it’s a great spot to see the northern lights, and in summer it provides amazing views of the midnight sun.
The Arctic Garden is home to a wide variety of plants, with globeflowers and the coltsfoot already in bloom. An area called Kuusiviidakko (Spruce junge) includes seven different species of spruce: larch, blue spruce, black spruce, white spruce, Siberian fir, Subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce. Biodiversity is important in the garden. An insect hotel made from wood is popular especially with visiting school groups. The garden also has fences made of brushwood that are used to collect garden waste. These fences make raking easier and attract insects and decomposers to the area. They function much like natural compost piles, working with the help of nature itself.
The Arctic Garden will reach full bloom after midsummer. Photo: Risto Viitanen.
Stöckell and Määttä will be joined by extra hands over the summer. The first summer employees arrive after midsummer. Their tasks will include weeding, general maintenance, edging paths and painting.
Preparations for autumn will begin in August. Before that there’s plenty of time to enjoy the colors of the summer in the Arctic Garden.
Text: Pihla Mensonen, communications intern, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland