I have always been fascinated by the way plants have adapted to specific habitats. Since I first started growing plants, this fascination has made me strive to truly understand which environmental factors that made the plant acquire a specific survival mechanism, thus unlocking the secret to what it truly needs in cultivation to thrive. Through my many travels to regions with a climate that can be likened to that of Sweden, my understanding of plant origins has also increased greatly. Combined with my long experience of growing wild species, I now use this knowledge in my own plantings and in my work in public and private places. Nature is an ever-present source of inspiration in my design and in the way I shape a landscape before planting.

I started off as an amateur “plant nerd”, creating the 2-hectare botanical garden Peter Korns Trädgård in Eskilsby east of Gothenburg. My driving force in Eskilsby was to successfully grow the most challenging of plants for a southern Swedish climate; ranging from high alpines to desert plants to near-tropicals. I succeeded in doing this by recreating the conditions of the plants’ original growing sites. The garden has now been sold, but remains accessible to public viewing by the new owners.

These days I have shifted my focus from challenging species to challenging locations: I like working with sites where I need to find plant material that comes from similar, or worse, growing conditions in the wild. This is needed when planting roof gardens, rain gardens, green walls (check out my collaboration with the company Butong!), as well as many other urban and coastal environments.

Most of my plantings are made in pure sand to create low-maintenance spaces that promote both plant and insect ecology. None of the plantings that I do, apart from the green walls, ever need watering after being established, and the great number of species that I know and use are always adapted to the intended growing site.

In my book Peter Korn’s Garden – Giving Plants What They Want I describe my growing methods in detail for others to learn from.

At the university in Alnarp I teach students of landscape architecture and garden design the importance of knowing a plant’s habitat preference as well as landscaping “Peter Korn style” and how to create nature-inspired plantings.

My former garden in Eskilsby: Peter Korns Trädgård
My own Instagram account: peterkornatklinta

I have been part of the gardening world since 2001. In 2015 Peter Korn and myself started Klinta Trädgård AB. The years inbetween, I went to university, worked at the university, and worked as a gardener and a garden designer.

It was a visit at Great Dixter, England, in 1999 that made me change my career into gardening. My first visit there and I was enchanted. In the garden and the plants, I found a great attention to detail, a good sense of humor and a fantastic dynamic. And the garden was not as predictable as other gardens, not what I thought was everyone’s cup of tea. I returned to the garden several times that year, feeling at home.

To learn about gardening and plants, I started to work in Malmo Castle Garden (Slottsträdgården in Malmö). Eventually I went to university to study Horticultural Management: Garden Design at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, In Alnarp. A few years later I got my Degree of Master of Science with a major in Landscape Planning.

Nowadays I sometimes work as a teacher at the university. Mainly within the field of horticulture and garden design. I also do garden- and planting design and consultations. For many years I was the chairman of the jury of show gardens at Malmö Garden Show. Apart from that, I am part of building our garden in Klinta, run the company and take care of the family.

In my design, I like listening to the place as well as to the people that will use it. Function first, both concerning the layout of the space as well as the plants. Diverse, dynamic and resilient plantings are what I aim for.

My own Instagram account, which is updated irregularly and usually not very often: juliaatklinta

I remember as a child sitting in the back seat of a car on a family trip through Europe. I looked out the window and was intrigued by the constantly changing landscape; high mountains, deep valleys, north sides and south sides. The further south we went, the appearance of trees and other plants changed. Somewhere here, my interest in the changeability of nature came to life.

In the beginning, it was the great features of the landscape that attracted me to travel around the world. Over time, interest has shifted more to the details, the small brushstrokes, which together paint the bigger picture.

The desire to work outdoors, and to increase my understanding of plants and the environment around me, further led me to become a garden engineer at SLU Alnarp in 2008.

Until now, I have had varying jobs within the garden industry, ranging from large-scale management within the municipality, construction of private gardens to design consultancy on a smaller scale.

Since 2018 I have been employed by Klinta Trädgård AB. Here I’m mostly spending my time working in the nursery propagating plants, collecting seeds etc.

Here at Klinta, with nature as inspiration and the plant in focus, I have the opportunity to work with and at the same time study many, for me, new and exciting plants in detail.

I was literally knee deep in a mixture of compost and manure when my calendar reminded me Paris fashion week was about to kick off.
I had left a two decades long international career in fashion and photography to retrain as a gardener and not a single cell in my body would trade places in that moment, and no moment since. That’s when I knew I was on the right path.
When I in 2020 got to intern at Klintaträdgård the last pieces fell into place. Working with plants and the landscape with Peter and Julia was a real breakthrough.

Work is dirty, sweaty and hard, and quite the opposite of glamorous (in fairness oftentimes also true of the fashion business) but it’s also utterly rewarding creating spaces of beauty where people can recharge, be inspired and simply be in awe of the magic of nature, all while contributing to biodiversity, getting to be outdoors and be physical, it’s a feeling that can’t be beaten by much.

Now the greenest addition to Klinta Trädgård my work is mainly divided between the nursery and on the road bringing our different planting projects to life.