A little plot of land, maybe with a small house, where you can grow your own vegetables, spices and flowers, and spend your summer if you wish. This dream is very much alive in Sweden – and the ques to get an allotment can be long, especially if there is a nice cottage included.

Allotments can be like your own summer kitchen garden. In Sweden, owning a summer house is quite common, but that is expensive and requires a lot of work. With an allotment, you can spend as much of summer as you like closer to your regular home. 

Some Swedes practically live at their allotment all summer, other pop in now and then.

Allotments are popular all over northern Europe, and France and Portugal. Like in Sweden, the movement started when the cities grew, it became a need for people to be able to grow their own vegetables without having the means to buy a second home in the countryside.