Visby Botanic Gardens, Gotland, SwedenThe botanic gardens at Visby sit within the 13th century town walls which are so complete that the town has been awarded UNESCO world heritage status. From the centre of the tiny town within the walls, the gardens can be approached along the narrow cobbled street Tran-shusgatan (right), like many streets in Visby still lined by medieval era houses.

The vegetable patch is split into sections representing different nations, with typi-cal vegetables from each being grown (right).At the end of summer the plants are becoming quite “leggy”.The vegetables are grown on mounds of soil between straw-covered pathways, alongside lots of companion plants.

Carl Linneaus is remembered in the gardens (left).Born in 1707 in Stenbrohult in northern Sweden, he is referred to as “the father of taxonony”, his system for the classification of organisms still in wide use today.Linneaus travelled across the island of Gotland on one of his expeditions around Sweden.During a professorship at Uppsala in Sweden he re-stored the university’s botanic gardens according to his system and is credited with inspiring a generation of students, 19 of whom took part in expeditions around the world. One of the most famous of these was Daniel Solander, the naturalist on Captain Cook’s first around the world voyage and who brought the first collections of plants from Australia and the South Pacific to Europe.

Inside the town walls at the northern end of Visby (left). At this end of town many houses have the town wall as the boundary of their back yards.

Fran Maguire September 2011

Visby Botanic Gardens, Gotland, SwedenThe botanic gardens at Visby sit within the 13th century town walls which are so complete that the town has been awarded UNESCO world heritage status. From the centre of the tiny town within the walls, the gardens can be approached along the narrow cobbled street Tran-shusgatan (right), like many streets in Visby still lined by medieval era houses.

The vegetable patch is split into sections representing different nations, with typi-cal vegetables from each being grown (right).At the end of summer the plants are becoming quite “leggy”.The vegetables are grown on mounds of soil between straw-covered pathways, alongside lots of companion plants.

Carl Linneaus is remembered in the gardens (left).Born in 1707 in Stenbrohult in northern Sweden, he is referred to as “the father of taxonony”, his system for the classification of organisms still in wide use today.Linneaus travelled across the island of Gotland on one of his expeditions around Sweden.During a professorship at Uppsala in Sweden he re-stored the university’s botanic gardens according to his system and is credited with inspiring a generation of students, 19 of whom took part in expeditions around the world. One of the most famous of these was Daniel Solander, the naturalist on Captain Cook’s first around the world voyage and who brought the first collections of plants from Australia and the South Pacific to Europe.

Inside the town walls at the northern end of Visby (left). At this end of town many houses have the town wall as the boundary of their back yards.

Fran Maguire September 2011