Country diary: A blissful brush with Swedish flora | Susie White

Härön, Sweden: On this island nature reserve, there are few garden boundaries, meaning wild flowers mingle with the cultivatedThe ferry ride takes just five minutes, crossing the Sound from the island of Tjörn to the smaller, car-free Härön. Red-roofed wooden houses, their walls brightly painted in ochre, white or Swedish red, stand grouped along the shoreline, with rounded bluffs of rock rising behind them. Boats nudge against jetties, places to plunge into the sea after the heat of the sauna.Smooth outcrops of granite knuckle through the thin soil and, with few garden boundaries here, the island's wild plants - among them the dusky purple sand leek - mingle with the cultivated. Our path leaves the strand for cow pastures, before we reach boardwalks that brush past citrus-scented bog myrtle. Then the way climbs on to high ground of bare rock, heather and juniper scrub, with multi-stemmed Scots pines, wind-pruned into dynamic shapes. Continue reading...