It may not be something Vår Gård 's gardener Anders Grönkvist tells his managers about, but he likes the off-season. An empty week like this, which happens to be on top of everything being autumn holidays, is more or less jackpot for him. Then he can get away with the loud equipment without any of the guests getting hurt.

Villa Skärtofta 's tower stretches towards a compact gray sky, and a light rain falls on him as he wears ear muffs and trudges across the lawn with the leaf blower at full blast. The backpack-like device, and the funnel that runs from it, make Anders look like a member of the Ghostbusters.

The autumn-speckled leaves are bundled together in piles, then he drives around with the tractor and sucks everything up on the trailer with the help of a giant hose.

He then tips the collection of leaves onto the compost. The grass surface which was covered with leaves at the beginning of the working day is littered at the end of the working day. Anders Grönqvist loves that aspect of the work: that he gets to see the difference he makes.

It was actually one of those needs that made him choose the profession of gardener once upon a time. In the 1980s, Anders Grönkvist cleared forest for four years, on behalf of the Norwegian Land Administration. Then automation made him and other manual loggers redundant.

Time to change course, but for what? Ever since he was a child, he had wanted to work outdoors, with his hands, and preferably alone. The profession of gardener felt like a logical choice.

Anders furthered his education at the Himmelstalund school in Norrköping and abandoned the forest's robust machinery, motor and clearing saw, for a more pimpin' arsenal: hedge shears and secateurs. An old classmate, Christian, had got a job at a conference facility in Saltsjöbaden, so Anders, who had never been to Stockholm before, traveled there to visit. He fell in love with the setting: the golden reeds, the strange ripples of the water, and the vast lawns that undulated outside the remarkable architecture. "Tell me if your job ever becomes available," Anders joked. A year later, that's exactly what happened. Christian put in a good word for his newly graduated comrade, and at 27 years young, Anders was able to title himself gardener at Vår Gård . The lion's share of working time was spent outdoors.

The work involved, just as he had hoped, a great deal of freedom.


The only "boss" was really the seasons and the weather, and Anders liked to follow the whims of nature. He liked the spring best, especially when the pansies were planting, that feeling that everything was in front of him. And then the flamboyant flowering season that followed. Then there was work to do. Anders was always busy, but never stressed. ANDERS GRÖNQVIST
Age: 49 years.
Lives: Residential property in Saltsjöbaden, four minutes by bike from work.
Family: Single.
Trick of the trade: "Anyone who wants to prune a tree or a larger bush should do so during the JAS months" (ie: July, August, September).

Then you can cut everything really hard. It still has time to heal, mature and fallow in good condition.” My feeling for Vår gård : "It is difficult to imagine a better working environment. I look out the window and it's like the archipelago outside. The working hours are good, I have a lot of freedom and set up the days myself. Then there is no skimping on the machine park either. I have all the best stuff. In addition, the food and coffee are fantastic.”

He managed to keep things tidy around him, so tidy that some pensioners passing by one day asked him if he didn't want to be the gardener for their condominium association, also the one in Saltsjöbaden.

After seven years at Vår Gård it felt like a logical step in the career. At the next workplace, Anders was the only boss, with lots of responsibilities. He averaged thirty phone calls a day, and was rarely able to devote himself unhindered to gardening. Nowhere could the gaze draw strength.

The archipelago motif outside Vår gård was a thing of the past and the desirable calm in the chest was replaced by a teasing stress. In the spring of 2017, when the opportunity to return to Vår Gård opened up, he did not hesitate.

The lobby and dining room are deserted in the afternoon when we settle into a sofa group.

Anders looks around contentedly. - Everyone else here needs customers to be able to do their job, but for me it's almost the other way around, he says.
- Weeks like this one, I can make as much noise as I want with the leaf blower.

So you want zero occupancy?
- Yes!

he exclaims, laughing. Although it would be difficult to get someone to pay my salary in the end. Anders is dressed in a checkered shirt and blue trousers.
A trinket under the lip. - I can't actually imagine another job.

Sitting in an office... my body hurts if I sit for too long. And I like to work alone. I'm so used to being alone. It's just enough to come in and have lunch with my colleagues, then I go out and do my business. - Out there in the garden, it's just me.

My colleagues are inept at that part, so I am the one who decides. He decides himself what to plant in the urns, he explains, but of course he is forced to make certain compromises.
Like with the leaves for example. If Anders himself had decided, they would have been left to litter - a cover of leaves is an excellent protective film for a winter-frozen lawn - but Vår Gård has aesthetic considerations as well. Many guests are charmed by the neatness.

- The guests actually have to put up with a little leaves in the flower beds, it's so beneficial for the flowers!

On the whole, Anders Grönqvist has got exactly what he wants.

He doesn't have to deal with computers. If an overhead device fails, someone else has to move out. We help each other with most things indoors, but out there it's just me.

My colleagues are inept at that part, so out there I am the one who decides.” Anders Grönqvist, Gardener

- When it comes to technology, I am handicapped by a terrible lack of interest.
You know, I'm not even close to having any social media. Like Ferdinand the bull, Anders is best alone in the green, and he has many dream projects: planting a kitchen garden, and an orangery with vines that climb the roof.

At regular intervals, the evening papers publish funny lists of famous people named what they work on: the meteorologist Lisa Frost is self-authored, as is Radiosport's commentator Robert Tennisberg.
The gardener Anders Grönqvist would be a given on such a list - the only problem is that he is not famous. In fact, he completely lacks the key qualities of the media professional.

Anders Grönqvist is not bursting with enthusiasm, not quote-clattery in the Ernst Kirschsteiger manner, not crazy-crazy like Gustav Mandelmann.

He is low-key and competent, bordering on self-deprecating. During the interview, his first ever, he ignores all attempts to make him emphasize his own
importance.
When I, during a walk along the beach, comment on how beautiful and well-kept everything is, he says: - Uh.
The best thing here is the water, and I can't take credit for that. We look out over the steel gray water.
The wind is on, the ducks bob about. In a few weeks the ice will arrive.

Anders says that he usually takes time off during the "least sexy" months for gardeners: January and February. This time he will go to Rio de Janeiro. When I ask him to describe the best part of the job, the answer is not that he gets to constantly challenge himself or some other media-trained nonsense.

Anders instead highlights the fact that he does not always have to think about what he is doing. Some tasks obviously require his complete presence, but others he can carry out with his mind elsewhere. - When I blow leaves, I don't have to think about the fact that I'm blowing leaves, says Anders Grönqvist as we walk back towards the workshop.

- Then I'm completely lost in another world. Then I'm already in Rio de Janeiro dancing samba.