In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Vander Mellish explains the Danish tradition of summerhouses (fritidshus) and colony gardens (kolonihave). She describes how, each weekend, many Danes leave the cities for these small second homes, which are typically under 50 m², have limited plumbing, and range from modest cottages to more elaborate properties. Mellish outlines the historical origins of the practice—royal land grants 400 years ago— and contrasts the two main types: countryside fritidshus that require a longer drive, and city‑adjacent colony gardens that are managed by volunteer associations with long waiting lists and seasonal water restrictions. She provides concrete details such as typical prices (e.g., a 45 m² garden for 700,000 DKK) and usage rules (toilets only May‑September). The host offers a personal theory that Danes’ love of home‑improvement fuels the popularity of summerhouses, as they enjoy fixing up and personalising these retreats. The episode concludes with promotional information about the podcast’s website, social media, and a related book available on Amazon.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Vander Mellish. If you live in a big city or a big town, town in Denmark, you may notice that the weekends are getting very quiet just about now. The streets outside my home in Copenhagen are always empty. The streetlights just change from red to green and back again, but no cars ever pull up. Nobody comes to cross the street. It's a little like a scene in a movie right after the zombie apocalypse. This is because all the Danish people have gone to their summerhouses. On Friday afternoon, Danish people like to pack up their cars, drive out to the countryside, and spend the weekend in conditions that are sometimes quite primitive. Now, every summerhouse is different, but most of them seem to have questionable plumbing, odd sleeping arrangements, and chipped dishes and glassware. The Danish summerhouse is an old tradition. 400 years ago, the king started offering small plots of land to people who lived in the crowded, sooty cities. The idea was that they could get away into the clean, fresh air on weekends and grow healthy vegetables. Fast forward to now, and very few people grow vegetables on their plots anymore. Instead, these small summer house plots have become little kingdoms with neatly clipped hedges all around and lots of lawn chairs and flower beds and bird feeders. In the center is a tiny, tiny house, usually not more than 50 square meters, where the entire family spends the summer. This little dollhouse is almost always lovingly taken care of— freshly painted, nice roof, clean windows, flowery curtains. I've also seen elaborate summer houses. One near my house has an expensive copper roof. And when I was looking at real estate ads for this story, I saw another one that had been fitted with big white columns like the mansion in Gone with the Wind. But as fancy as summer houses may be, they're small. There's usually room for one double bed or a fold-out couch, and then maybe there's a loft where a couple more people can sleep, and maybe a porch for one or two more. I would guess that Danish maximum-security prisoners Get more sleeping space than ordinary Danes in their summer houses. Now wait, before I go further, I should explain there's actually two types of summer house. One type, which is sometimes called a fritidshus or free time house, is really in the countryside. It can take several hours to drive there from the family's main home. The other kind is what's called a colony garden, kolonihave, and these tend to be in or close to the major cities. If you take the S train through the northern part of Copenhagen, for example, you'll see all sorts of little shacks down by the railroad tracks. That sounds like a Dolly Parton song, doesn't it? I got a little shack by the railroad track. But these shacks are not the homes of poor but cheerful banjo players. They are colony gardens, and the people who own them have at least one other home and money enough to take care of 2. Each colony garden is part of an association run by volunteers which maintains the waiting list to get a plot. These lists are hundreds of people long, and they read like the Danish phone book of 1957. Lots of Larsens and Hansens and Nielsens. Not so many El-Hassans, although there are a few. Still, Colony Gardens are an ethnic Danish phenomenon. You'll notice that a lot of the plots have very tall flagpoles with very big Danish flags. If you don't want to wait on the waiting list for a colony garden, you can buy one. I saw one on sale this week for 700,000 crowns. That would be about €94,000 or $130,000. The house is 45 square meters. That's not quite 500 square feet, and it has no toilet. Now, the ad says you can install a toilet if you want, But of course you can only use it from May till September. This is a big difference between colony gardens and other summer houses. You're not allowed to live in a colony garden year-round. They turn off the water in the winter just to make sure. Now, one thing I as a foreigner have never understood is what you do in a colony garden or a summer house. Supposedly it's about getting away from it all. I guess you can read, or sit in the sun, or play board games when it rains. You can always invite the family over for a big Sunday lunch. But I have a theory about the real reason summer houses are so popular in Denmark. Danes like nothing more than to fix up their homes, and when they buy a summer house, they have 2 homes to fix up. You know, they can cut the grass, they can paint the house. They can make more flowery curtains. They can go out to the local flea market and buy more chipped glassware. Fixing up a summer house can keep a Danish person happily occupied all summer long. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. I am happy to report that our Facebook page is now named How to Live in Denmark. I got Facebook to change the name. Very exciting. You can also find our other podcasts and transcripts of this podcast on our website, howtoliveindenmark.com, and follow us on Twitter @howtoliveindk. The 2 is a number. See you next week. Remember, the How to Live in Denmark book is available for download on amazon.com. You can read it on any phone or tablet. All you need is the Kindle app, and the Kindle app is free. The book's not free, but it's not very expensive either. If you read the book and enjoy it, please leave a review on your local version of amazon.com. It helps other people find the book and find the podcast.
