“There is no place as beautiful as Tukums!”, the poet and publicist Imants Ziedonis once wrote to his teacher Gundega Reine in Tukums, and on his 77th birthday, together with his friends from the foundation “Viegli”, planted the first cherry trees on Mālkalns hill. And then his friends and the locals of Tukums planted the next cherry trees, followed by more cherry trees.
Today, Mālkalns is becoming the GARDEN OF ZIEDONIS, which will be hiding stories about the former high-school student Imants Ziedonis and the gardener Imants Ziedonis, telling us how to plant a garden, helping us discover the beauty of Latvia and Tukums, and inviting us to blossom ourselves, because “a man’s highest freedom is to translate himself into the most beautiful sound that he can get out of himself.”
The garden is still a work in progress. It is still being created, as the garden is never ready, but today you can come and see the scenery and the skyline of Tukums, explore the natural meadow and the urban forest.
Tukums was an important place for the poet Imants Ziedonis during the formative years, as he spent his teenage years here, studying at secondary school; he got to know the area and the teachers who opened up new aesthetic horizons for him and encouraged him to go further on the path Dose self-improvement and development. This was something the poet emphasised and reaffirmed on many occasions, especially towards the end of his life.
Imants Ziedonis has inspired continuation of the work, so that the beauty of Tukums can be constantly enhanced. A lot of work has been started to make the town even more pleasant for residents and visitors alike.
The idea of the project is to create a Museum of Ziedonis in Tukums — one of the crosspoints of the life of Imants Ziedonis with one of the stops on the Mālkalns hill, which will not be just a recreational place or a park, but a GARDEN, because the landscape of Tukums has features gardens for many centuries. This garden is planned as a crosspoint of the Imants Ziedonis Museum — one of several that would form a network of roads in Latvia and abroad, because the Ziedonis Museum is a ROAD.
The project’s idea is to develop Mālkalns within 7–10 years, turning it into a real garden, with Imants Ziedonis as the virtual gardener. With the help of modern technologies, you will be able to listen to stories about the Mālkalns garden, Imants Ziedonis and the history of Tukums.
Taking into account the topography and landscaping of the park, landscape architects have allocated three conceptual zones — the meadow zone, the landscape park zone and the forest school zone. Each of them already has different landscaping design features, which is taken into account when thinking about the creation of the new park — the Ziedonis Garden. The meadow zone is a flat area with few trees, suitable for events. The landscape park area has the character of a scenic park, consisting of tree clusters, shorefront, and a hilly terrain. This area is fitting for the creation of model gardens, walking paths. The forest school area features dense tree stands, and as the existing trees have already been planted in monoculture stands, the site would be suitable for a forest laboratory, walks and nature exploration.
The development of Mālkalns hill aims to turn this site into an ever-blossoming garden with many layers of stories: about the location — Mālkalns and the town — Tukums, about the gardens — types of gardens, plants, parks, forests, about Tukums as a garden town and Imants Ziedonis — a writer who spent his high school years in Tukums and wanted to be a gardener when he left school, but became a different kind of gardener. This garden has a special link with Imants Ziedonis, as it is envisaged as a crosspoint of the Imants Ziedonis Museum — one of several that would form a network of interconnected roads both in Latvia and abroad.
The cherry orchard is the main symbol of the park’s recognisability today and is expected to remain so in the future. After the cherry blossoms bloom in spring, it will serve as an art site that can be enjoyed in person and by car. There are two cherry orchard sites in Ziedonis Garden — on the slope of Mālkalns hill in the meadow and near the A. Dumpe monument area. The idea behind the cherry orchards is to invite people to walk between, under and above the cherry trees, so the planting of cherries will be accompanied by paths, footbridges, decorative borders, decorative lighting, art objects “steps” that will allow visitors to climb a little higher than the tops of the low cherry trees.
The western slope of Mālkalns hill, which runs along Jelgavas Street, is the first impression of Mālkalns and Tukums every time you approach or leave Tukums. In the future, a creative approach is envisaged to mowing the hillside meadows to create a unique experience for park visitors, as well as to highlight the park’s distinctive topography. In addition, each year will have the possibility to create a different pattern.
Overlooking the town, a platform is to be set up that will play on Imants Ziedonis’ idea of the “neverending road”. It will be located at the top of the Mālkalns hill and will create a visual accent when leaving Tukums in the direction towards Riga. The highest point of the viewing platform is expected to rise 3 metres above the ground. The adjacent meadow of more than 3 000 square metres would be suitable for all kinds of events.
A children’s playground — the Playgarden (Rotaļu dārzs) — will be made predominantly of natural materials, and it is expected to build a variety of small-scale terrains. The bulwark will serve both as a divider between the play area and a part of the playground to climb on, slide off, roll down. Large tree trunks with branches work as unconventional play elements, which will be fixed together to form a multifunctional platform for climbing and balancing. There will be swings and climbing nets, water features, among others.
The meadow area will be linked to the landscape park area, which will feature various types of gardens, by the Gardener’s footbridge (Dārznieka laipa) across the ravine. The Rain Garden (Lietus dārzs) will be set up in the ravine, assisted by the transformation of the existing garden, which will change the hydrological set-up of the ravine. It will also bring with it visual changes: the ravine bed will be covered with stones and yarrow, calamus, astilbe, flowering rush, marsh marigold, yellow iris, Echinops sphaerocephalus, echinacea, boneset, Juncus effusus L., water mint, bulrush and sedge.
The Landscape Park area will cover the central part of the hill with the Water Garden, the Garden School and the extensive southern or Sunset Slope. The Water Garden will be an extension of the existing garden. Wooden footbridges will run along the shore, some of which will also cross the water. The footbridges will have extensions — seating areas equipped with seating for visitors and educational stands. The banks of the large pond will be sloping to create a variety of shoreline plant beds. A fountain in the pond would enrich it with oxygen and prevent the pond from overgrowing.
The Garden School will be a thematic exhibition with show gardens and beds. The permanent garden would consist of a traditional Latvian garden, medicinal herbs, ornamental vegetables and insect-promoting plants, while the changing exposition would consist of annual plants. So the garden can be different every year. The Garden School, with its mini-gardens, will serve as a place to relax and to learn. It will also offer the possibility to organise educational events on the topics of cultivation, care of various plants and flowers, among other aspects.
The west-facing slope of Mālkalns hill will be developed into a creative meadow, using creative mowing techniques. As this area is already popular for sunbathing, it is planned to install loungers for sunbathing and watching sunsets.
Thanks to the trees planted over the preceding decades, it will be possible to create a forest school on the eastern edge of the park. Walking trails will lead through the diverse forest areas — a birch grove, a pine stand, larch cluster and oak forest. To emphasise each of the different zones in this area, it is planned to complement them with plants characteristic of the specific habitat or, on the contrary, with contrasting plants.
The Forest School area will also offer an educational opportunity, with information stands, interactive games and recreation areas. There is also a Bird Pavilion — a sheltered space to be used as a ‘green’ classroom. The forest can be explored on paths and wooden footbridges that will be placed above ground level to avoid damaging the trees and undergrowth.
As the number of visitors to the site keeps increasing, it is planned to expand the existing parking area to provide space for at least 60 cars and 3 coaches, as well as a separate area with facilities (toilets, an information kiosk, etc.); to avoid a lacklustre paved area, the parking lot will be supplemented with green islands and tree clusters.
Entrance to Ziedonis Garden is also planned from the town side for those who will be visiting on foot or by bicycle. The current footpath leading up the hill will become a pedestrian and cycle path and will lead to Zemgales Street, where the third entrance to the park will be located. It will be appreciated by the residents of Lielā Parka and Zemgales streets, as well as other residents in the area.
The idea behind the project is to set up a virtual garden and create a virtual gardener Imants Ziedonis, who would introduce people to the garden and the town, tell them how to grow a pumpkin or sprout the first spring flowers. Perhaps the gardener Imants Ziedonis will also confess what colour flowers he prefers. Work on the content and stories of the Virtual Garden is still ongoing…
It is expected to develop the Ziedonis Garden on Mālkalns hill step by step, gradually over several years. The work tasks are staggered so that after the first few years, the first changes can already be seen on the mountain. Over the past few years, an extensive network of footpaths has been developed on the hill. Benches for sitting and loungers for relaxing on the Sunset slope have been set up in the garden. The first “Garden Stories” (Dārzu stāsti) — information stands — have also been created in the Garden and will soon be accompanied by an audio guide.
The next steps include creating a water garden by expanding and landscaping the Mālkalns pond, and starting the improvements of the Forest School and the Playgarden. The expected year of completion of the garden and landscaping works is 2033, when we will celebrate the 100th birthday of Imants Ziedonis.
The garden is created by the Municipal Government of Tukums. In 2023, funds were granted for the garden by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
In 2024 and 2025, the municipality is carrying out several projects to further develop the garden: Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme project “Interactive Gardens” as project partner, and Estonia-Latvia Programme for 2021-2027 project “Access Routes Development” as the project beneficiary.
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Quotes from the book by A. Šablovskis “Ziedošais ķiršu dārzs”.
Visual material from the concept — garden sketch by SIA “100 acorns” landscape architect Ģirts Runis.
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