They simply put the garden somewhere else. I'm not sure if this is a Communist holdover or something older still, but I do know that it's traditional and people seem to enjoy it. Land is chopped up into a number of individual plots. The size anything from 3 meters by 4 up to 10 meters by 20, and they're often irregularly shaped. They can be in marginal places, around tram tracks or on a slope. Conversely they can be just plunked down next to the river or between neighboring developments. They're bought/sold/inherited the same way any other property is, just treated as a little annex property.
Some of them are very ordinary vegetable gardens, with cabbage, squash, corn, radishes, carrots, or whatever else grows well in this climate. Some have ancient looking fruit trees, propped up with weather-beaten planks. Larger ones have sheds to keep tools in while nicer ones have curtains, patio umbrellas with beer advertisements on them, and lawns. On any weekend day you can see old men and grannies who've driven out to visit stripped down to their skivvies working in the dirt. (The old folks are distressingly comfortable with skimpy clothing.) One of my friends told me about her father, who can't be kept out of the garden. He must drive out to it and work on it at least once a week or he gets very cranky and anxious (in general and about the state of the garden). This applies even on his birthday and wedding anniversary.
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2 comments:
nice post. Do you suppose this is a rural, not prague,kind of thing, or more Europe in general.jss
I think it's most places except Prague. I saw some similar things in between flat blocks in Krakow last summer. It's possible that it happens in Prague, too, but on the outskirts. Places that'd be similar to Ballard or Issaquah. Even the old city is too urban to allow that kind of thing and the arrival of international corporations and global tourists makes competition for space very tight.
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