Small Spaces

Among the more common problems that dacha gardeners face are lack of space and poor soil. To combat these issues, they need to come up with creative solutions to maximize yield. Good trellising systems and terracing are common solutions; raspberry bushes are also commonly planted along fences instead of in patches so that they are more easily managed and take up less space while producing good yield.  However, there comes a time when even the darkest, dirtiest parts of the garden need to be put to good use, and they are.

Squash in Old Barrels

My Cousin Watering Plants

My grandmother wanted to grow squash this year, but there simply wasn’t any room left besides the space between the neighbor’s fence, the road, and the outhouse. The soil there, long abandoned, was of poor quality and would undoubtedly be an unfavorable environment for the baby plants. Instead, she used a few old barrels filled with dirt from another part of the garden to plant her squash. The squash did surprisingly well and the yields were great.To water, she fills a plastic bottle with water and inserts it into the soil.

Later on, I will hopefully be able to write more about greenhouses. Although I haven’t gotten a chance to do too much research about building and materials quite yet, I do know that every dacha has at least one, but usually two, greenhouses: one primarily for tomatoes, and one primarily for cucumbers (with peppers and other things thrown in too). The greenhouses were built, of course, by the people and so they vary from one to the next.

Greenhouse space is limited, and some plants don’t quite make it in. So people get creative with keeping seedlings and mature plants warm in other ways. Cutting off tops bottoms of plastic bottles and flipping them over seedlings is a good way to establish small plants in the soil and can be seen in many gardens.

The hoophouse sits on a slightly raised bed

Sides can be pulled up for ventilation

Small, temporary hoop houses are also a good way to keep annual vegetables happy. The hoop house above is located in a neighbor’s garden – she has only one greenhouse, and her peppers don’t fit.

Raised beds are a more modern way to deal with problems of poor soil. The raised beds seen above are from a friend’s garden – she lives in the suburbs (not the dacha) and has a few beds for convenience where she grows daikon radish, lemon balm, dill, carrots, and leafy greens.