Rita's Garden

Rita is the owner of a small plot of land that lies just outside of Minsk. Hidden from the busy city on a winding, unpaved road littered with patches of nettle and plantain, her small property is overflowing with life and abundance, even as the temperatures steadily drop and the earth retires into fall.  

Rita greets us in a turtleneck sweater and well-worn camouflage work pants, already busy with the wild garden outside her doorstep. Besides producing a vast variety of plants for sale, she also grows plenty of plants, trees, and shrubs for her own enjoyment. Among them, I notice not-yet-ripe raspberries and strawberries, a late-blooming variety, that will produce one more yield before the cold sets in.  

Rita explains that she is getting old and is starting to wind down her business and will probably not be selling plants much longer. As of now, she cares for over 30 cultivars of Hosta, over 50 of Rhododendron, over 70 of Rose, and over 50 species of decorative shrubs and trees.

Most of the trees on Rita’s property are grafted – this includes over 5 species of apple, pears, and cherries. Rita explains that harsh winters and frosts before snowfall are common in Belarus, and that most fruit yielding trees could not survive the unforgiving climate. Grafting provides an opportunity to obtain a high yield of fruit – branches of fruit trees are grafted onto already established, winter-hardy native species whose roots are able to overwinter in the Belarusian soil.

Rita’s garden is organized by quality and type of soil, so that plants have niche environments in which they flourish. Part of her land slopes down, and in order to prevent standing water collecting in the crevice created between the road and the slope, she has built two drainage pipes that relocate the water to the other side of the road.

As do many small farmers and homesteaders in Belarus, Rita tries to bring in as little of outside amendments as possible.  In a large metal barrel, Rita cut a small opening at the bottom – she burns scrap wood in the barrel, producing wood ash that she can then access to sprinkle around plants to neutralize soil.

Another way that Rita amends her soil is through homemade mulch. She is the proud owner of a walnut tree, the leaves of which contain a lot of iodine. When they fall, she gathers them before they have a chance to become wet, chops them, and spreads them over the soil so that grass cannot grow. After pruning her trees, she also shreds the branches into bits of about 4 cm and spreads the newly formed woodchips as mulch.

Instead of throwing out junk metal, Rita repurposes it in her garden. This large metal frame once served as a part of a cage for her German Shepherd, an old dog that passed away a few years ago. Rita now uses the frame of the cage as a trellis – she plants peas along the edges and allows them to climb up the sides, while other crops grow in between.

Another homemade trellis

Clever Staking of Gladiolus

Rita showing off her most valued tool:

A small electric power saw which allows her to prune the tops of trees expertly. It’s small weight makes it easy for her to use and it remains charged for hours.

Roses

Grafted Tree with Multiple Varieties of Apple