A Visit to a Russian Vegetable Garden

On a dreary Saturday afternoon I had my day brightened with a visit to a traditional Russian veggie garden, called a дача (dacha). Each one consists of a small plot of land with a perhaps a small hand-made house, for storing supplies or providing shelter after a long day. It is common for a family to own one of these gardens and to reap it's harvest all summer long.


There are clusters of these gardens on the edges of the city. From our hike on Перевал, we could see these places all around Миасс. The photo above shows one such cluster.

On this trip my friend Артем took me to the дача of his wife's parents, Владимир Петрович and Любовь Викторовна. We walked from my apartment for about 30 minutes, following a dirt road that runs parallel to the big above-ground pipes which carry heat and hot water.

There are entire neighborhoods of дачи, we are walking down the "street" where our дача is located.

Our destination

Their дача was hand made by Владимир, who is a quite skilled with his hands. He used to make traditional ovens when he was younger so I'm sure he made short work of building this two floor abode. Артем didn't have the key to open up the house so those pics will have to wait until Caitlin and I return in a few weeks.


Владимир and Любовь have constructed several green houses over some of their veggies, here Артем is watering the tomatoes. Almost everything here is hand made, using good ol' Russian ingenuity. They are cultivating everything from veggies like tomatoes, cukes, cabbage, apples, pears to flowers and herbs.

I've come to realize that sometimes the most boring places or activities for a Russian can be the most exciting for a foreigner like Caitlin or I. Артем spent many long hours at a дача when he was a kid, so visiting this place to water some plants is a chore or an excuse to get into the woods. But for me it was a pleasure and a privilege because I can see first hand an intimate part of Russian life here in the Urals. The same also held true when we were in Ethiopia. Our most favorite trip was when we spent 1 hour with the grandmother of our friend, Maha. We sat in her home, we drank tea with her, we saw her farm and her work animals. We were able to glimpse what daily life for her family is like.