Hi everyone! I'd like to introduce you to a small vegetable garden in the village. I don't know how many acres it is (probably 1), but it's a pretty small plot. It's perfect for growing tomatoes, berries, and cucumbers. Perfect for a small family. My mother-in-law, a golden person with a big heart, is in charge of this natural wonder.
This plot is located near my husband's parents' house (a three-minute walk). The soil is moderately fertile, black soil.
The plantings are neat and even. Everything is clean, without weeds or grass. And Mom did it all by hand.
In general, this is the entire garden in the photo. There's also water and a table in the back and that's it:
But everything is well-kept and cozy. And in this little corner, the whole family sits, eats tasty treats, makes shashlik, munchs on berries, and helps Mom (Granny).
And now I’ll show you closer everything that grows on the ground:
- Strawberries. They've been growing for a long time. They haven't been transplanted. The berries used to be larger, but now they're getting smaller and smaller. But they're still the most delicious in the world!
- Onions (and dill sprouted there too). The onion variety this time turned out a bit bitter. I don't remember the name, but Mom will never plant that one again. Dill generally grows on its own in various places in the garden.
- Separately planted dill.
- A test salad. We weren't expecting a miracle, but it grew.
- Peppers. Mom and Dad don't eat them. They planted them for us. We young ones love to make stuffed peppers and also cut and freeze them for the winter (for soups). A huge thank you to Mom. Actually, she basically does everything for us, growing berries, tomatoes, and cucumbers, fresh, clean, her own. So that the grandchildren have everything healthy to eat. And we help out as much as we can.
- Tomato. Mom always tries new varieties. She loves pink tomatoes. This is the largest planting. Half the garden. Mom has a lot of experience with tomatoes, but you never know what the harvest will be. This time, the tomato started to stretch a lot, and there were a lot of them. It's still small in the photo, but it's already taller than a person! We'll see what happens.
- Raspberry. Large and very sweet. Nobody knows the variety either. It's been growing for a long time, but it only recently started to spread. It used to be a small bush, but now it's spreading out.
- Blackberries. They grew on their own. Where they came from and what brought them here is unknown. But the berries are very large! They grow larger than strawberries. At first, they're tart, then incredibly sweet. And they grow in abundance. The bush seems small, but the yield is twice that of red raspberries! The entire bush is literally covered in berries.
- Cucumbers. We also planted a lot more. Dad (father-in-law) built a greenhouse. The first cucumbers are already growing, but at the time of this photo, they weren't there yet. Fresh, milky cucumbers—simply delicious! No store-bought ones will ever compare!
- I don't know what's growing in this photo. I honestly don't know what's growing in this photo. Forgive me, gardeners. I keep forgetting to ask my mom. If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments.
I also want to show you some water that's been settling in a barrel. We use it later to water the plants. You can't water them directly from the hose. The water is cold.
Now let me explain why I wrote in the title of this post that this season would be the last. The thing is, the land where the plants are planted isn't registered to anyone. It's just that, many years ago, villagers started growing mini-gardens on this empty land. And now, starting this year, they've started demanding a "bribe" for using the land, unofficially, with no paperwork at all. Just give them 6,000 rubles and use it for one summer. And then the same thing next year. They're simply extorting money illegally, threatening to do everything they can to prevent it... So the parents are just finishing out this last season, harvesting the crop, and that's it.