Sunday, April 19, 2015

From Gardening to Farming






As a certified horticulturist I thought I knew something about how to make things grow but it turns out that beyond the basic requirements of watering, providing sun and keeping plants in reasonable conditions, I don't know so much.

It's been a long time since I studied Horticulture and there is very little I remember, however I didn't think that my skills were so lacking.



I have gathered some knowledge in recent times from helping out at a my friends' land and have learned to distinguish weeds from strawberries for one thing. Working on my girlfriend's grandparents' land has also helped but when you don't have the help of experienced people it's not so easy. My girlfriend, Yulia, has a lot of experience but there are questions that need answering when it comes to planning and preparation of certain crops.

Before all of that, we had to figure out how to obtain a piece of land to grow things on. With our limited funds we thought we would just ask as many people as we could and also search online with the unrealistic hope that someone had a piece of land that they would be willing to let us use for free or at least for a very low price. This was a very idealistic plan but it actually worked.



About 25 km from Bratislava we now have the place we envisaged for some time but never really thought was possible. It is a proper farm with a neighbour with hens. There is even a vineyard on it and we've been told that on a good year, the owner produced as much as 300 litres of wine.

There is a big patch of land and also a little cottage and basement. Absolutely perfect.


It does need some work and we've just started to realise how much of a commitment it is to plant and maintain such a large area. We've also had rat problems in the basement. These horrible creatures have made a mess of potatoes that were stored there and it seems that there are quite a few of them lurking in the depths of our cellar. Poison has been put there and we've found two dead bodies to date but suspect there will be more. The soil is also a bit stony in parts. We've been given lots of advice on how to take care of the grapes but most of them involve spraying them with chemicals which we are reluctant to use.

So far we've planted carrots, beans, onions, potatoes, radish and weeded a large area of strawberries. We've also lit a huge fire of old vine branches which probably put us first on our neighbours' hit lit with all the smoke that blew in their direction.

There's a lot to do but it's been enjoyable so far despite the aches I'm feeling in my back right now.