Generation of the trap

Sakhalin is experiencing a country renaissance. The generation of 40-year-olds, the same thing that, driven by parents, was working on the beds in the 90s, growing potatoes and zucchini, and I never swore to pick up tramps in life, today it is acquired by gardens.

Those horticultural villages of our childhood little resembled Chekhovsky cottages. No bliss, tulle curtains, great nothing. Plantation slavery: on the river, only if he fumigated by potatoes.

Who in the 90s did not have a potato plantation? Teachers, doctors, engineers, artists - all after work were squeezed with pulls into suburban buses. There were two gardens in our family.

What can be the dachas on Sakhalin - in the zone of risky agriculture equated with the regions of the Far North? Where is the cold 9 months a year, and precipitation is 11? Where in April there are snowstorms. Where gigantism of herbs applies only to weeds. Like only horse sorrel, hogweed and burdock and can grow up to 2.5 meters, and dill and parsley are not even botanist.

What works do we have to grow tomatoes, peppers, strawberries ... How much strength needs to be applied to be sealed with apple trees and plums ...

It seemed that we received an eternal vaccination against agriculture. But now we are sitting with friends and discussing greenhouses, siderats, nitrogen fertilizers, ampel petunia, bulbous begonias and that’s all.

Our parents saved with the help of the garden. We spend. Seeds (Japanese), seedlings of fruit trees, conifers, lawn mowers. Need a sprayer? Yes, please: if you want - for 1.5 thousand rubles, you want - for 7 thousand. And my grandmother for these purposes cost a bucket and a broom made of wormwood. Box for a compost pile? How not? Why are you a summer resident without a box? 18 thousand rubles - and that’s all, you are again in the gang. Just do not forget about the garden chopper for 22 thousand rubles. Why is it needed, then you will figure it out.

Grandma for compost had just a pit in the ground. For zero rubles. Grandmother, like the rest of the gardeners, fertilized the beds with pink salmon heads and fish tuk. Bears from the surrounding hills came to the country towns attracted by the aroma of rotting fish.

Today, fish on Sakhalin, due to its predatory catch, is becoming less and less, it is not enough for both people and bears. But in stores any fertilizers are packaged in bags.

Or maybe what we considered a vaccine was not there? Maybe thanks to our parents on the subcortex, we have set aside not a hatred of a pull, but an understanding that this saves?

Today, in general, everything can be bought. There are special plastic supports for cucumbers. With clothespins. There is a coconut chip for mulching. There is even a chip painted in red and green. To be smart. The Russian market for goods and garden has been showing steady growth in recent years. According to the results of 2016, it amounted to 139.4 billion rubles. This is 1% more than in 2015.

And if you think that these billions were provided by the owners of the estates who buy elite lawns and designer garden lamps, then no. 42.2% of the market is "tools and equipment." Another 39% - the category "goods for the garden".

Damned beds format your life. You do not notice how you begin to store boxes from yogurt for seedlings, collect the eggshell. You think that you yourself have never decided to go on vacation to May or in August. And then bam - and it turns out that you live according to the lunar calendar and the whole kitchen is in your cursed shell. And vacation only in November, when you do not need to ventilate the greenhouses and the crop is cleaned.

We have ironed over the summer residents all our lives. We have pedicure and pool. We have yoga. Yoga and pedicure do not intersect with mullein. So why in our country village there are no abandoned areas and new buyers are completely about 40?

Strange, but we will get high from working in the garden. It is difficult to explain to someone who has not yet picked up the country virus. We will be nursed with seedlings. We send each other photos of blossoming flowers and the first reddened tomatoes. We make a selfie with raspberry bushes. We go to the pages of seasoned gardeners, look at the photo of grown grapes and immediately go out, because what are they? Pezhons.

Or maybe what we considered a vaccine was not there? Maybe thanks to our parents in the subcortex, we have set aside not a hatred of a pull, but an understanding that this saves?

Maybe so we are preparing for retirement in the country, which is in five worst for pensioners. And if I understand that I will not have trips abroad and all that gives work if I have to live 15 thousand a month, then I will at least have a house and garden. And roses, and thuja, and eggplant in greenhouses. I can dilute like retirement neighbors, chickens and ducks. And rent an apartment.

I really cannot explain the craving for the garden. But I got a garden. And I'm happy.

Lyubov Barabashova - Sakhalin journalist

The "Opinion" expressed in the heading of the point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial office