Dzialki City

There are spots on the fringes of Warsaw (and most other Polish cities) that harbor vast tracts of land devoted to recreational relaxation.  Dzialki and gardens make up tiny cities within the city.  They turn urban areas into countryside within the space of a few blocks.  Almost every family has a dzialka (sometimes two.)  They are visited in the summer for R&R, but also to grow veggies for the Polish passions of canning, pickling, and eating fresh.

A reservoir on a tin roof.

Grape vines cover a window.

No spare space is wasted on these tiny plots of land; everything is crammed in: fruit trees, raspberry bushes, zucchinis, and—of course—flowers.

Most dzialki have a small cottage on them.  They're more like sheds, often not more than one or two rooms.  Others are complete with plumbing and lofts or second stories for sleeping and kitchens.  It is not unknown for some poorer families to live year round on their dzialki.  Some become farcical mimics of American suburbia, complete with unnaturally lush lawns, mini garages, and vinyl siding.  Their owners strut out in the boiling sun cutting grass on a plot the size of a large party tent.

In Communist times, it used to be that every worker had the right to a dzialka.  The worker could use it, but he could never sell it or pass it off, making the plot more of company (i.e. government) land than a worker's personal plot.  These dzialki sometimes were in prime real estate in the midst of a city.  Now, ownership has reverted to the workers (most are now retired) and developers are snapping them up to put in new blocks and business parks.
Last year, the floods effectively wiped out all the dzialki on the banks of the Wisla.  People came to spruce up the spring garden, only to find an unrecognizable plot of mud and debris.
It's not that dzialki are endangered or going away.  There are still plenty of them, it's just that more and more they are being pushed to the skirmishes of the cities or out of the city proper all together.  People, searching for larger and more opulent dzialki, are buying expensive camps and cottages far outside the cities or districts.  Mazury is a particularly popular place (not just for its lakes and forests.)
One a different note, some wise in the ways of business have learned to use their dzialki for financial gain.  No, they are not selling their veggies (you couldn't make much off that), but there are other ways.  One particular way is to buy up a field or two, then put sheep on it.  See, the EU pays each farmer per head of sheep, so you immediately start making money from the little lambs wandering around on your fields.  Then, once a year you can hire someone to shear the sheep, and profit off the wool.  The proceeds can go to buying more heads of sheep.

Between Gardens and Dzialki

It's a sad day. I think my digital camera died.

Recently, I've been starting my own little garden on the balcony. There's a smattering of herbs and flowers, and a few ambitious projects like cucumbers and peas. They're doing well (especially the cukes!)

Small-scale gardening is somewhat of a passion here. Many, if not most, families have dzialki: small huts on tiny plots of land on the borders of cities where people eke out various amounts of vegetables from small beds. A lot of dzialki simply serve as a getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city (we call them camps up in ME.) Others serve more as a gardening patch, much like a liberty garden back in the '40s.

Dzialki occur in rather large clumps, like little suburbs. The buildings can be a big as a cabin to the size of a garden shed. They are a common sight from the train as it departs urban centers. During the communist era, there was a law that employers had to provide dzialki to their workers. So, companies bought up huge areas with like 200 dzialki; the only catch was that the workers couldn't build on the land or sell it, they were only allowed to go there and relax. Some of these sit almost in the middle of Warsaw, in Mokotow and such, prime real estate. Now, investors are waiting for the law to be changed, so they can snap up the dzialki from the aging workers and sell it for huge profits.

On the way to Arkadia to buy some lucky bamboo, I noticed a fairly large cherry tree with branch reaching over the fence and hanging over the sidewalk. The tree was at the border of someone's dzialka, which was right across the fence (along with many other dzialki.) Its crop was just beginning to ripen, and it wouldn't be long until bushels and bushels could be plucked from its lower branches. It struck me because my family has the very same type of cherry growing behind my mother's garden, at the fringe of the woods. The cherries are small, fire-engine red, and taste very tart. Eat too many and you'll get the shits for a few days.

I picked a couple ripe ones, intent of tasting the quality of the tree. I didn't eat them because they were actually rather filthy, on account of the natural grime and dirt that will cover everything next to a major road and walkway.

It's doubtful that I'll be able to enjoy any of the cucumbers or tomatoes I've grown. Since they were planted so late, I'll be leaving just before they start to ripen.