Arctic Stories #4. Risky agriculture

My birth city is located on the polar circle. That is considered a risky agriculture zone. And you never know what you gonna get :).

When I was born, my parents bought a small piece of land 20 km away from the city. And my dad built a small house there, all by himself. This house is still standing beautifully 30 years later (talking about a proud daughter ;)). Such summer houses are called "dachas". And they look like this:

Sewing seeds directly in the ground works only for a few crops in the Arctic. The ground gets warm enough in June. And August is already the harvest month. So every spring my parents would start growing vegetables and flowers on our apartment windows. Then in May they would go to our dacha, clean up meters of snow and prepare the house. Yes, because dachas are built away from the city, snow stays there much longer. By June I would be on school holidays, and we'd move to dacha for the summer months.

What grows well in the Arctic:

• Vegetables in the open ground: radishes, carrots, beetroot, salad, onions, garlic, potatoes, zucchinis, sweat peas.

• Vegetables in the greenhouse: tomatoes, cucumbers, and sometimes bell peppers.

• Berries: redcurrant, blackcurrant, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries.

• Flowers: aster, lavater, and even South American ones like petunias and African ones like marigolds.

Now, when I say, "what grows well", I mean "sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't". It all depends on the weather. One year we would have dozens of zucchinis and very little strawberries. Another year - the other way around. Because of limited sunshine and bad weather in the Arctic plants often get ill. So it's important to do prevention work and take actions as first signs appear. My parents did that greatly. And we would store our large harvest underground and sometimes eat it until spring.

I helped my parents around, learnt from them and had my own garden bed where I grew flowers and veggies that I liked.

With years, my parents started experimenting. They planted cherry and apple trees. Then my mom saw pictures of my roses in Belgium and planted couple of them too. But for the Arctic you need special winter resistant species. And you also need to fight for every piece of fruit and flower bud. However, in the last years the weather has been changing. Last summer was much hotter than summer in Belgium. Usually there are only a few days above 25 degrees C per year. But it was over 30 C for 2 months with no rain...

To illustrate the perkiness of Arctic agriculture, let me tell you a story of growing zucchinis there. When I tell it to my friends, they are all awed. So I discovered that what seems normal to me, sounds crazy to them :).

Zucchini plants have boy and girl flowers. Boy flowers grow on a stick. And girl flowers look like little zucchinis with a flower at the end. Check this picture above, you'll see both of them. Now, in warmer climates zucchini plants get lots of these. And bees do the rest to pollinate them. But in the Arctic we fight for our harvest, so we do pollinating by hands. We take male flowers and shake them inside female flowers. That ensures that female flowers turn into actual vegetables. Now, what do you do if don't have male flowers open at the same time with female ones? You run to your dacha neighbours and get one there. And then in a few weeks you can enjoy these :).

While I wrote this, I actually realised there is one more key to success in the Arctic agriculture. Neighbours and friends. Everyone has different soils and sunny sides, and that impacts the harvest greatly. But you can always rely on each other to share extra plants and harvest tips. That's what makes it all work. The dacha community.

I hope you enjoyed this Arctic summer story. And see you next time, when I share how my dad met a real bear!