Gardening

Most English people live in houses with gardens. The gardens are often very beautiful because the English are very keen on gardening. An English garden usually has lawns and flowers. Some families also grow vegetables in their gardens. The lawns and trees are usually very green because it rains a lot in England.

the lawn fruit the hedge
rose bushes vegetables

Working in the garden
To mow To dig To water
To cut To grow To plant

English countryside
English garden looks like one great well-ordered park. The hedges surrounding the gardens look beautiful in spring. In summer when they are covered with leaves and flowers they are even better. In autumn they are gold, brown and red. In winter they are still beautiful, especially in the early winter when you can see red berries. As to the English gardens they are extremely fine with wonderful variety of trees.

Old English trees
Englishmen like to preserve old trees. There are trees which were too old to be cut for the building of ships in Cromwell's time that is in the 17th century. As the climate in Great Britain is very mild and there is much rain, the grass in Great Britain is much better then anywhere else. The countryside with its large green meadows and gardens with little country houses and farm is very pleasant to look at.

If you want to please an Englishman (or Englishwoman) be very polite about his (her) garden. It is almost as much his «castle» as his house; he cares for it methodically. March is a busy month for the gardener. He has a lot of work to do. The daffodils, and small, stiff blue, purple, yellow or white and striped flowers called crocuses are already blooming. Many English gardens have a section devoted to herbs like mint, thyme, sage, parsley and rosemary, and other plants are used for seasoning dishes.
The English gardens are internationally famous. Some of them are very beautiful, especially the big ones that are opened to the public.

Dachas – Country Living
If you ask people in Russia where they are going for the weekend in summer, the answer will probably be, ‘To the dacha’. The dacha is a special place for people who live in cities or towns. For different people, it also means different kinds of activities. Some enjoy fishing or swimming in a nearby river, others prefer mushroom hunting or walking in the woods to enjoy nature. For many people, the weekend is not complete without sweating their banya or bath house.

Not long ago, the main activity for dacha owners was growing fruit, vegetables and flowers in their kitchen gardens. Today however, people don’t have kitchen gardens, they have lawns with playgrounds and barbecue areas. The fact is that young people and children prefer to relax in the fresh air, go cycling or play with their friends rather than help their parents cultivate the land and do the weeding.