10. Flower pots
Hana Drštičková, Anastasia Blokhina
The issue of housing is an aspect that also shapes gardening practices. The lack of a private plot of land on which one can grow plants can trigger an impulse to seek alternative ways of caring about flora, for example by intervening in public or semi-public spaces such as front lawns, grass fields, urban concrete planters, or by surrounding oneself with houseplants in private space. The situation is complicated by the instability that the current housing crisis has brought about. Private ownership is becoming completely unaffordable for most people, especially in cities, which means they are forced to rent. Some examples from abroad have shown that even renting can bring stability and effectively address such a basic need as housing is. In the Czech Republic, however, this sphere is poorly regulated, housing is treated as a commodity, rent prices rise disproportionately fast compared to income, and rental housing carries a risk that the tenant will have to leave in a very short time. In such circumstances, where there is no certainty of staying in one place for a long time, it can be difficult to form an emotional attachment to cultivated plants on terraces, yards, or front lawns connected to the rental property. One of the tenants of a house on Vranovská Street copes with this impermanence by using portable pots in which he grows common garden plants. The plants can thus move with him if necessary.
