Both authors live and work in Kherson, in the botanical garden. The decision to stay in the occupied city was made consciously in order to save the animals and plants of the botanical garden, because after February 24, 2022, some workers were evacuated, others resigned - out of 6 workers, only two of them, and three guards, remained.

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During the occupation, they had to deal with the threat of looting and fires (they had to constantly mow the grass so it didn’t burn). Volunteers helped. Together with the volunteers, they managed to preserve a section of the age-old Kherson steppe in the botanic garden – to prevent the plans of the occupation administration to plow over the territory of the botanic garden.

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It would seem that this is a story about the struggle to preserve the landscape then, during the occupation, and now, when Kherson is under constant shelling. Yes, but not really. Because this is really a story about the creation of a new landscape – both natural and human.

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Authors’ statement:

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After the liberation of Kherson, a collection of decorative cereals – 40 items – appeared in the botanical garden. Before that, there was no such plants in the garden at all... How is that? We are in the steppe zone; such plants must be present a priori... Moreover, about 30 positions of ground cover drought-resistant plants were added, which will form the lower tier in the area of cereals. The plot of land "Rose palette" was planted with Persian hybrids, English rose, tea hybrids and climbing roses with beautiful names, there will be 150 bushes (68 have already been planted). 15 types of conifers were planted, and this is not the end – there will be somewhere around 40 new positions... We are doing it gradually, because if all the planting material goes in at once, then all this could fail.

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Plants are sent by residents of Kherson who have left, and florists from all over Ukraine (Mykolaiv, L’viv, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk regions).

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And one more thing... At the beginning of the war, we made the plot "Radial Lavender Infinity". Now people who come to us from other regions of Ukraine bring 1-2 bushes of lavender. And we plant them together with the others. This is a lavender infinity. So, we will plant it until it reaches Crimea.

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We now have our own art space. We already have a gallery for animals, because they also survived the occupation and also deserve beauty and art. With the help of benefactors, we bought a kiln for firing ceramics, which was our dream! We now have a ceramic workshop. The first things we made there, were the bull figurines.

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These are our bulls, Chumak* bulls.

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Going to get sault. To Crimea. Soon.

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*Chumak is a traditional Ukrainian travelling salesmen, who were famous for trading sault, which they transported from Crimea.

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