Jana Plodková: We all have to help each other in the mountains

How did you come to be a cottager?

It started slowly: when Filip and I started to need a place outside of Prague where we can not only relax, but also satisfy our creative cells. Back then, I enjoyed gardening, planting, digging in the dirt, while Filip liked to work with wood. But we didn’t have the place. We started looking and spent about three years just looking.

Then an advertisement appeared for the sale of a farm in the Krkonoše mountains and we went to see it. The place was absolutely charming, but we thought it was too big for the two of us. We didn’t know what to do with it and let it go. But after a year, the house appeared in the advertisement again. With smaller plots and cheaper. When Filip said that he already knew what we would do with it, we went for it. We started going there, meeting with architects and slowly reshaping and reconstructing the building. I don’t even know how long we’ve been reconstructing, but perhaps we’re nearing the finish line.

In a sentence We are probably nearing the finish line I hear the typical wishful thinking of a builder! Is it exhausting?

How ever. Sometimes it is exhausting, but when we see the results, we are happy with them. On the other hand, we have great workers there. Just because it’s huge, it takes so long. It is a classic layout of a farm, that is, a barn, a pantry, a cottage. We have an enclosed backyard and a meadow around it. We can’t wait until it’s done. We go there as often as possible, spend the summer there, and feel more and more attached to the place. And it’s our dream come true: I can dig in the dirt, Filip starts carpentry, and we can occupy our brains with something other than in Prague.

Are you sticking to the original arrangement when reconstructing it?

Yes. On the one hand, because the building was important to the local people and to the former owner, on the other hand, because we don’t want to create something that doesn’t belong there either. Why have a modern new building in such a place? We are trying to return it to its original appearance, and we even had a shingle roof done there, which I am most happy about. As long as we live, the roof will last without intervention. It is the best possible investment.

Do you plan to be there permanently or is it a secret getaway?

It’s an escape for now, but we want to spend more time there in the future. It depends on the work of both of us, mine and Filip’s. I don’t know how the projects will come or not, and it’s not for commuting. That would be exhausting also because of the state of the highways, where something is constantly being done and there are always queues.

You talked about how you enjoy digging in the dirt. Do I correctly perceive this as a certain counterweight to your profession?

Rather, it is some kind of accessory that pleases and amuses me. I feel when I spit, plant and water that I have some kind of connection with the land that is important to me. And over the years of observing myself in nature, I have found that actually looking at greenery or observing the annual cycles is the most healing process I can give myself.

Did it come with age?

Yes, it only came with age, although I have experience since childhood thanks to my grandmother, who had a mini-field near the apartment building in Jičínevsi. I remember how she made me collect mandelines. But I enjoyed seeing the mandeline, discovering it, it was a treasure! Taťka had a field near Jičín for a few years. My sister and I went there to help, we wove a belt full of potatoes, strawberries or onions. But by the time I was older, it wasn’t such fun anymore. Filip and I found an apartment with a terrace. We gradually started putting trees and flowers there, to date I have about thirty flowerpots and it is more or less a jungle. In the city, it’s a microcosm that attracts bees, butterflies and birds, now we have magpies flying there for birch twigs. Then when we bought a cottage, I just expanded my field of activity.

What role did you play in the reconstruction of the cottage?

I always create the atmosphere! When new workers arrive, I like to make them coffee and bake a cake. But seriously, I wouldn’t dare learn how to make a trowel, not even for construction stuff. Rather, I adjust the accessories and, in accordance with Filip and his vision, decide how it will look there. So far we have a finished barn, we made this for ourselves. Everything is in natural tones, including clay plaster on the walls. We work a lot with wood. We bought most of the equipment, but Filip is starting to make custom-made tables for the cottage.

Your partner is the owner of the popular optician Žilka. Where does his relationship with wood come from?

He came to it by accident, whatever his assumptions. When he discovered wood, working with it and gradually started acquiring chisels and machines, he discovered how much he enjoyed it. Then his mom gave him a family history to read, and it turned out that his great-grandfather was a carpenter. It’s just somewhere in his genes. He also told me that when he was at school in Brno, he founded the company Dřevíčko, made wooden jewelry and then sold it in pubs. He has no schooling, he is a layman, but for example he watches Japanese carpenters and he likes the way they work, where no screws or nails are used. They make the connections so that it fits together like a puzzle.

This must require great precision and a lot of patience!

Yes, a lot… He often learns something, makes something, and it’s different than he imagined. And then he comes and says it’s either small or big because the only thing he hasn’t done yet is measure it. I told him that instead of Dřevíčko, he could have Bajvočko.

You both have very exposed occupations in terms of social interaction. Is your love of the cottage and your relationship to life in nature, let’s say, some form of psychohygiene?

Definitely! We both need it. Filip is in contact with people in the optician from morning to evening, and so am I. This is how we balance it to gain inner strength. It can certainly be called psychohygiene.

Would you like to be supplied with your own vegetables or fruit to a certain extent thanks to the farm?

It’s more about time. A garden requires care, especially if we want to grow something, and it’s not just about watering. So far we have lots of herbs, raspberries, wild strawberries growing everywhere and similar crops that don’t require daily attention. Filip has a dream to have a field of potatoes and tomatoes there. If we were to start it in the future in the sense of self-sufficiency, we would definitely have to be there permanently.

Were you surprised by how much you liked it?

Not even. I think we were kind of moving towards that. At the beginning, I wondered if buying a cottage would make us lose the desire to travel. We don’t suddenly discover places in the Czech Republic, Europe or the world. When I have a free weekend, I’m not acting or filming, we go there. We spend most of our time there even during the holidays. In the end, my concern was unnecessary, because we like it there, and when we need to travel, to breathe in another culture, another air, we go. The place does not oblige us to be there all the time.

Were you not discouraged from buying by those who have already had a similar experience?

I wouldn’t say that they were betraying, rather they were warning. we heard well, you’ll always be there, you’ll still have work there, you’ll still have to mow the grass… But I’ll keep mowing the garden, there’s no better way to relax from phones and the Internet. And actually from doing nothing, because in Prague, I don’t do anything except work. At the cottage, I get up in the morning, decide what needs to be done, and suddenly the day flies by like water! In the evening, I find that I have been on my feet all day, I was always bending over something, cleaning something, carrying something. Such a movement can be felt on the body. A week of walking in the garden or on the hills increases my fitness many times over! I consider that a nice bonus.

Do you have a dream idea in your head about a specific place, your corner?

The place itself is a dream. We are semi-secluded and have a sunset view. That’s my color, almost a stereotype. Every sunset is different and we witness how the place of the sunset changes with the coming winter, how it returns, that is a great beauty. And when there is suddenly that soft, warm light, it can’t even be described in words.

Do you take these trips in the sun and in the city?

When I’m in Prague for a long time, I look for such places, whether it’s Petřín or the beloved Kampa, but I often go to the zoo or botanical garden, for example. I like Průhonický park, where there are old trees and you have the opportunity not to feel that you are in the city. I have my places here too.

I saw a beautiful photo on your Instagram with your arms full of giant rhubarb. Do you have any secret gardening tips?

I’m bragging about other people’s feathers! Rhubarb was planted by the former owner, I’m just harvesting. We managed to find a brilliant place in the partial shade near the compost, there is enough water. So I won’t tell you the secret tip. I think that a garden is not about planning, but more about finding. I can put the flower somewhere, and if it doesn’t do well, I look for a new place for it. My favorite gardening method is random. I prefer to throw seeds and what catches, grows. Every seed has the right to freedom where it wants to grow, let it grow there. The garden teaches me that too.

Where do you go for inspiration?

I subscribe to a magazine to read, and since I’m on Instagram, I look for inspiration in pictures of gardens. When I go to buy seeds, I still decide based on my idea of ​​how I want the plant to look or smell. It’s pretty random. Sometimes I find that I can’t figure it out for the seeds anyway, they find a way. But let’s not just talk about seeds. We handed over part of the garden to a landscape architect. I told her my vision, what kind of garden I wanted, and she came up with it. Because it is really big, I wouldn’t plant it myself even in ten years. In cooperation with her and the gardeners, a part of the garden was created, where there are trees, bushes, flowers, but also edible flowers. It’s like grandma’s garden. And in between, I sprinkle my seeds and add what I’m missing.

Do you have a fulfilled dream in your garden, a flower that you have longed for?

I try to plant flowers that are in harmony with the local climate and landscape of the Giant Mountains. Of course I have things there that don’t belong there, like a butterfly bush. But I love him. It smells beautiful, it attracts butterflies. It can only spawn a lot, so I am very careful not to cover the Krkonoše with snow. For the lawn and open spaces, the architect recommended a mixture of flowers that are grown on site, in order to respect the character of the landscape.

You mentioned that your space is semi-secluded. Are you at least in some contact with the local community?

We are, many people go for walks around us, we have neighbors, but we are not part of the village. We have complete peace there, but when people pass by, I like to chat with them. The principle of mountains is that we all have to help each other. When I’m in the garden, we’ll have a few words. Whether it’s their reactions to what we’re building there, I’m asking for tips, for ways.

Are they happy that you have undertaken the restoration of an obviously important place?

I never asked, but judging by their reactions, I’d say yes. If we left it as it was, the cottage might fall down.

What will your house look like in its ideal form, when you sit with a coffee in the backyard and say to yourself, this is how it is?

That’s more or less happening now. Because otherwise it is a never-ending process, there will always be more to do. In the back of my mind, I hope we never get to that point. That’s why we’re there, after all.