Do you like gardening, or perhaps you farm for a living? Then you would probably like to know how to talk about growing things in Russian. This post will list a few common farming words to get you started.

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Сад

Сад translates as a garden or an orchard and is an important word for agriculture (сельское хозяйство). A person who gardens for fun — or to grow food for their own consumption — is called садовод, not to be confused with садовник (gardener), someone who looks after other people’s, often decorative, gardens. Gardening as a hobby is called садоводство.

Поле

Поле (field; plural поля) is another important word for agriculture. Полевые цветы refers to wild flowers. Another place for growing things that comes to mind is луг (meadow, plural луга).

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Сеять

Сеять (imp.)/посеять (perf.) not only means but is also a cognate of “to sow.” This refers to putting seeds (семена, singular семя, see declension pattern) in the ground. You may remember the saying “Что посеешь, то и пожнёшь” (You reap what you sow) from our post on biblical sayings.

Сажать

Сажать (imp.)/посадить (perf.), to plant, may be similar to сеять and refer to planting seeds. However, it can also refer to planting a seedling (саженец, plural саженцы) or a grown plant, for example in order to move it.

Растение

Another important word is растение (plant). This word is related to расти (to grow, intransitive) or выращивать (to grow, transitive). Common words for talking about plants include дерево/деревья (tree), куст (bush), трава (grass), цветок/цветы (flower), овощ (vegetable), and фрукт (a fruit).

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Поливать

Поливать (imp.)/полить (perf.) means to water. The related noun is полив, although you may also come across ирригация in more formal contexts.

Урожай

Урожай means harvest, and собирать урожай is to harvest. This word is related to the -род- root, which has to do with being born.

Of course, this is only an incomplete list of farming vocabulary. What other words would you put on this list? What farming-related words would you like to learn?