Urban homesteads in Helsinki

I was walking home from work today, and it was such a pleasant trip I've decided to walk to work again tomorrow.  My walk takes me parallel to a park, and I was investigating potential paths that would take me through the park when I discovered strange markings on the map denoting a "Kumpulan siirtolapuutarha." The markings were so little, I thought maybe they ID'd crypts in a cemetery.  Kumpula is the name of the campus where I work and, according to google translate, siirtolapuutarha can be mean either colony or allotment.  I became curious.

At first, I wondered if these allotments were the result of Soviet domination.  However, after a flurry of internet research, I discovered that the urban homesteads I passed on the way home were Finland's method of dealing with a food shortage in the 1920s.  My local colony is one of the oldest still in operation, founded in 1927.  These cottages on the plots are truly tiny, the better to accommodate a kitchen garden.  The impression I got from poking around my local homesteading colony's webpage was that this is somewhat competitive subsidized housing, and that in order to retain it one must grow something edible on the plot.  How cool.

For pictures: wiki and http://siirtolapuutarhat.net/kumpula/

For more info: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=fi&u=http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siirtolapuutarha&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwhat%2Bis%2Bthe%2Bkumpulan%2Bsiirtolapuutarha%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhgm5DiG0kaYz4NcfBU3ZV-dJtPa4Q