We are very particular about building houses in rural areas. There is enough open space in the front, rear, left and right of the house. After the house is built, we start planning the use of these open spaces. Generally, in addition to building a wing to store some sundries on the left or right side of the house, there are also poultry breeding areas such as chicken racks and pig pens. In the backyard, there are usually a few fruit trees such as apricots, dates, and peaches, while in the front yard there is a small vegetable garden built with stones, where some cucumbers, eggplants, beans, tomatoes, leeks and other seasonal vegetables are grown for the whole family to eat.
My family is the same. Although the house and yard are not big, they have everything that "a sparrow may be small but has all the internal organs." Our family lives here happily year after year.
As the saying goes, men are the masters outside and women are the masters inside. Housework such as feeding chickens, pigs, cooking, and laundry were all undertaken by my mother alone. She worked from early in the morning to late at night every day, from spring to autumn.
Every year just after the spring equinox, my mother began to think about what vegetables to plant in the vegetable garden this year. She took out the vegetable seeds saved last fall to see if they were enough. Based on last year's proportions, plan how much of each vegetable to plant this year, and you can't repeat planting. If you repeat planting, it will affect the yield. I saw my mother taking down a small basket from the beam, which contained seeds of various vegetables. She opened the small bags wrapped in old book paper. There were all kinds of vegetables inside. These vegetables were all carefully selected by my mother in the autumn of the previous year. Some of them I couldn't distinguish clearly, so my mother told me the name of each cabbage boy, including cucumbers with white points at both ends; beans shaped like pig kidneys, about the size of buttons, shiny and with patterns on them; eggplants, peppers , Tomato seeds are very small and as thin as oatmeal, so it is difficult to identify what kind of seeds they are. I recognized the white Japanese melon seeds at once, because they were very delicious. My mother always fried them for me to eat, and they were so delicious. The vegetables carefully selected by my mother are plump and the fruits will definitely be a bumper harvest. While my mother was talking to me, she put these vegetables into a small bowl, soaked them in water, covered them with a wet cloth, and placed them on the bed. They would sprout and sow in two days.
While my mother prepared all kinds of vegetables, my father repaired the damaged areas of the courtyard wall, put a cap on it with some mud, and inserted jujube branches. The jujube branches have thorns and are stuck on the wall to prevent chickens from getting in and grabbing the vegetables that have been planted.
The first things to sprout in my small vegetable garden are leeks and shallots, because leeks and shallots spend the winter in the ground. The weather is getting warmer day by day around Qingming, the permafrost has already melted, and the surface temperature has risen. . I saw my mother using a rake to comb the dead leaves and weeds from the ridges of leeks and spring onions. The tender green leeks and spring onions are beginning to emerge, and then a layer of base fertilizer is spread. The base fertilizer is home-fermented farmyard manure. It is very strong and is a pure green fertilizer. After watering again, in a few days, the small leek seedlings and green onion seedlings will grow to more than an inch tall, and the first crop of leeks can be cut in about half a month. Because the temperature is not too high, the first crop of leeks grows slowly. If the first crop of leeks is not cut off early, it will affect the growth of the second crop. In fact, the first crop of leeks is very nutritious. They are dark green, strong and have purple roots. My mother told me: The first crop of leeks is called Diqing, which is special and delicious. The dumplings stuffed with chives have a particularly fragrant taste. When my mother steamed the chicken cake, she put some minced green chives in it. The taste was even more extraordinary, and I still have endless aftertaste.
After all the preparations were done, mother began to dig ridges, make ponds, and apply base fertilizer. The small vegetable garden has taken shape, the seeds have sprouted, and sowing has begun. Mother prepared a small ditch in the pond with a pick and a hoe, poured water, and then carefully dotted the seeds and cultivated the soil. Within a few days, seedlings began to sprout. The mother takes care of her like a newborn baby, carefully watching over her. The seedlings are getting stronger day by day, and the garden is full of green vitality.
My mother planted corn on the edge of the garden. Since it was her own garden, the corn was planted early and would be ripe before autumn, so we could eat it early.
Under the careful cultivation of my mother, the small vegetable garden has small seedlings that are lush and green. Cucumbers and peas extend to the shelf, small cucumbers have prickly top flowers, white pepper flowers, and yellow tomato flowers are fragrant, competing with the purple eggplant flowers to bloom, decorating my small vegetable garden. Bees and butterflies are among the flowers. Flying. When I come home from school every day, I help my mother carry water for watering. My mother prunes the branches one by one, cutting off the excess branches for fear of affecting the results of the main branches. Prepare some sorghum straw, set up the tall cucumber and bean seedlings, and wait to harvest the fruits.
In the blink of an eye, the Dragon Boat Festival is here, and my small vegetable garden has begun to harvest the first batch of fruits. The first to ripen are cucumbers and May beans. During the Dragon Boat Festival, my mother picked a few cucumbers with thorny tops and mixed them with a plate of cold vegetables. A refreshing fragrance hit my nostrils. We also stewed beans with sliced ??noodles and pork, and the festive atmosphere became even stronger. Our whole family is in a different mood while eating fresh vegetables. Because at that time, unlike now, when I was a child, I couldn't see fresh vegetables all winter, and I had three meals a day of radishes, cabbage, and potatoes. I was very happy eating fresh vegetables.
Before long, the tomatoes were red inside and out, and the branches were covered with purple eggplants and large green peppers. While my mother was picking vegetables, she also didn’t forget to leave some healthy fruits for seeds. One day my mother asked me to pick vegetables in the vegetable garden. I specialized in picking big vegetables. I didn't know that it was the seed left by my mother, and now I was in trouble.
My mother watched me pick out the seeds she had left. She felt very distressed and scolded me. There was no other way. In the spring of the next year, my mother had to ask for some seeds from her neighbors and planted a small vegetable garden.
Summer is the peak season for vegetable production. When I come back from school every day, I first rush into the vegetable garden, pick a few fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, rub them with my hands and eat them. They are delicious. During the holidays, I visited the small vegetable garden every day, like sweeping up.
When the first crop of vegetables in the small vegetable garden is almost picked, some seedlings are about to complete their mission and gradually wither. My mother began to prepare for the second crop of planting. Late cucumber seedlings and late bean seedlings sprouted from the ground, and bok choy, lettuce, radish and other pickled vegetables enriched my family's dining table. My mother dried the beans and eggplants that she couldn’t eat and kept them for winter. Sometimes she also gave some to neighbors.
The vegetable with the highest yield in my small garden is Japanese melon. Japanese melon generally has a long maturity period and produces a lot of fruits. The Japanese melon stand is erected directly on the courtyard wall and in front of the house. The entire yard is blocked by the Japanese melon stand. In summer, you can enjoy the cool under the Japanese melon stand. Japanese melon has yellow flowers and very large leaves, like lotus leaves. When steaming dumplings, it is usually spread on the steamer. The dumplings do not stick and taste very fragrant. The tender Japanese melon is used in dumplings and steamed buns, and can also be eaten stewed. If the Japanese melons are fully mature, there will be a layer of white ash hanging on them in autumn, so they can be picked and stored throughout the winter. Our family harvests twenty or thirty large Japanese melons every year, which are very sweet. Use it with big yellow rice to make Laba porridge, which is a delicious dish!
When autumn comes, the small garden begins to become depressed, and the branches and leaves slowly wither. My mother would prepare several jars before the autumn frost, pick the remaining fruits, and put them in the jars to make pickles. Then, just like cleaning the battlefield, I tied up the trellises and dry branches and leaves in the small vegetable garden and placed them in the corner. At the same time, I also ended a year of hard work in the small vegetable garden.
Winter has entered in the blink of an eye. The first snow since the beginning of winter has tightly covered my small vegetable garden, and it has begun hibernation. It no longer has the vitality and vitality of the past.
It’s the spring sowing season again, and my small vegetable garden often appears in my dreams. The spring scenery in the garden is like my mother’s smiling face, and the harvest of fruits is full of deep longing. The small vegetable garden not only brought fresh vegetables to our family, but also brought my mother the joy of spring planting and autumn harvest, and also brought me the joy of childhood.
My mother has been away from us for many years, and My small vegetable garden still exists, still harvesting fruits and telling my mother’s story.