Although it is a vegetable garden, it is actually a palm-sized reclamation land in front of the kitchen. It turned out to be recycled by an old teacher at school. Just as the teacher retired and went home to rest, he piled it up. It was a pity that the vegetable garden was abandoned next to his house, so we picked it up and planted our own vegetable garden. I am a native of the country. Although I haven't left my hometown for more than ten years, I'm still a little rusty on growing vegetables. Fortunately, several colleagues in our grade group are experts in growing vegetables, probably because they are inexhaustible. Under their guidance, they reviewed the knowledge of growing vegetables they had learned from their mother in the past. With my enthusiasm for the land and the help of my wife and I from morning till night, the vegetable fields are really exemplary, and the vegetable fields have always maintained a lush and prosperous scene.
Growing vegetables is not only the joy of harvesting, but also a kind of happiness in the process of experiencing growing vegetables. From turning the ground to leveling, and then adjusting it into a ridge, applying foot fertilizer can sow. According to the growing season of vegetables, my wife and I planted amaranth, pumpkin, wax gourd, spinach, eggplant, pepper and cowpea in spring, as well as loofah and lentils rooted in the ground and harvested in the air. Autumn has come, and we have planted garlic, Chinese cabbage and spinach. It can be said that "the vegetable field is small and the dishes are complete". From the moment the seeds are sown, there seems to be a kind of concern. Every day before I go home from work, I will go to the vegetable field to see how the seeds I sow grow in the embrace of nature. After seeds are planted in the ground for a few days, they will swell and sprout. If you don't pay attention to the lovely green buds, you will stick your head out of the ground. At this time, they are still carrying seed shells. It is really gratifying to see those innocent little lives, and a feeling of pity arises spontaneously.
Winter passed and spring came. After the long winter, leeks have sneaked out of the ground. The phrase "cutting leeks in the rain at night" is true. Overnight, leeks jumped out with great fanfare, and the roots gradually changed from purple to light yellow and then to green. Although the first bite of leek tastes a little spicy, it is always the most fragrant. Leeks are cut one after another, and they can't wait to grow after cutting, as if to repay the nourishment of the earth.
In summer, cucumbers began to grow. They look the same every day, with yellow flowers on their heads and tiny thorns on their bodies, so fresh that people can't bear to touch them. There is a bed of cowpea next to it, and the slender cowpea hangs down one by one like a bead curtain. The sunshine in the north is the best, and it is the world of tomatoes and eggplants. I remember my mother taught me that planting vegetables should be divided into high and low levels, which is not only ventilated and light-permeable, but also easy to manage, especially the red and purple colored fruits should be exposed to the sun more, so as to grow moist and nutritious.
In the evening and in the morning, my wife will come out to water the vegetables. She doesn't need a hose to water, but she always carries it in a bucket. Then she scooped water from a bucket and slowly poured it on the vegetable root, watching the water slowly seep into the ground and listening to the "zi zi" sound made by the water seeping into the ground. Eyes full of love, as if looking at their own children. As the saying goes, "people are diligent and not lazy", because my wife is good at management and interplanting in small places takes turns, so the vegetable field turns out to be like a cornucopia after one year, and long vegetables can never be eaten. While marveling at the greatness of life, it also reminds me of the hardships of the life process of "bamboo shoots become bamboo because of falling baskets" Later, those buds became pieces of "cooked vegetables". Faced with these lush fruits and vegetables, the junior high school students I taught at that time would come and share with me the joy of my wife and I's success after school. Every summer vacation, my wife and I will drag our own pumpkins and winter melons back to our hometown with a big cart and give them to our mother-in-law and brothers to share.
The vegetable garden doesn't have to be looked after every day. Sometimes I will sit under the big tree next to the school kitchen, holding a teaching book, watching the scenery of the vegetable garden, enjoying it slowly, and fantasizing about "the grass with low eaves on the stream" When you are drunk, your voice is charming and your hair is white. The big boy hoes beans and flows east, while the middle boy weaves chicken cages; In the scene of rural life, children are scoundrels, and the lotus is peeled off at the head of the stream, which is also considered to have a different taste. Since my wife and I planted this vegetable garden, the school teachers and Jenny around me have "looked at my wife with new eyes". There are several old farmers living around the school. They don't care about the farm work of growing vegetables, but they are surprised and puzzled by the hard work and professionalism of my wife and I in growing vegetables so seriously. They often joke that our children want them to study hard, get ahead, stay away from the countryside, wash away their dirt thoroughly and live a "hands-and-feet" city life, but you are in love with this vegetable garden, so you should help it sooner or later. Between their words, it seems that "my wife and I are cheap bones, and our life is farming."
Seriously, growing vegetables is not as easy as sitting in an office and drawing. However, living in an office building like a pigeon coop every day, and facing those who pursue fame and fortune and complicated disputes all day, over time, there will be a sense of confusion, which often makes people feel empty. Growing vegetables is not a tiring physical activity. When we are mentally exhausted, it can help us stretch our muscles, adjust our mood and change our thinking. In the process of growing vegetables, people can not only enjoy the joy of growing vegetables to earn money, but also temporarily stay away from the worldly wind of intrigue and posturing. I grew up in my hometown where I have been farming and studying for generations. Only by touching the land can my soul find peace in the communication with the land.
At that time, planting vegetables planted a hope and harvested a state of mind. Now, we have been working in a place far from home for 20 years. My wife works in a kindergarten and my son works in a different place. In the past two years, after work, my wife still keeps the style of growing vegetables when teaching in her hometown and countryside, and still insists on planting all kinds of vegetables and fruits that we love in her own "one acre and three points" garden. Every time I eat the green food grown by my wife, I deeply feel that labor is the most glorious.