Since the new wave of epidemic prevention and control in March this year,
"Hoarding vegetables" and "grabbing vegetables" have become the top priority of many citizens.
When "a vegetable is hard to find",
Some people even began to "eat the green belt",
Many people have the idea of growing vegetables,
Hydroponic spring onions, celery and hatched bean sprouts began to take off.
And if there was originally a small vegetable garden with a balcony,
It will become the current "thickest family" of the big family.
Echo balcony when harvested
On the balcony, Kizai picks and washes garlic with his son
One interviewed 5 groups of "urban farmers (women)",
There are small couples in the 5.9㎡ high-rise balcony to achieve fruit and vegetable freedom,
There are frontline medical workers who take comfort from the balcony vegetable garden,
There are company executives on the top floor terrace to arrange work troubles...
They not only harvested real natural crops,
I feel great spiritual pleasure,
"The vegetable garden brings a sense of security,
And growing vegetables is really happy! ”
Written by Liu Yameng zhou Tiancheng responsible editor Ni Chujiao
Echo picks lemons on the balcony
Tomatoes, asahi peppers, chives and eggplants thrive
When the epidemic broke out in Shenzhen two weeks ago, Echo had some hindsight, learned the news of sealing from the circle of friends, and quickly ran to the vegetable market and supermarket under the building, only to find that they were all empty.
"But at that moment I didn't worry at all, I went home very comfortably, and I thought of eating on the balcony, what am I afraid of?"
Echo, a post-90s generation, is an illustrator who lives with her husband in Shenzhen. In their 90-square-meter wedding room, they have a 5.9㎡ balcony and a vibrant flower and fruit garden.
In this small world, dozens of fruit trees and vegetables are planted, in addition to the common chaotian pepper, rosemary and mint, there are sweet potato leaves (sweet potato leaves), peach trees, plum trees, passion fruit, grapes...
These days, the little red tomatoes have bent the scaffold, the eggplant has grown rapidly, the blueberries have borne fruit, the bale and the lemon have matured, and echo has been picked to soak in water to drink to supplement the vitamins. ”
Baler and Blueberries have borne fruit
Sunflowers, pineapples and begonias have also been grown before
If you want to harvest vegetables in the shortest possible time, then leeks, chives and chicken feathers are the best choice, "My pot of shallots is bought from the supermarket, the leftover roots are buried in the soil, can grow a few centimeters a day, and the chicken feathers can grow from seed to harvest in the fastest month." Sweet potato leaves are also very fast, half inserted into the soil, can also be hydroponic, and in a few days it will sprout and grow vines. ”
On March 14, her community began a week of sealing, all buses and subways were suspended, and residents needed to have a separate "food purchase travel ticket" if they bought vegetables, restricting the time and returning within two hours.
Each family had three tickets, but Echo and her husband had only used one, "The balcony garden really gave me a lot of security." ”
Left: Fill light in a small corner Right: There are two large fill lights in the upper right corner of the pet cockatoo "chicken"
Previously, Echo was a flower grower, in the two months of the epidemic in 2020, began to "enter the pit" to grow vegetables, and since then it has been out of control, "fruits and vegetables are easy to get started, as long as the screens are installed, the soil is killed in advance, there is almost no disease, and the harvest period is too rewarding!" ”
The north balcony with very little sunlight is so vibrant, and the secret of the Echo is that there are four "plant fill lights" that are turned on for 9 hours a day, so even if you encounter the rainy weather in Shenzhen in March, fruits and vegetables can still thrive.
She has many tricks, such as laying a disposable face towel on the bottom of the pot so that no dirt will ooze out when watering, and the floor will remain clean all year round.
She also artificially pollinates the flowers, greatly improving the fruit rate, and laying the bottom of the pot with odorless sheep manure organic fertilizer, which is some distance away from the root system to avoid burning seedlings.
Use the only balcony to grow vegetables, so what about drying clothes? For this reason, Echo added a dryer to solve this problem.
Below the green plant wall is the fish tank forming an automatic circulating watering system
Initially, when Echo was planting flowers and vegetables, her husband was still a little dissatisfied because it occupied the balcony space, "but soon he tasted the sweetness and was very supportive", and later actively invested in the construction of a small vegetable garden.
He is a programmer, strong design ability, the use of siphon effect to make a "fish plant symbiosis system", automatically water the green plant wall, he also let the smart speaker control the light switch, much more convenient.
Now the two enjoy this little green paradise, "in the morning, the rocking chair is moved to the balcony, the bird falls on the shoulder, and there is no need to speak, it is very pleasant." In summer, sometimes the afternoon wind blows, and the balcony is fragrant with melons and fruits, feeling like a paradise. ”
Aunt Hairball is in the midst of the epidemic storm, but she only needs to look at her own small vegetable garden to feel a little calm
In Shanghai, the epicenter of the epidemic storm, almost everyone is in a state of anxiety. Being locked up in the home for a long time, depression, anxiety, and boredom struck at the same time.
The little aunt of the hairball lives in Puxi, the balcony is only about 6 square meters, but outside the washing machine and drying area, a south-facing vegetable garden is set up, full of peppers, eggplants, coriander, basil leaves and so on.
These cute vegetables alleviated her anxiety to a certain extent, not only providing her with food, but also providing her with sufficient psychological support.
The hydroponic coriander, green color can relieve her anxiety
Annoyed, anxious, take a look at the green, the mood is good. If not, I will pick a piece of fruit and taste it, in my daughter's words, "sweeter than what is sold in the market."
Like most urban children, her daughter did not know how vegetables, melons and fruits were grown, and this small world was also a unique natural education for her daughter by the little aunt of the hairball.
Left: Recently harvested small tomato Right: Little Aunt Hairball is one of the medical staff in the epidemic in Shanghai
During this epidemic, as a medical worker, Mao Qiu's little aunt became a "big white" and sampled nucleic acids for Shanghai citizens.
She received a notice at 3 a.m. on March 28 to support Pudong and needed to go immediately, and before going out, she went to the balcony to make sure that the humidity of the plants was suitable before leaving.
When she got home at 9 o'clock that night, she was exhausted, but she still went to confirm the balcony, "it seems that as long as you see your own small vegetable garden, you can relieve a large part of the pressure." ”
In Longyan, Fujian, Dou Mama took her daughter to live a leisurely life
In Longyan, Fujian Province, Dou Ma also relied on the vegetable garden in the attic terrace to regain the feeling of healing.
Two years ago, the 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism, and Dou Mama and her husband immediately slowed down the entire pace of life and accompanied their daughter for rehabilitation.
Children with autism are less sensitive to social rules, the city is crowded, fast-paced, and the rules are fine, and the couple begins to plan the possibility of going to the countryside in the future and living a simple, self-sufficient life.
Dou Ma just harvested a wave of balcony leafy vegetables a few days ago
But Dou Ma had never grown vegetables, so she wanted to practice from the balcony garden first, and now she has tomato seedlings, okra and green vegetables.
Dou Mama remembers when she pulled out the first stubble of green vegetables from the soil a few days ago, she instantly recalled the experience of being in the field with her grandmother when she was young, "That sweet taste, I don't know if it was from the vegetables or brought by the soil, but it was the taste in the memory, like going back to childhood, a very healing feeling." ”
The daughter loved the nature
My daughter loves to stay on the balcony, and as the weather in Fujian gets hot, she often takes off her shoes and lies directly on the tiles. She likes to play with watering cans, and Dou Mama lets her try to water the vegetables together.
Nowadays, Dou Mama often laughs happily, and like any ordinary mother, she shares a natural, intimate and gentle time with her lovely daughter.
Kizai waters the vegetable garden
Vegetables harvested in different seasons
Owning an entire open-air vegetable garden in the city center is a luxury, but for some urbanites who are attached to the "pastoral dream", when they first bought a house, they aimed at the nearby "arable land".
In the center of Mianyang, Sichuan, Ji Zai has arranged his home and studio in the same community, and next to the studio sits a 70㎡ vegetable garden, which can be reached in 5 minutes by foot from home.
Mianyang is in a hilly area, and four years ago they chose this half-mountainside community, which is to see the low density of houses and large open spaces for owners to transform and play.
Left: Kizai and Xidylee's family of three Right: Make a meal with vegetables from the vegetable garden
Ki Tsai washes the garlic he grows with his son
Over the past few years, Ji Tsai has filled this garden with planting land, and the whole rhythm of life has also changed around the vegetable garden.
Between work, he is no longer brushing Weibo and watching videos, but is willing to go around the vegetable garden, watering, hoeing and hoeing grass, relaxing, changing his thinking, "Planting vegetables will be more relaxed, and every time I work, I will get it, and I feel very solid." ”
Kizai in a vegetable garden in early summer
Spring sowing: seedlings, racking
A while ago, he had just completed a new round of spring sowing, and for two weeks he spent half of every day soaking in the garden, loosening the soil, planting seedlings, erecting frames, and mulching... "Before and after the Qingming Dynasty, plant melons and beans", he read this proverb with great interest.
His wife, Xidylee, is an art student and was initially more willing to plant flowers, but after experiencing the epidemic in 2020, she experienced the great convenience of the vegetable garden and fully supported her husband.
Their own vegetables have no pesticides, and they are very relieved to take their sons to pick them together, and the children like tomatoes and cucumbers, and they are very happy to hold them in their hands.
Taco's "Garden of Ingredients in the Sky"
Taco is a state-owned enterprise executive living in Hangzhou, usually the pressure of work is not small, but as long as she goes home to see her "aerial food garden", plants are thriving, and the body and mind will be healed in an instant.
There is very little farmland in Hangzhou, and when she bought a house, she deliberately chose a house with a terrace on the top floor, just to realize her ideal of planting.
In the 20㎡ terrace, there are now nearly 30 varieties of vegetables, more than 20 pots of flowers and grasses and nearly 10 kinds of fruits, and the vegetables and fruits are abundant all year round, and the flowers are continuous.
Lemons, grapefruits, loofahs, pumpkins – all year round, Taco harvests different vegetables and fruits
In order to improve the utilization of limited space, she used the "three-dimensional planting" method.
She built a melon rack on the terrace, and in the spring and summer, she let the melon climb on the melon rack, developed into the air, and planted green leafy vegetables under the melon rack that did not require much sunlight.
On the wall of the terrace, she set up a flower stand to grow peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, crispy kumquats, blueberries, moon seasons and other fruits and vegetables that like to shine all day.
"Three-dimensional planting" is the secret of Taco's fruitful results
In this way, a terrace with a small flat area, the entire space is used, different varieties of vegetables and fruits have their own place, interdependence, fruitful.
After becoming obsessed with planting, Taco learned a lot of relevant scientific knowledge at home and abroad.
In her home, the kitchen waste is not discarded, and Taco will use it for composting. She also uses fruit peels and chili peppers to kill insects with homemade enzymes. Taco is proud of this operation, which is both environmentally friendly and makes her soil soft and fertile, and her fruits, flowers and plants are exceptionally strong. Even if you never use pesticides, you are rich in vegetables and fruits every season, and the family always can't finish eating, and they have to give them around.
Different seasons will harvest different fruits and vegetables
She also has great respect for the laws of solar terms. In the spring and summer, lettuce, leeks, cucumbers, pumpkins are harvested, and in autumn and winter, broccoli, kale, kale, red cabbage moss, etc., there are more than 20 varieties of melon fruits and vegetables in each season. "Naturally grown vegetables are more delicious." She said. The fresh sweetness of fresh fruits and vegetables is not available in the market, and Taco has a full sense of happiness when eating vegetables and fruits grown by himself every day.
It also started with organic waste composting, and she learned the idea of "sustainable development" more systematically. The material aspects of life are becoming more and more streamlined. Although the salary is very high, "the basic expenses of a family of three for eating, water and electricity, etc., are less than three thousand yuan a month." ”
Extending to other aspects of her life, she now shops very little, pays more attention to quality rather than quantity, and will use it for a long time to buy the right things.
Growing in the city, she says, is not simply for harvest, but a real way of life. This way of life is about beauty, about the experience of life, and about the relationship between man and nature. Now she has a low material desire and a rich heart, and her quality of life is higher.
1. Which vegetables grow the fastest?
In addition to chives, leeks and chicken feathers, spinach grows for about 20 days, likes to be wet, and needs to be watered every day; cherry radish can be harvested in about 28 days, suitable for potted plants, and can be made into salad dishes. In addition, rosemary, mint and lemon can be grown and harvested all year round, which is good value for money.
If you want to cultivate sweet potato leaves, Echo recommends that when the sweet potato is initially put into the soil, it should be left half on the surface, not all of it in the soil, otherwise it will rot, the same is true when hydroponic.
If you value efficiency, it is best to buy seedlings instead of seeds at the beginning, and the plant itself has flowers and fruits, and it grows very quickly.
Of course, vegetables are divided into seasons, so Echo will plant fruits and vegetables in spring and summer, and flowers in autumn and winter.
2. How to choose the balcony fill light?
Echo suggests that in the case of less direct sunlight, use a plant-specific fill light (not an ordinary household table lamp), which can help plant photosynthesis, but also remove the ultraviolet rays harmful to the human body, you can search for the same model of "agricultural greenhouses" to find small households.
3. How to solve the problem of aphids?
Echo's fruit trees and vegetables are currently growing healthily, thanks to her good preparations: screens were installed on the balcony to keep out foreign bodies and minimize the probability of pests.
In addition, many aphids are hidden in the soil, so she will buy soil that can kill insect eggs and prevent them from the roots. If you see a butterfly coming, try to chase it away, "to avoid it having children here."
In the open-air vegetable garden of The girder, if he sees an aphid, he will use pepper water to spray it, which can have an effect.
Taco recommends several types of vegetables that are not susceptible to insects, one with a special smell, such as coriander, celery, onion and garlic; pumpkin and winter melon, because the leaves have small thorns, are less susceptible to insects; in addition, okra, sweet potatoes, and ginger are also rarely insects.
4. How to fertilize?
When the trabecular are sown in the spring, they use fibrous coconut bran and peat soil, which are mixed with the original soil of the vegetable garden to increase the organic matter content of the soil and avoid compaction.
Echo recommends the use of organic fertilizers such as sheep manure, cow dung, and earthworm manure, which have almost no odor and can be buried in the basin in advance. In addition, in the process of nurturing, slow-release fertilizer is added to the surface of the soil, and each watering is equivalent to applying fertilizer once. Therefore, the choice of pot should consider its permeability, otherwise frequent watering will easily lead to rotten roots.
If there are no shopping conditions at present, then it is also possible to learn kitchen waste compost, but salt will affect the growth of plants, so it is best to choose the kitchen waste of vegetarian dishes before meals, it will be easier to get started.
5. Which fruits and vegetables are better to grow and ornamental?
Taco recommends kumquats, grapefruit, figs, blueberries, etc.
Kumquats are small fruit trees that begin to hang green fruits in June and turn golden in November. In the winter when there are many festivals, the decoration is particularly good.
Grapefruit belongs to small and medium-sized fruit trees, slightly larger than kumquats, beautiful leaf shape, huge flowers, and flowers can make tea, sweet fruit, is a good-looking and practical type.
Blueberries are small fruit trees and are suitable when space is limited. Commercially imported blueberries are expensive, and they grow them on the balcony and look good and can achieve blueberry freedom.
Figs do not grow insects, are easy to feed, bear fruit twice in spring and autumn, and the ripe figs on the tree are very tasty!