Feng Qingxue had no experience growing vegetables, so she turned to older relatives with whom she had a good relationship, such as Feng Ershu’s wife, Hongling.
It was a time when spring was ending and summer was approaching, so many vegetables could not be planted, but seedlings could be transplanted.
Each family gave her some seedlings they had grown themselves – some gave her a few luffa seedlings, others gave her a bundle of chili seedlings, and there were eggplant, cucumber, and pumpkin seedlings too. She was also given pak choi and mustard seeds, a few sprouted ginger and potato tubers.
Then, everyone taught her how to plant them. Luffa and pumpkin could be planted in front and behind the house. Chili, eggplant, and cucumber were to be planted in the vegetable garden. After the luffa, pumpkin, and cucumber grew a bit, they needed to be supported by a frame to grow along it - this way they would produce more and better-quality fruits. The sprouted ginger and potato tubers had to be buried in the soil and hilled. The pak choi and mustard seeds were to be sown.
Every family were expert farmers by now, growing their own vegetables year after year. They always bred more seedlings than they needed. However, their own land was limited, so they inevitably had some leftover seedlings with nowhere to plant them.
Under such circumstances, everyone would exchange or gift each other the excess seedlings, because it would be a pity to throw them away.
Hongling especially dug up some chives from her own mother’s house and brought them over for Feng Qingxue. Once they were planted in the vegetable garden and tended to, she wouldn’t have to worry about not having chives to eat. The chives could be harvested again and again once cut.
Feng Shuanzhu’s second aunt and Fen Erhu’s family also did not fall behind and gave her quite a few vegetable seedlings.
Ordinarily, Feng Qingxue’s popularity wouldn’t be as noticeable, but it was particularly prominent at this time.
Only her brother and sister-in-law remained cold and distant with no interaction with Feng Qingxue and her sister. However, Feng Qingxue didn’t care about the attitudes of these two couples towards her, and everyone else also didn’t bother to mention it.
With everyone’s help, the two small vegetable gardens quickly took shape.
Through this process, Feng Qingxue realized that in addition to the seeds that could be sown directly in her space, the rest had to be bred as seedlings according to the seasons before being transplanted, rather than directly sowing the seeds into the ground.
The soil in the Caohu brigade was not of very good quality. Even if Feng Qingxue took great care of her plants and there was sufficient water from the nearby river, they didn’t grow robustly.
Feng Qingyun was even more diligent than Feng Qingxue. Whenever she had the time, she squatted in the vegetable garden to weed and remove pests. Sometimes, after playing outside for too long and feeling the call of nature, she would rush home to use their vegetable garden as a bathroom. And she justified it to Feng Qingxue by saying that this was like not allowing good money to flow into others’ fields, something she had learned from the adults. Many households did the same.
Because of this, Feng Qingxue had to speak to her several times before she got a bit better.
Although vegetables and crops need fertilization, holding in one’s bowel movements for extended periods can be very harmful to the body. One must not put the cart before the horse.
About twenty to thirty days later, the pak choi could be harvested.
Pak choi was the name Feng Qingxue learned from a book. Locally, it was known as ’chicken feather vegetable’.
When sowing, Feng Qingxue secretly took some seeds from her space and mixed them with the ones that everyone had given her, so a large area of tender pak choi seedlings sprouted, full of vitality, tender and appealing.
She picked the rather large pak choi, cleaned them thoroughly, and stir-fried them in a pot. They were exceptionally tender and delicious.
Without any pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and being the fruits of her own labor, they tasted sweet in a way that was hard to put into words when eaten.
Of course, pak choi was naturally sweet itself.
A half-month later, Feng Qingxue picked some of the melons and vegetables from her garden and first offered them to the seniors. Then, she delivered some to Uncle Xu and Aunt Xu next door.