noveldrama
Chapter 751: 751 Dig Vegetable Field 1
Chapter 751: 751 Dig Vegetable Field 1
Chapter 751: 751 Dig Vegetable Field 1
After giving instructions, Su Qingyue returned to the yard of her new house. Looking at the newly opened vegetable field in the corner of the yard, the soil was yellow and had no nutrients. It was certain that the vegetables that would grow here would have yellow and small seedlings.
Aunt Zhang’s voice came from outside the courtyard, “Is anyone here?”
“Yes,” Su Qingyue replied.
Aunt Zhang entered the courtyard, “Oh, Qingyue is here. I saw the courtyard door of your new house open, I passed by and decided to come in to take a look.” She noticed the hoe in Qingyue’s hand and some seed packets, “Qingyue, are you planning to grow vegetables?”
“Yes.”
“This soil has no nutrients, and the vegetables won’t grow well. You need to apply some fertilizer.” Aunt Zhang asked, “Do you have any fertilizer at home?”
Su Qingyue knew that there were no high-tech chemical fertilizers in ancient times. The fertilizer Aunt Zhang was talking about was human manure from the outhouse, “Well…”
Aunt Zhang noticed her embarrassed expression, “Qingyue, is there not enough fertilizer at your house? We have a lot at ours; would you like to take a few buckets from our outhouse?”
Su Qingyue knew that almost every household in the village had fields, and it was rare to see any without. The manure from their own house was used as fertilizer, and if not sufficient, they would have to buy from others.
She often saw villagers picking up cow dung from the road in bamboo baskets. At first, she didn’t understand what it was for until she saw people drying cow dung and pig dung in their yards, then mixing the dried dung into the vegetable fields when tilling.
Only then did she realize that these people were scavenging for fertilizer because they didn’t have enough and were unwilling to buy from others.
“No need, I don’t plan to use manure in the yard. Otherwise, living in the new house full of stench, I’m afraid there would be no appetite for meals,” she gratefully said to Aunt Zhang, “Thank you anyway.”
“That’s true,” Aunt Zhang agreed, “Many houses in our village have large courtyards and don’t grow vegetables in their courtyards. Firstly, it leaves more space to dry grains and vegetable perserves, and secondly, the soil in the courtyard isn’t fertile, so the vegetables don’t grow well. Your new house has a large yard, and the vegetable field you opened is in the corner, not taking up space. It’s indeed a good idea to grow vegetables. Not applying fertilizer isn’t ideal, but if there’s no other option, you can still plant vegetables with poor growth. Add some ash, and after a few years, the soil will gradually become fertile.”
Su Qingyue slightly nodded.
After sending Aunt Zhang away, she saw some unremoved weeds in the newly opened vegetable field and thought that some rotten weeds and tree leaves could be used as nutrients if mixed with ash. Although it wouldn’t have as good an effect as manure, it would still be helpful.
So, she carried two empty bamboo baskets up the mountain to collect piles of rotten tree leaves and weeds that had fallen under the trees on the mountain.
She found a few earthworms in the black soil under the leaves and directly collected a large clump of soil to temporarily hold them. She continued digging for earthworms until the clump of soil was almost full of them, then stopped.
She had turned over six hard mud plots mixed with yellow soil from the small earth slopes in the corner of her new house’s yard. The soil was hard, dry, and yellow. Once the earthworms were added, they would help loosen the soil.
One morning, she carried two loads of rotten leaves, mixed all the ash from her house into them, and evenly spread them over the six vegetable plots. She also added the earthworms from the large clumps of soil to each of the vegetable plots.
Looking at the soil with added nutrients, a gentle breeze blew through, with no smell in the yard at all.