How to turn a house with a garden into a family vegetable and fruit orchard

I have always had a dream of owning a house with a garden. Until one Sunday, when I went out for a walk to clear my mind, I happened upon Longhu, and suddenly realized this was the place I had been looking for all along. It had what I needed, a house with a garden.

While the seedlings were growing, I began renovating the small courtyard and the terrace. For this I added quite a few more gardening tools, which, together with the ones I already had, totaled: two military round-point steel shovels, one small entrenching shovel, one small square-point shovel, one small hoe, one three-tine rake, and one nine-tine rake for leveling the soil, which my daughter jokingly calls the "Pigsy rake."

In addition to tools, besides plants grown in the ground, I also wanted some potted plants, which required flower pots, flower boxes and other planters. To make things a bit more distinctive, I spent nearly 200 yuan including shipping on a large red ceramic eight-pocket strawberry pot and placed it in the yard as a visual centerpiece to better set off the green plants in the small courtyard. But I never expected that with so many varieties planted, when friends came to the courtyard, what they cared about was the yard full of melons and fruits, and the pot got overlooked. Today I am giving it a special close-up to make it up to it. Hehe.

This must be the dream of many flower lovers~

That big fruit is a cucumber I grew, kept for seed. I never figured out whether it is a Dutch variety or a Japanese one. I planted 4 in the small courtyard downstairs and two on the third-floor terrace, harvesting once every three days, with a maximum of more than 30. When overgrown it can still be eaten raw or stir-fried, and when stir-fried it does not have the usual earthy, fishy taste of ordinary cucumbers. The longest was 50 cm with a diameter of 10 cm. A supervisor at the construction site there said it was their large Northeast cucumber. If any friend knows, please tell me so I can learn something too.

Also, even though I have a small courtyard and a terrace, if the planting volume is large it always feels insufficient. So, after referring to many other methods of vertical planting and carrying forward the DIY spirit, I racked my brains a lot, and Cai Nong also built his own set of balcony vertical planting system. This system was converted from a flower stand used by florists to display cut flowers. I added centralized water supply and a single-pot watering system based on the negative pressure principle. One watering lasts half a month or even a month without needing to water again, saving worry, water and effort, suitable for lazy people who are busy with work yet enjoy home gardening.

As you can see in the picture, the small rack neatly and uniformly holds 24 small flower pots. If you grow shallow-rooted vegetables, such as cilantro, spinach, lettuce and so on, the harvest can be quite astonishing.

It seems I must find time to solve the picture problem first.

Let me try.

Here is an impressionist work.

The day I took the photo was a very sunny day, and the small digital camera probably got dazzled by the sun. I do not know which photosensitive component had a problem, and the result was this thing. Let us just call it an impressionist piece created by the blazing sun.

In the blink of an eye it was already March or April, the seedlings I had grown had already burst into shoots and buds, and the planning of the small courtyard, after repeated thought, began to take shape in my mind and needed to be put into practice.

After carefully surveying the small courtyard, it is basically square. Adding the 95 cm splash apron along the wall, it is only 30 sq m. In addition, on the east side of the small courtyard there is an inspection well that needs to be hidden and beautified. In such a small place, I needed to provide a leisure area, a growing area, and also a path into and out of the small courtyard for convenient work. It was truly not easy.

This is how it looks, and I feel basically satisfied.

The climbing trellis was also suspended following the shape of the wooden platform on the ground. Usually one says erected, so why did I use the word suspended? Because the small courtyard is rather small, and if I had driven posts to erect it, first it would take up space, and second it would block the view. So, adapting to local conditions, I used the suspension method, keeping the upper and lower parts aligned.

Friends, take a look, the trellis is already lush with plants and leaves.

Climbing up the left side of the trellis, the loofah blooming with yellow flowers

Climbing up the right side of the trellis, the large cucumber that has set fruit and grown big.

The space is actually not large; the total building area is less than 170, otherwise there would be no need to consider vertical planting.

The small pool is connected to the large reservoir so that excess water can enter the large reservoir. The large reservoir also has a pipe connected to the inspection well, so after the large pool is full, excess rainwater can be discharged directly into the inspection well. Otherwise, after heavy rain, water would flood everywhere and drown my small courtyard.

The pool being excavated

The two pools already built. The one on the left with a concrete cover is the reservoir, and the one on the right is the small fish pool. The large reservoir on the left also has an openable cover for future cleaning, and the small square hole in the cover is the water outlet for the pump pipe.

A wooden platform has already been built over the reservoir, so it can no longer be seen. Over the small pool, a small wooden bridge creates a division. The left side of the bridge [belongs to the 66th Division] and can be planted with emergent lotus, while the right side of the bridge [belongs to the 68th Division] can be planted with water lilies and arrowhead, and a few goldfish can be raised in the pool.

The path in the courtyard should in principle be higher than the ground. To prevent the path from settling due to long-term rainwater soaking and people stepping on it, a concrete foundation should be made under the path before laying it.

But I did not do that, because perhaps after some years I may want to change the direction or material of the path, in which case I can simply lift it off, and the soil originally under the path can still be used. Another reason is environmental consideration: I do not want the alkaline components released by concrete to harm the soil I have improved.

The picture below is an overhead view of the small courtyard after the garden was completed

Showing off our fruits of labor

Cucumbers, small melons and chili peppers

A basket of harvest: pumpkin, cucumber, sweet corn

Tomatoes under the sunlight

A truly large cucumber, kept for seed

The only surviving small watermelon, it bore only one, crisp and sweet.

Also the only surviving small fruit corn

Cherry tomatoes on the terrace

Small melons, there were still some a few days ago, but today when I looked, they were gone! Stealing melons does not count as theft, hehe.

The small flower bed under the fence, with a few roses, periwinkles, lavender, Schizonepeta, and purple oxalis

Two large clubs hanging under the climbing trellis = loofahs

Get started, friends. Home gardening is a very good activity for cultivating body and mind. In your spare time, plant something on the balcony, windowsill, courtyard, terrace, or even a bare wall. Even if it is wild grass, after some time it will bring you immense surprise and wonderful feelings.

My office was also given a small arrangement by me.