Dad goes to the flower market every day but never buys anything - turns out he's growing all these at home

Ever since Dad retired, he's been obsessed with plants and flowers. Strange to say, he goes to the flower market early every morning, wanders around and buys nothing, then comes home and fusses about on the balcony. Those pots and containers are all planted with his vegetables, and when it comes to looks, they're even prettier than flowers!

Sweet potato potted plants, Dad's proudest achievement

Every time Dad and Mom come across cheap vegetables, they buy a lot. Sure enough, they bought a pile of sweet potatoes and didn't finish them all, and every one of them sprouted, looking like a little forest. Dad couldn't bear to throw them away, so he just planted them to see what would happen~

Because there were too many sweet potatoes, Dad spread them out in every corner of the home: he split a plastic bottle open, fit a slender sweet potato right in, added a bit of water to grow it hydroponically, added nothing else at all, and yet the leaves turned out lush and green.

Against the wall, in a flower pot with sandy soil, he planted 3 or 4 big sweet potatoes. The leaves were so dense you couldn't see the pot. They squeezed out all the pothos, spider plants and parlor palms at home, and there wasn't even a single yellow leaf. Everyone who saw them praised them, and Dad was absolutely delighted~

He also planted quite a few sweet potatoes on the balcony. Some were casually placed in plastic bottles for hydroponic growing, some were stuck into sand. Either way, they got hardly any care, yet they started climbing and vining. Because the balcony gets plenty of sunlight, the sweet potatoes even bloomed, a bit like morning glories!

The "landmine" tomato, Dad's secret weapon

Besides the sweet potatoes, which were planted by pure accident, the tomatoes Dad grows are also outstanding. Have you ever seen tomatoes like these, all misshapen and cracked? The first time I saw them, I thought they were genetic mutations. After a few bites raw, they were just so sweet - exactly the taste I remember!

It turns out this is an old variety Dad picked up, seems to be called the horse-hoof tomato. It just naturally grows looking like this. Although it looks a bit scary, it's big with thick flesh, and the taste is sweet and sour and delicious, much better than ordinary tomatoes on the market.

Growing tomatoes this big on a balcony, Dad sure has

a trick up his sleeve

: During the seedling stage, be careful with watering so the plants don't get leggy; the flower pot must be deep enough, and you can bury some chicken manure as a base fertilizer; set up supports for the seedlings in time to stabilize their growth; give them plenty of sun to bloom, and after flowering, dip a cotton swab into the male and female flower centers for hand pollination to get more fruit!

Potted garlic, Dad's favorite

Every year Dad plants a few pots of garlic. Never underestimate the garlic grown at home. Besides growing garlic sprouts you can eat, a few cloves can also turn into single-clove garlic with even higher nutritional value!

Generally, garlic can be planted in April or September. Take the multi-clove garlic bought from the market, first put it in a ventilated spot on the balcony and wait for it to sprout, then stick it into the soil, keeping each clove 1-2 cm apart, no need to space them too far.

Once the garlic is planted, just let it grow on its own, water it occasionally, and there's nothing else to manage. The garlic sprouts that grow can be picked to stir-fry, and after 3-4 months you can pull them up to harvest the garlic. The more rough-and-tumble the care, the easier it is to grow single-clove garlic, which has even higher nutritional value than multi-clove garlic. I hear it even has anti-cancer effects.

For the harvested single-clove garlic, peel off the outer skin and wash it clean, first soak it in water for 1 day (changing the water once in between), then dry it and mix in 2-3 spoonfuls of salt, and salt it for 2 days to draw out the juices. Then make a sweet-and-sour liquid with 1 jin of aged vinegar and 6 liang of sugar, put the garlic into the sweet-and-sour liquid, seal the lid tightly, and in 20 days it will be fully pickled.

Small scallion bulbs, Dad never throws them away

With only garlic, how could we do without scallions! The scallions Dad and Mom usually buy, they only pick the green leaves for stir-frying, and keep all the bulbs. Save them up and you can plant a whole pot~

Especially the little scallion bulbs with red skins - just bury them in the soil with the tops poking out, and they'll fill a whole pot with fresh green scallions. In summer, for stir-fries, cold dishes and soups, you just pick a few leaves, and you can't even eat them all!

Besides these scallions, Dad also planted an onion. The onion seedlings grew vigorously, and cutting them to wrap steamed rolls is just perfect. Fresh out of the steamer, the whole house smells wonderful!

Ginger keeps its value - plant one piece, harvest a clump

As the saying goes, ginger keeps its value. The scraps left over from cooking - never let them wilt. You can first put them on a plate with water, let the moisture nourish them until they sprout, then plant them in soil with the sprouts facing up, and wait for them to shoot right up~

Ginger likes partial shade. It's best to grow it indoors or in a spot on the balcony with scattered light. Water it once every 1-2 days to keep the potting soil slightly moist. In just over a month it can grow to 1 m tall, adding a bit of cool shade in summer, more refreshing than any flower~

Ginger also blooms, usually white and red. I wonder if you've ever seen it~

Ginger planted in April-May can be harvested in September-October. It truly lives up to the saying that ginger keeps its value - plant a small piece and it grows into a big clump~

Carrot tops, Dad's creative potted plants

Carrots are rich in vitamins and we eat them often at home. The cut-off carrot tops were all pressed into sand by Dad. With a little water, in a few days they poked out their little green heads~

When there was no room left in the pots, he put them in plastic boxes to grow hydroponically. Just a tiny bit of water, and they can grow into a little forest!

People who love flowers can turn anything into a flower

Have you ever grown these vegetables?

Flower-loving friends who haven't grown them

Hurry up and grow them just like this~

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