How would you decorate and design a 90-sq-m home?

If someone gave you a 90-square-meter home right now, what would you turn it into?

Chen Shuang and her husband Yang Dazhi love tending plants and flowers, and three years ago the two began devoting themselves to creating their own private garden. Although their home is only 90 sq m, with no terrace and no very large balcony, they grow more than 100 pots of plants and fruit and vegetables of all sizes, in more than 50 varieties, both inside and outside the house.

Every weekend, the couple rushes to the flower and plant market to look for the plants they fancy. At the beginning, Chen Shuang was still a novice, and often killed several pots of flowers and ruined several plants with the wrong watering. Her patient husband suggested she go online to find experience, and from then on she would spend several hours every day learning from fellow gardeners' experience in various gardening enthusiast forums, Tieba groups and QQ groups. Learning slowly and trying constantly, she came to know the properties and preferences of her plants by heart.

In the warm spring season when flowers bloom, moss rose, Chinese rose, roses and hyacinths all burst into bloom, full of vitality. Especially in April and May, the flowers on the balcony compete for space in every direction, and Chen Shuang has nowhere to set her feet when watering and pruning.

To green the balcony, Chen Shuang and her husband also placed many aromatic plants, such as rosemary, lemongrass, thyme and mint. Chen Shuang told us that these aromatic plants all quite like sun and can also grow well in summer; you just need to remember to turn the pots regularly so that all the plants get even light, and they are very easy to care for. She said: "Besides being ornamental, these aromatic plants can also be used for cooking or baking. While enjoying the plants, you also get the extra pleasure of good food. Wonderful!"

On the balcony, besides the plants, there is also an exquisite fish pond with more than a dozen fish. Although the pond is small, it has everything: a rockery, a pavilion, a waterfall and a fountain, and green plants such as copperleaf and mint are grown around the edge. Chen Shuang's husband proudly said that he made this fish pond with his own hands, and as he spoke he picked up the remote control and gave us a demonstration: press the button, and the waterfall slowly flows down from the rock, and the fish pond instantly comes alive.

Not only on the balcony and windowsill, but also on the TV cabinet, bedside table and even in the kitchen, some indoor plants are placed. Outside the living room window is a European-style arch trellis they built themselves, covered with morning glories and pothos; looking out from the living room, it has a particularly stylish charm.

The couple also pay great attention to saving water and protecting the environment. "The two of us use relatively little water in daily life; watering the plants is the big part. In summer, the water used to water the plants every day comes to 50 jin," Chen Shuang told the reporter. To save water, Chen Shuang's husband also installed a water storage tank on their balcony; normally, the water left after washing things is piped to the storage tank, thus saving a lot of water. Moreover, the suspended and wall-mounted small flower baskets and hanging flower pots on the balcony were all designed and made by Chen Shuang and her husband themselves, and many were converted from discarded items such as milk tea bottles and old porcelain cups.

In addition, Chen Shuang's home has always had the habit of sorting household waste, taking non-degradable waste such as plastic bags downstairs to throw away, and putting degradable waste into a sealed plastic bucket on the balcony to ferment and use as fertilizer. In this way, household waste can be reduced by at least half. "Many plant lovers in the neighborhood often come to my home to get organic fertilizer, and they all say it is both eco-friendly and effective," Chen Shuang said with a smile.

In fact, home gardening is not about "bold strokes", but about bit-by-bit accumulation; if you put in the effort, you will reap the rewards.