Cloud gardens

Life in the city is narrow, so many families have taken advantage of the small space on the terrace to turn into green “cloud gardens” with all kinds of vegetables and fruits.

Nguyen Thi Tham harvests vegetables to prepare for dinner. Tham’s house is at 17F7, Tran Binh Trong Street, Nguyen An Ninh Ward, City. Vung Tau, has 3 floors with an area of ​​more than 100m2. Tham has spent more than 30m2 of the terrace to design a garden with a variety of vegetables and fruits for daily meals. Taking us to visit the garden, Ms. Tham was ready to bring knives, scissors and a basket to store vegetables harvested for dinner. Appearing in front of my eyes is a beautiful and neat garden designed scientifically by Tham and her husband, both to ensure waterproofing for the terrace and for luxuriant fruit trees. Tham’s garden has everything from spinach, collard greens, collard greens, amaranth, water spinach, chives, basil… to hard-to-grow things like mosquito nets, abalone mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, chicken thighs. . In front is a truss of gourd, squash is also fruiting. In addition to vegetables, the garden is also full of flowers with 20 pots of roses, 20 pots of tropical hydrangeas, dozens of orchids, fortune-telling plants, box orchids, jasmine… In a flash, Tham has a basket of vegetables. , fruits of all kinds for dinner. Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham with a very fruity gourd is grown on her terrace garden. In order to have vegetables to eat regularly, she grows by the method of pillowing, which means that when this litter is about to die, another batch is about to be harvested. The same goes for melons, gourds, and squash, when these fruit trees begin to grow old, other fruit trees have climbed up the trellis. Ms. Tham added that, in the face of rampant dirty food on the market, which easily affects health, because she wanted to have clean vegetables for her family, in 2017 when she built this house, she also designed a garden on the yard. upper. Just like that, after finishing her job at the Ministry of Construction’s Nursing Center, she went home to take care of her garden. “There are 3 people in the family, so many times vegetables and fruits can’t be eaten, I pick them down for friends and relatives. In addition, I do more cooking at home, so I also put these clean products into serving customers,” said Tham. Mrs. Ngo Xuan Tho shows off the apple tree planted on the terrace, but it is very wrong Looking at the garden on the terrace with dangling pumpkins, bunches of apples laden with fruit, guava trees are so wrong… few would expect it to be the hand of a 74-year-old woman who still climbs 3 floors every day. Tiny, vertical stairs to the garden. The house is more than 50m2, but both generations live together, so they have to pour 3 panels and make the stairs very small to save space. Climbing to the terrace of the house I wanted to breathe, but Mrs. Ngo Xuan Tho (636/12/9 Truong Cong Dinh, Nguyen An Ninh ward, Vung Tau city) – the owner of that garden was still more agile. Ten times up and down to take care of plants, change the soil, and harvest vegetables without getting tired. Ms. Tho confided that this garden helps her to relax with old age in the city. The garden is not large, only a few tens of square meters, but she feels better thanks to it. “Every time I go to the garden to look at the vine that has grown, hug the trellis and then flower, bud, and bear fruit, I am as happy as meeting you,” said Mrs. Just like that, that small garden has been with her for nearly 20 years, every season. Ms. Tho said that at this time, the weather was rainy, so it was a bit difficult to grow vegetables, although she still had amaranth, water spinach, and cucurbits to eat all day… but the mainstay of the garden in this rainy season is fruit trees. She cherished each apple in the garden, each new ruby ​​guava with her fist, and then rejoiced when harvesting the first American figs, each strawberry brought back from Da Lat. From September onwards until Tet, when it is cold, Ms. Tho can grow kohlrabi, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower… And gourds, squash, melons, eggplants, leafy vegetables are often enough for the whole family. 5-6 people eat. “Actually, I spent tens of millions of dong to buy planter boxes, invest in an automatic irrigation system in the garden, not to mention the cost of seedlings and fertilizers… Considering the economic value, it is not necessarily cheaper. I buy vegetables from the market, but the important thing is that the garden makes me happy, my family has safe vegetables for daily meals, “said Ms. Tho. Lots of families in the city. Vung Tau also chooses to grow vegetables on the terrace to have clean vegetables for family meals. Ms. Le Thi Hai Yen (150/18 Le Loi, Thang Nhi Ward, Vung Tau City) often calls her vegetable growing place “a garden in the clouds”. Yen’s garden is small, just over 10m2, but thanks to clever placement, she can grow everything from green beans, peas, okra, bitter melon to morning glory, amaranth, and spinach. She loves flowers, so her garden also dedicates a small space to plant roses and butterfly flower pots. Rooftop gardening is gradually becoming popular in urban areas. The rooftop garden has contributed a lot to the family’s daily food, reducing a part of monthly shopping costs. For many people, gardening on the terrace is also a hobby to help them reduce stress and fatigue with daily life.