With the book Sustainable gardening for Dummies , Donna Ellis offers readers an endless passion for gardening, and most of all, sustainable gardening. The book becomes more relevant during the free time of the epidemic season. Sustainable Gardening for Dummies by Donna Ellis. Photo: CARD What is “sustainable gardening”? The concept of “sustainability” has been mentioned a lot in recent times, but not everyone understands its application. The title of the book introduced the problem, then went into depth analysis of the aspects of “sustainable gardening” in the following sections: Basic understanding of sustainable gardening, sustainable garden design, construction Building healthy habits in a sustainable space, growing sustainable trees… Donna Ellis points out that “sustainable” means making the most of what we have and conserving all our precious natural resources, benefiting the planet, without harming the environment. Not only trees, but soil, water, and all care and irrigation activities can have a good or bad impact on the Earth. Understanding that, the author provides readers with information from general to in-depth, ranging from garden design, plant varieties, to soil analysis methods and formulas to determine the appropriate capacity. for the water tank. In particular, Donna Ellis confessed that she was a person who used to “rely on chemicals”, causing harm to the environment. Through the book, she reminds readers to limit the use of chemical fertilizers; instead, “take care of and protect the tree in a nature-friendly way”. Gardening in a small space Many people, especially those who live in the city “the land is tight, the people are crowded”, often say: “I only have a small yard, so I certainly can’t do anything”. They did not know that “just a small potted plant on the windowsill, a coriander plant is already a garden”. The book is designed in a smart structure so that anyone, from beginners to those who have been taking care of the garden for many years, can easily grasp the information and apply it right away. For example, readers can choose the topic “Designing a Sustainable Garden” (part 2) to learn how to create a space to grow plants on a small area of ​​​​land. The garden may be small, but the benefits it brings to the family and nature are huge. In addition, Donna Ellis provides interesting side-by-side insights and detailed reference figures. All are presented in a scientific way, easy to help readers grasp. If you are a nature lover, interested in environmental issues or simply want to start gardening then Sustainable gardening for Dummies is a handbook that should not be ignored, especially during this epidemic season. A small garden can improve the mood for gardeners, making the living space comfortable and pleasant, especially without taking too much effort to worry and take care of. Sustainable gardening changes not only people’s lives, but the planet’s. The book with suggestions and easy-to-follow tips, gives readers a passion for gardening and practical lessons to have a sustainable garden where plants and people can live happily, healthy.

According to people in Vinh Chau, if the time of planting onions to keep seeds starts from April and May of the lunar calendar, the commercial onion crop (the main production crop) falls around September of the lunar calendar, lasting until after Tet about 2 months. , 3 months. Due to the short life cycle, every year, people grow onions continuously for 3 to 4 crops. First, about onions, people carefully choose dark purple bulbs, firm, do not grow young roots, round bottoms, no signs of pests. After that, people peeled the top shell and planted it. The volume of onion seed corresponding to about 1,000 m2 of arable land is 70-90 kg. In terms of soil, because this type of agricultural product does not like water, when making land, people often make high beds to avoid waterlogging. In addition, people always focus on growing onions, which must fall in the rainy months to avoid tuber rot. After planting, farmers cover a thin layer of straw on top and then water to create enough moisture for the soil beds. After about 2 months of planting, when the onion leaves turn red, wilt and fall on the bed, farmers will harvest. For easy transportation, people pull up onions and then dry the whole plant for about 2 to 3 days for the leaves to dry completely, limiting leaf rot that affects the tubers. Fertilizer formula can be changed according to the soil, weather and green color of onions. If the onion is bad, you should water it with SA or DAP to make the leaves and roots grow, don’t water the leaves will stretch out (cow onion) to create difficult tubers. In terms of care, in the first 10 days watering 1 to 2 times / day, 11 days onward watering every 2 days, the amount of water changed from 1,000 m2 / time (400 to 600 liters / time) and stopped watering completely. 1 week before harvest. The amount of water must be increased steadily, if watering irregularly, the tubers will be torn. Weeding twice in the first 35 days, avoiding late pulling of onions will cause damage to roots and tubers. Spray regularly, especially in bad weather. While growing purple onions often appear major pests such as omnivorous worms, green worms, onion flies (onion borer maggots) … need to spray insecticides alternately with microbiological drugs, to prevent reaching effective. In the period of 55 to 60 days, the tubers turn red, the leaves have fallen 80%, then start pulling, usually 2 to 3 days in the sun to soften the leaves for easy transportation. Onions should be harvested only on dry days. Pull out the tubers to keep the soil clean, put them in a basket and transfer to a place of storage, to avoid scratching or crushing the outer skin, which will affect the storage period. For onions produced in February and March of the solar calendar, to keep as seeds, harvest 40 to 45 days after planting (old bulbs stop growing so they can be damaged for a long time). How to preserve: sun-dried for 10 to 15 days, the straw is really dry, must be free of pests and diseases, piled high, covered with a layer of straw for every layer of onion, the straw is in the open air, or hangs a bunch of onions in a well-ventilated place .

“On flowers, under flowers” The two sides of the road leading to the center of Tan Tru town (Tan Tru district, Long An province) are dragon fruit gardens, green rice fields. In particular, many gardens are covered with vacant land with colorful carpet of ten o’clock flowers. On these gardens, people do not let the dragon fruit beds grow weeds or leave them empty. Instead, they planted many varieties of ten o’clock flowers of different colors and sizes of flowers. Hung’s dragon fruit beds are covered with colorful flowers ten o’clock. Many kinds of flowers in ten o’clock with colors purple, pink, red, yellow … are planted along the straight rows of dragon fruit by the garden owner. Only a few days, this flower with vigorous vitality has covered the bare land on the soil of dragon fruit cultivation. When the flower is ten o’clock not yet flowering, from a distance, these dragon fruit gardens are like a jade green carpet. At the time of blooming, the green carpet turns into a “checkerboard” with red, purple, and yellow stripes from the ten o’clock flowers. The soil is rich in nutrients, so the flowers at ten o’clock grow very well, giving flowers dense, large flowers, eye-catching colors. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hung (45 years old, living in Tan Tru district), the owner of a dragon fruit garden intercropped with flowers for ten hours, said he planted this flower in the garden all year round. “The moment the dragon blooms, under the tree, the flowers will produce flowers at ten o’clock. It can be said, at this time, my dragon fruit garden “on flowers under flowers” looks very eye-catching. Not far from Hung’s newly harvested orchard is a field with a dragon fruit garden in bloom. This place is also covered by garden owners with ten o’clock flowers for yellow, purple, red flowers … Anh Hung said that the ten-hour planting of flowers in the dragon fruit garden is very simple. “The land of Tan Tru is very much like ten o’clock, the garden owner just needs to ask for trees to cut them into small pieces and spread them on the garden. After a few days, ten o’clock will cover the soil and give brilliant flowers”, shared Hung. Seen from the road surface, the green dragon fruit garden stands out with purple, red, and yellow dots from the ten o’clock flower. In particular, small waterways for watering dragon fruits are also covered by this vibrant flower, blooming yellow flowers. Against weeds, creating landscape Near noon, ten o’clock flowers bloom brightly, covering the dirt trench between the rows of dragon fruit trees to form a long long strip of pink. Anh Hung said, normally, dragon fruit garden owners only use straw to cover and cover around the base of dragon fruits. The upper soil, between the beds, is often left empty by the garden owner, and weeds are overgrown. “Instead of letting weeds grow, absorbing the nutrients of the dragon fruit, I plant the flowers for ten hours. This flower is easy to grow, thrive without the need for care and fertilizer. Just planting for a while, they have grown into a carpet, covering the bare land so that weeds cannot grow ”, shared Mr. Hung. At the time of the flowering of the dragon fruit, together with the ten o’clock flower, the field of planting this fruit tree creates a very special “flower under the flower” scene. According to him, this is an effective, inexpensive and very safe way to combat weeds because there is no need to use chemical drugs to kill weeds. “In addition, planting flowers for ten hours on such soil beds is also for the purpose of making plants and dragon fruit clean, not clinging to soil or swollen. Because, when the flowers cover the bare land, the rain falls, the earth and mud do not shoot up, they stay on the body, flower, and dragon fruit ”, Mr. Hung added. Local people said that at any time of the year, almost the dragon fruit garden next to Hung’s house was also brilliant at ten o’clock. Even the garden is so beautiful that many people jokingly say it is a flower garden, not an orchard. Seen from the road surface, this field of dragon fruit stands out with the tiny yellow, purple and red dots from the ten o’clock flower. Hung said: “I plant flowers in the dragon fruit garden all year round, so there are always flowers to see. When the fruit is harvested, the flowers grow to cover the path. If I feel bad, I can use my hand to move the ten o’clock rope to pick dragon fruits ”. “If unfortunately not preserved, the flowers are damaged, then after a few days, they grow again, giving normal flowers. Due to the planting of flowers in the dragon fruit garden, there are ditches for irrigation and sufficient nutrition, so the flowers at ten o’clock grow very well, giving big flowers and beautiful colors, ”added Mr. Hung. The small trench used to water dragon fruits is also covered with ten o’clock yellow flowers, creating a beautiful landscape. Local people said that more and more garden owners planted this flower in the dragon fruit garden. This is both effective against weeds and creates a beautiful landscape at almost no cost. A local resident shared: “Every day, walking on this road has very beautiful moments. Early in the morning, when the ten o’clock flower is not yet blooming, the road looks like splitting the immense green patch of rice fields and dragon fruit gardens. Near noon, when the ten o’clock flower beds in the dragon fruit garden bloom, the pedestrians seem to be walking in the middle of a colorful flower garden. Currently, more and more people grow flowers for ten hours in dragon fruit gardens. Posts, photos, clips: Nguyen Son