Born in Vinh Long and now moving to Da Nang, Ms. Thi Loan always wished to have a Western-style garden, so she decided to go to the “reclaimed” terrace.

Two years ago, Ms. Loan, 40 years old, in Da Nang City started gardening on the terrace of the fifth floor, 100 m2 wide because she wanted to have clean meals and fruits for her family and realize her dream of having a bold living space. home West.

At first, the restaurant owner carried soil and fertilizer to the terrace by stairs, but after finding that she couldn’t handle it, she asked her husband to use a winch to pull it up.

When she first had a garden, Loan only grew vegetables and gourds, squash and melons. On social networks, she saw that there were many gardening associations that could grow kale, melons, corn, tomatoes… so she started to plant and learn.

In the winter-spring crop, when the weather is cool, she grows lettuce and other green vegetables. In particular, the owner of the garden gives priority to planting different varieties of tomatoes, bitter melon (bitter gourd), cucumber, cucurbit…

In the hot summer, she prioritizes growing Korean melons, melons, cucumbers… and leafy vegetables.

Because of her passion for gardening, the landlady took advantage of her time to do every step, from mixing the soil, fertilizing, cutting branches… From an inexperienced person, Thi Loan gradually conquered difficult crops. “There are days when I give up eating and sleeping because I want to grow my favorite plants after many failures,” she said.

For example, in the first crop of melons, the trees died en masse. “Melon is very sensitive to pathogens. In the morning, it still looks green, at noon, it withers and dies slowly. Today 1-2 plants die, tomorrow 5-6 plants die due to nematodes, fungi, powdery mildew, aphids, bed bugs… But at that time, I didn’t know what the cause was,” Loan said.

After days of groping on research groups, the gardener pulled out all the melons and worked the soil thoroughly to clean up the pathogens. She sprays disease prevention with Neem oil every 10 days. According to Ms. Loan, when it comes to prevention, fungi and pests, even if they are, are not strong enough to harm the tree.

“In addition to treating the soil with lime powder and then drying it, spraying it with preventive medicine, fertilizing it with the right dose and planting it in the right season, when growing melons , you must know how to cut off the side paddles, press the tops at the right time, choose short-term varieties and disease resistance”, the gardener revealed.

Ms. Loan cut 500 liter drums in half to grow Korean melons. One pot can grow 10 plants, each tree about 5-7 fruits, each fruit about 300-700 g. “Melons are sweet, cool, especially the feeling of eating melons that I grow is very refreshing,” she said.

After many trial plantings, Ms. Loan found that Hana, Japan strawberries are the easiest to grow, easy to care for and bear the most fruit. At the end of the rainy season, mid-September of the lunar calendar is the right time to buy and plant strawberries. About a month, the tree begins to bear fruit. When strawberries flower, she often adds potassium, pruning old leaves to save nutrition for fruit.

Kale is one of the vegetables that are grown a lot in Loan’s garden. Land for vegetable cultivation is 50% of meat soil, 50% of a mixture of ash, rice husk, coir, lime powder, cow dung. Garden owners compost fish, kitchen waste, dilute and water every 3-10 days, depending on the number of plants in a pot.

Purple American lettuce, Ms. Loan has grown it for two seasons, finds the plant easy to care for, sweet and crispy. Lettuce is planted in the winter-spring crop, after the rain stops, seeds and seedlings are planted. The pot should be wide and easy to drain. About 10 days to half a month, she fertilizes her vegetables with chicken pellets.

This is the fourth crop that Loan grows cucumbers, like V1-103 in the garden. According to her, this is an easy-to-grow melon variety, with few pests and diseases, and very fruity. When the cucumbers are half a meter tall, they begin to pick up the first row to the sixth row. Row the seventh and onwards whichever is healthy, keep it to bear fruit. During the fruiting period, regular water and nutrients must be provided to the tree.

From the day of gardening, Ms. Loan hardly has to buy fruits and vegetables, both saving costs and eating clean vegetables every day. “Gardening is great, but because I like it, it’s very fun, the most fun is to see the results after each successful planting of a new variety,” she said.