Once the weeds in the wasteland are cleared, it's time to loosen the soil.
This wasteland had been unused for years, overgrown with weeds. The plant roots were deeply embedded in the soil, growing very firmly, making loosening the soil much more troublesome than weeding.
The next morning, after Zhou Chenyu and Li Xiuju finished breakfast, they went to Grandma Wang's house, which was not far away, to borrow a hoe and two shovels, one for each of them.
Li Xiuju's right foot was injured, so she couldn't use the shovel properly. Instead, she took a hoe, while Zhou Chenyu and Zhou Baoyu took the shovel.
Starting from the side closest to the house wall, each person was responsible for a section. Li Xiuju faced the area with the most rubble, raised her hoe, dug into the soil, loosened a patch of soil, scraped the rubble aside, cleaned up that patch, and continued loosening the soil.
Baoyu held the shovel in both hands, aimed at the spot, stepped on the top of the shovel, and dug out a piece of black soil.
The shovel reached Zhou Chenyu's chest. She watched Baoyu handle it with ease and thought it would be easy to use. She stepped on it with all her might, but the shovel was aimed at a hard rock. In addition, the soles of her shoes were thin, and it almost cut her toes in half.
"Ouch, my foot!" Zhou Chenyu hopped up on one foot in pain, like a badger leaping around in a melon patch. "It hurts so much!"
Zhou Baoyu laughed so hard he almost fell over. "Hahaha, sister, you're so silly."
"Your sister is in so much pain, and you silly child don't even know to help her." Li Xiuju quickly dropped the hoe, walked over, and slapped him on the back of the head. "Chenyu, are you alright?"
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" Zhou Chenyu was helped to the side, and Li Xiuju took off her shoes and rubbed her for a long time. "Does it still hurt?"
Zhou Chenyu looked at the dirty feet and felt disgusted with them, but Li Xiuju didn't care at all and was full of worry.
She shook her head. "Hmm, it doesn't hurt as much anymore."
"Then sit down and rest, and we'll take our time to finish."
Li Xiuju returned to her original spot and continued hoeing the ground.
Zhou Chenyu's foot wasn't injured, and after resting for a while, she was basically fine. She put on her shoes and picked up the shovel again.
Later, she learned to be smarter. She would first push the stone in with her hand to see if there were any stones stuck there, and then she would use her feet. After that, it became much easier for her to do the work.
The hoeing only took one day, but loosening the soil took three days. After loosening the soil, and with further repairs by Li Xiuju, the originally large, contiguous plot of land was divided into seven square vegetable plots, each one meter wide and seven or eight meters long. In addition, Li Xiuju went to other places and carried several loads of more fertile soil to spread on the surface.
Li Xiuju was covered in sweat, but when she saw the cleaned vegetable garden, a smile appeared on her weathered face. "The vegetable seeds have been soaked. We'll plant them tomorrow, and in a while, we'll be able to eat the vegetables we grow ourselves."
Zhou Chenyu didn't understand any of this. "Can you grow vegetables like this? No need for fertilizer? No need for watering?"
"Silly girl, who fertilizes vegetables first? If you fertilize first, won't all the seeds be soaked in fertilizer?" Li Xiuju took the shovel, ready to return it to its owner. "You two siblings haven't rested these past few days, so leave the seed-burying to me."
"No, no, no, I want to grow vegetables too!" Zhou Chenyu hopped over to Li Xiuju's side, showing an extremely strong interest in growing vegetables.
Although she had never grown a single vegetable in her life, after being tortured by the 996 work schedule, she dreamed of saving enough money to go back to her hometown, rent a piece of land, and grow some vegetables that she liked to eat.
To prepare, she watched many programs on the agricultural channel.
However, in modern cities, land is incredibly valuable. Let alone having such a large plot of land to grow vegetables, it's already quite nice if the house you buy has a small balcony.
Zhou Chenyu never expected that this extravagant wish would actually be fulfilled here. "Grandma, I'll help you out."
Seeing Zhou Chenyu's initiative, Li Xiuju couldn't help but smile. "That's good. I was too naive. After all, she's a girl. If she learns to cook and farm, her in-laws won't be able to find fault with her after she marries into her husband's family."
Isn't this kind of vegetable cultivation a gene hidden in the bones of the Chinese people?
She farms for herself, not for others.
My in-laws are nobody.
Zhou Chenyu was too lazy to refute, and smiled shyly, which made Li Xiuju believe it.
The next day, Li Xiuju and Zhou Chenyu took the seeds and began planting vegetables.
Li Xiuju made two small wooden rakes and used them to rake the surface of the vegetable patch. "Just do it like your mother does, rake away a thin layer of soil, then scatter the seeds on top, and then cover the soil back up."
"Like this?" Zhou Chenyu demonstrated it on the spot, humbly asking for guidance.
"No, no." Li Xiuju picked up some of the seeds she had dropped. "Don't throw them so densely, otherwise the vegetables won't have room to grow."
"Oh, I understand." Zhou Chenyu did it again with a silly look on his face, and Li Xiuju nodded with a smile, "Yes, that's perfect."
Like a child in kindergarten who had just received a red flower as a reward, Zhou Chenyu worked diligently, raking the ground and sowing seeds. She was agile and quickly finished planting the seeds in her hands, but before she had had enough fun, she asked, "Grandma, is there anything else I want to plant?"
Seeing her eagerness to try, Li Xiuju gave her the remaining seeds, saying, "You plant this plot of land, and I'll fetch some water from the stream at the foot of the mountain to irrigate it."
"Okay, leave it to me, no problem."
After Zhou Chenyu finished sowing the seeds, he saw Li Xiuju returning with a bucket, so he also grabbed another bucket and started making a ruckus.
Li Xiuju smiled and quickly stopped her, "The seeds were just planted, this bucket of water is enough."
Before the rice seedlings were planted, the chickens and ducks in the village were all free-range. The ducks liked to spend all day pecking at food in the paddy fields, while the chickens preferred to roam freely across the hills and fields.
Chickens often roam around in this wasteland behind the house, which is why Li Xiuju was able to find eggs a while ago.
If you don't want the vegetables to be eaten by chickens, you definitely have to fence them off. Small bamboo is the best material. There are large bamboo forests at the foot of the mountain behind the wasteland, so you can use the materials directly from the ground.
You can ruin her food, but you can't ruin her vegetables.
Zhou Chenyu and Baoyu sharpened their knives, ready to strike the bamboo.
She was in charge of cutting bamboo. When she chopped down on the smooth, green bamboo, the blade scraped against the surface and made a piercing sound, like scraping foam board. It gave her goosebumps.
Zhou Chenyu was powerless to carry that huge bundle of bamboo, so he could only find two pieces of scrap cloth to make earplugs, which made him feel much better.
After the bamboo was cut down, Baoyu quickly tied it together and carried it to the vegetable garden.
After Li Xiuju got the bamboo, she inserted it vertically along the edge of the vegetable garden, one after another, without leaving any gaps. Then, she further reinforced it by inserting it horizontally in the middle, like threading a needle.
A small vegetable garden was thus formed.
After holding a shovel and knife for several days, the calluses on Zhou Chenyu's palms grew stronger, but fortunately, everything paid off.
Zhou Chenyu looked at the vegetable garden, which was still bare black soil, and a smile spread across her face.
From now on, she will have a vegetable garden too.
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