Chapter 198 Planting Sweet Potatoes
She told Mu Xi the whole process of how she made fried rice.
Mu Xi couldn't help but frown when he heard that, and both of them ate absent-mindedly during the meal.
Mu Xi ate quickly and went to the fields to continue planting rice after eating.
After Zhao Yeqing finished eating, he took the bowl to the kitchen and went back to the field to find something to do.
If you can't do it in paddy fields, you can still do it in dry land.
The corn and peanut fields that were planted the earliest are now sprouting green seedlings.
There were weeds that had just started to grow, so she squatted on the ground and weeded them manually.
Some weeds look a bit like corn seedlings, so you have to be careful not to pull the wrong ones.
Before he knew it, he had a handful of tender grass in his hand. Afraid that the grass would take root if left on the soil, Zhao Yeqing planned to take it home to feed the sheep.
But this grab is probably not enough to fill the sheep's teeth. The sheep's mouth is so big, and it's not a rabbit...
rabbit! !
Zhao Yeqing rushed to the paddy field and shouted to Mu Xi, "Mu Xi! Rabbit!!"
Their rabbits underground must have starved to death!
The last time she went to feed the rabbits, there were only three or four rabbits left in the hole. She removed the wooden board covering the hole and filled the hole with hay.
But that was four months ago.
Mu Xi was obviously stunned, and after a while he said, "Don't worry, wait until I finish planting the rice seedlings and then go and take a look. You don't have to go."
It would take a while to finish transplanting the rice seedlings, and Zhao Yeqing wanted to help, otherwise the progress would be too slow.
"Then wear thick socks and water shoes before coming down. Don't go barefoot."
Wearing water shoes to go into the fields is not as convenient as going barefoot, as the wet mud will be absorbed by her. But she didn't want to feel uncomfortable, so she obediently put on socks and shoes.
When two people work together, they can plant rice much faster.
Don't pull all the seedlings out of the seedbed at once. It's best to wait until they are planted before pulling them out.
The two men were not very skilled, and it took them nearly a day to plant half an acre of field.
Mu Xi walked out of the field, went to the fish pond to wash off the dirt on his body, put on his shoes and said, "I'll go take a look."
The small shed originally built in the rabbit pen to provide shade for the rabbits had been collapsed by the accumulated snow. Mu Xi walked straight to the hole where the rabbits were hiding and pulled away the hay stalks covering it.
The hay stalks had turned black and rotted, and most of them had collapsed into the holes.
He sniffed it first, and when he didn't smell anything bad, he lowered his head to look.
The cave was empty, with nothing in it.
Zhao Yeqing didn't dare to look closer, so he stood outside the rabbit pen and asked, "What's going on?"
Mu Xi stood up and brushed off the grass debris on his hands that had stuck to him from lying on the ground. "It's all gone."
Gone?
Zhao Yeqing was a little surprised. The rabbit hole had been covered by snow for so long, and the snow had just melted, so how could it disappear?
But this also made her feel relieved. Being gone was better than being dead.
Mu Xi cleaned out the rotten grass to prevent insects from growing when the temperature rises later.
"It seems that if we want to eat rabbits this year, we will have to catch them separately."
Zhao Yeqing thought of the increasing number of sheep and cattle at home, "If you really want to eat them, just go to the meadow and hunt two. Forget about raising them."
Otherwise, in addition to feeding the cattle, sheep and horses, you also have to find food for the rabbits.
Zhao Yeqing returned to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Mu Xi had to go to the fields again. There was still a pot of glutinous rice seedlings that had not been planted in the field. If the seedlings that had been pulled out were not planted, they would wilt tomorrow.
Just before planting the rice, I opened the water inlets of the fish pond and the glutinous rice field. Now the glutinous rice field is half full.
Mu Xi walked over and blocked the water outlet, and quickly planted the glutinous rice seedlings before it got dark.
Glutinous rice fields are almost the same size as rice fields, and a pot of seedlings is enough to cover only one row.
After the two of them filled the glutinous rice field, Mu Xi built a small pavilion with bamboo and hay beside the field.
There is a small wooden coffee table and two small bamboo chairs underneath.
Now that the weather is good, the two of them sit outside in the sun during the day to supplement calcium.
At 8:30 in the morning, the sun had already come out, and Mu Xi was squatting on the edge of the field to water the field.
The rice seedlings have just been planted, so they need to be grown slowly in the early stages to allow them time to adapt.
Water has to be released into the fields after the sun comes out at around eight or nine in the morning, and the water has to be drained after the sun sets in the evening.
It was not until early January, after the last late frost, that the two men breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that all the crops in the fields had adapted and the grass was growing vigorously.
Fortunately, the original owner's notes contained methods for dealing with frost. It said that if the rice seedlings encounter low temperatures, they need to be irrigated with a large amount of water in the field. The water level needs to be close to the top of the rice seedlings. This will play a role in keeping warm and allow the seedlings to survive the damage of frost.
After observing for a few days, Zhao Yeqing found that the climate had stabilized, so he immediately decided to plant the sweet potatoes that had already grown vines in the fields.
This time she learned from her experience and first grew sweet potato vines. She only needed to cut the vines and bury them in the soil in sections.
Most of the leaves on the sweet potato vines need to be removed to avoid affecting the rooting of the vines.
To plant sweet potatoes, ridges have to be made. The area reserved for sweet potatoes in the vegetable garden has already been dug with trenches. The two people only need to lay the sweet potato vines down one by one.
There should be more than 20 centimeters between each section. After all are placed in, cover them with soil.
The land in the sweet potato area requires special care. Like potatoes, because it is a root crop, the depth of deep plowing must be more than 30 centimeters to increase the air permeability of the soil.
Sweet potatoes are drought-resistant, so you don’t need to water them too much in the early stages. You need to irrigate them with fertilizer once when they are just planted, and then check them every three or four days. If the weather is particularly dry, you need to water them lightly.
Mu Xi ticked the sweet potato planting plan in Zhao Yeqing's notebook, "The only thing left is soybean planting."
If the weather remains stable, we can plant soybeans in the middle of the month.
Zhao Yeqing stretched lazily and said, "I can rest for half a month."
Now the two of them sit in the sun and chat every day, occasionally weeding or going out with Dahuang and the others to herd sheep.
Now is the most leisurely time for farmers.
If they didn't have to raise cattle and sheep, the two of them would have more free time.
"It will take a long time for the grass to grow. I'm afraid the feed at home may not be enough."
Mu Xi kicked the grass sprouts growing on the meadow under his feet and said, "The weeds on this meadow grow relatively fast. Let's go to the mountains and find some wild grass to feed on. It should be able to last until the grass is harvested."
The temperature has just started to warm up, and neither of them has been to the mountains yet.
"I think the wild vegetables in the mountains have grown in the past few days. I'll find some time to bring back for a snack."
Zhao Yeqing remembered that when she first returned to the mountains, she had spent a most normal spring. Now she didn't know whether those wild vegetables could still grow, and she hoped that the seeds would not be frozen to death.
"Wait a little longer, wait until the next rain before going."
Except for the rain during the late spring cold snap, it has been sunny since then, with only two cloudy days occasionally.
Mu Xi pulled a blade of grass and chewed it for fun. "After the rain, maybe everything will grow."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
