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My Hien started growing vegetables and fruits from Tet, without using pesticides and always harvesting a basket of vegetables and fruits.
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| With about 100 plastic cans available, Ms. My Hien (Can Tho) has turned the space on the 5th floor of her family into a terrace vegetable garden, providing clean vegetables and organic fruits for the whole family. |
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| In her 84 m2 terrace garden, there are vegetables and fruits including: green cabbage, cucumber, okra, bitter melon, broccoli, broccoli, cowpea, watermelon, chili… |
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| Talking about her chance to become an ‘urban farmer’, Ms. Hien shared: ‘On New Year’s Day, I saw cabbages in the market and came up with the idea of planting trees on the terrace. I bought 4 pots for 100 thousand VND, trees cost 25,000 VND/plant. Due to lack of experience and tools, Hien’s trees gradually died, leaving only one tree. |
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| Experiencing failure, but Hien was not discouraged, she continued to try to grow broccoli and lettuce and achieved success. Therefore, she is determined to stick with growing vegetables so that the whole family can enjoy clean food. Ms. Hien grows vegetables and fruits up to 90% in plastic cans, 5% foam boxes, about 5% of trays and pots. Explaining about growing vegetables and fruits in plastic cans, she said: ‘I have plastic cans at home, so I make use of growing vegetables. Moreover, I also saw on the internet that people can grow vegetables in water bottles, so I thought it is also possible to grow vegetables in plastic cans. The cans also help to make the garden beautiful and strange’. |
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| From 10 plastic cans, now her garden has up to 100 cans to grow vegetables and fruits. |
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| Hien also appreciates that plastic cans have many advantages because of their light weight, ease of movement, and need to be replaced in 1 – 1.5 years. |
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| The plastic cans are placed on bricks by Ms. Hien, with 6 holes drilled at the bottom to drain water. After sowing and planting, Ms. Hien uses straw to cover the sun and keep the plants moist. |
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| Among the vegetables and fruits, Hien likes to grow cabbage the most because when they grow, they look like a blue rose. Hien’s garden has almost no worms, except for cabbage. Whenever she sees a worm, she will use scissors to remove it. |
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| ‘I also like dangling watermelons and making hammocks to support them. Look very cute,’ Hien shared. |
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| The stage of soil preparation is done carefully by her, mixing the soil with manure and bagasse to help loosen the soil. For cabbage, Ms. Hien often fertilizes NPK to help the vegetables grow well. As for the short-term vegetables, she does not need to fertilize, just watering because the soil is good. Sometimes she uses banana juice to provide more nutrients to the plants. |
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| The result of a one-time harvest of Ms. Hien. Hien usually spends 3 times a day watering the plants. Her husband used to want to install an automatic irrigation system to save her trouble, but she refused because each plant needs a different amount of water. |
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| Heavy eggplant in the terrace garden of Ms. Hien. Hien’s 3 children also love to work with their mother to take care of the garden and help her catch worms in the garden. |
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| My Hien – the author of the terrace garden. |
