The Garden Life of a Little Gardener

Zhou Quan and Chef Bao went through the procedures for the new house very quickly. After the house payment was paid in full, they handed over the required procedures and handling fees to the developer, and made an agreement with the other party that they could get the real estate certificate within six months.

With a new house, Zhou Quan once asked Chef Bao about the decoration, and the other party's answer was that it is too late now, and we will wait until spring.

Hearing this, Zhou Quan breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, no matter what, the most suitable time for renovation next year will be March or April, so that he can decorate with Brother Baoyan together.

After returning to Liangxing Village, the weather gradually cooled down at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The plants are dry and the leaves are falling. When I got up early, the ground outside the yard actually started to frost. When people were talking outside, white water vapor began to appear, floating out like fog.

People in the village have already started to put on winter clothes, cotton-padded clothes, cotton-padded clothes, and cotton-padded trousers. Some elderly people have already found out their down jackets and put them on.

Now the mushrooms on the mountain have long since disappeared, and all the medicinal materials are withered, even the medicinal herbs with roots can no longer be found, because they are all covered in the ground by thick dead branches and leaves, sleeping quietly, waiting Sprout again next year.

What can be seen on the mountain today are only those Chinese pine trees that persist in keeping green, and the Chinese pine towers that no one wants to pay attention to when they fall on the ground.

Under this situation and the weather, fewer and fewer people are willing to travel, and the business of both homestays and farmhouses will inevitably be affected.

Now even in Baojia B&B, there are more than half of the empty rooms on a daily basis. Only on weekends, there will be waves of guests who come to enjoy the food and experience the farmhouse's kang.

Because this has been estimated for a long time, the villagers who run the farmhouse are not panicked about it. Anyway, they can still receive some guests every day, but they no longer stay, but come in the morning to pick flowers in the morning and eat at noon. This is just a day trip.

For tourists who no longer stay here overnight, the room rate will be charged at half price. Originally, this was a helpless choice, but as the passenger flow of day trips began to stabilize, this project has become the main source of income for the farmhouse when it is not available.

In stark contrast to the farmhouse are the newly built flower sheds on the mountain, and the fine roses planted in them have now reached a critical stage.

Pruning, trimming, and strengthening insulation require a lot of human labor in the greenhouse every day.

The flower shed owners who went to the farmhouse as part-time tour guides in the summer remembered the help from the villagers at that time, so when they needed manpower and had the opportunity to earn extra money, they chose to hire those who ran the farmhouse without hesitation. folks.

Mutual assistance, mutual benefit and mutual support, a well-planned circle gradually took shape.

Finished the pruning of the roses in his flower shed that day, Zhou Quan and his hired assistants rushed home before the sun went down.

When going down the mountain, someone glanced at the opposite mountain ridge and found that there was still a light there, so he couldn't help but asked suspiciously: "It's so late, is there anyone on the west mountain?"

It's no wonder that some villagers ask this question, because the mountains on the west side of the mountain are full of old flower sheds built in the past by some villages.

At that time, in order to save costs, almost two-thirds of the flower sheds on the mountain were built with plastic greenhouses. The insulation performance of these greenhouses was not high, and the roses planted in October could only enter a dormant state.

Every year, when the temperature in the plastic greenhouse cannot maintain the normal growth of the rose in the shed, the owner of the flower shed will cut off the above-ground branches of the rose, leaving only a height of 3 to 5 cm from the soil layer to ensure that the rose grows well. You can survive the winter safely.

In half of the cases, the winter dormancy work of the rose will be completed at the end of October or the beginning of November. Now it is the middle of November, and the work is indeed a bit late.

The energy stored in the root system of roses that dormant too late will be scattered in the branches and leaves in vain, which is not conducive to the germination of roses in the next year. There are old flower farmers in Liangxing Village. It stands to reason that such common-sense mistakes should not be made.

Chen Wenli, who was called to help, looked back at Xishan when he heard the words, carefully looked at the position of the light and said: "It's the flower shed of Uncle Baoquan's family. Their family opened a farmhouse this year, and the business is pretty good. The flower shed Bian must have been negligent."

Hearing this, Chen Youxin waved his hand and said, "It's okay. Their family has decided to focus on running the farmhouse in the future. Those flower sheds are reserved for entertaining guests and will no longer be sold to outsiders. Fortunately, there are fewer customers now. If it's like summer At that time, we didn’t have the support of the cardinals in the plastic shed, let alone selling it to the outside world, maybe even the guests who came to play couldn’t be satisfied.”

"Hearing what you said, I'm a little worried about New Year's Day and New Year's Day. Ah Quan said that at that time, the whole family will be reunited. Our village's business model is suitable for family outings. There will definitely be many guests coming. Now we are in the plastic greenhouse on the mountain. All the roses have entered a dormant period, and the only ones that allow tourists to go in and pick them are the old solar greenhouses, but the amount of flowers in the remaining solar greenhouses is not even one-third of that in summer, is it enough? Are you using it? What if it’s not enough?”

Hearing someone say this, other people in the same industry couldn't help worrying. The original mushroom picking and herbal identification projects were gone, and the ice play project was only under planning, and they didn't know what the effect would be after implementation.

Now there is only flower picking in the entire farmhouse. If even this cannot satisfy tourists, what else can the farmhouse do to attract business?Can't it really turn into a local restaurant in the end?

Those who are worried have big hearts. The man walking in the front of the line listened to the crowd behind him and said optimistically with the tools on his shoulders: "What is there to worry about? Listen to the words of the village. That’s it? We’ve been doing things according to the ideas of the village all these years. When did we suffer? Anyway, I don’t have so many ideas. I only know that the village chief is dedicated to the village. I can make money by doing things obediently, so I don’t in a hurry."

The person who spoke was not well-educated, and the farthest place he had ever been to in his life was his wife's natal home in the next town.

As a representative of the village with limited knowledge and limited vision, this person has his own way of survival. He is a staunch supporter of Chen Youde. He is sure that the village chief is doing the right thing, and he is right to follow, so after so many years, it is also No worries about food and clothing, a virtuous wife and a filial son.

The villagers who knew what kind of character he was were snickering, but before they could say anything, the loudspeaker in the village started broadcasting: "Everyone has an idea, every villager has an idea, tomorrow at nine o'clock in the morning at the threshing ground Open the village representative assembly, please remember to attend on time. Let me talk about it..."

The radio broadcasted three times in a row, and after confirming that everyone in the village should be able to hear it, the broadcast was suspended.

Upon hearing this, Chen Youxin immediately grabbed the tall man who was walking beside him and asked, "Wen Li, do you know why your father wants to hold a village meeting?"

"Uncle Youxin, I don't know what my dad is going to do. He never discusses with me about the affairs of the village. Instead of asking me, you should ask Ah Quan. He must know more than me."

After hearing the words, everyone shifted their eyes to Zhouquan, vaguely knowing why. After thinking about it, Zhouquan said, "Probably because of the farmhouse in the village and the problems of tourists. I don't know the specifics."

As soon as he finished speaking, he stood on the hillside and saw a small truck pulling coal driving along the village road. It seemed that the target was the second floor of Zhou's small house and the old house of Bao's house in the village.

Heating is the most important thing in winter in Northeast China, especially in the countryside. If there is no kang stove, in the weather that can easily be minus [-] or [-] degrees, you don’t know if you can wake up in the morning after going to bed at night.

The same is true of Baojia and Zhouquan, so from mid-October, Chef Bao has been busy for the winter of the homestay.

Ordinary people’s method of burning straw for the winter is not feasible for homestays, because the heat is too low and it is inconvenient to use.

When the weather is not too cold, you can still make a living. Once it enters November, in order to ensure the temperature in the guest room, burning coal is the best way.

Originally, Chef Bao had already bought coal, but unfortunately he underestimated the consumption. It is estimated that a month's coal can be burned in [-] days. Today's coal truck must be here to replenish.

Remembering that all the money at home was collected by himself, it was inevitable that the coal trucks going to the local area would not be able to receive the payment for the goods. Zhou Quan hurriedly ran up and said: "I have something to do at the homestay, I'll go back first, Erlong, Uncle Youxin, the villagers will finish opening tomorrow After the meeting, I have to trouble you to help me come over to give Hua a haircut."

"Success, we remember you to go."

When Zhou Quan was panting and ran back to the hotel to pay, he was surprised to find that there was more than one car waiting for his payment.

Just behind the coal truck, there were two agricultural tricycles transporting Chinese cabbage. While the coal truck was unloading, Chef Bao was directing the cabbage truck to drive towards the open space next to the house.

"Yes, that's over there. Stop there to transport the cabbage. Squeeze as much as possible to make room for some space. I have to buy green onions and garlic tomorrow."

After paying the money on the coal cart, looking at the cabbage spread all over the yard, Zhou Quan leaned over to Chef Bao and asked, "Brother Baoyan, are you going to store vegetables for the winter?"

"No, these cabbages are for accumulating sauerkraut. We have to wait for the stored winter vegetables. The cabbages in this cart are all white stalks, which are suitable for accumulating sauerkraut. The cabbage with green stalks is delicious when hidden."

In the era of scarcity of materials, the cabbage, potatoes, radishes, green onions stored in autumn and some dried vegetables are the main vegetables in the Northeast in winter.

Whenever these vegetables are on the market on a large scale, people pull them home one by one, and then on the window sills in the corridors in front of and behind the houses, there are vegetables that have been dried out.

Now that the living conditions are better, it is very convenient to eat vegetables in winter, but the habit of storing vegetables for the winter has been preserved to this day.

Hearing this, Zhou Quan looked at the coal piled up in the warehouse, looked at the cabbage spread on the ground not far away, and thought about the green onions and garlic that Brother Baoyan wanted to buy back, and the pickles that had just been pickled in the big vat for a while. Caitou, he deeply felt that winter was really getting closer and closer to them.