CZECH Anh Duong Thanh Dien has renovated a land of more than 100 m2 full of stones, into a garden with dozens of Vietnamese vegetables and fruits.

In the Czech Republic for more than 14 years, Mr. Dien has always wanted to grow a garden full of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables to live in the space of his hometown. Two years ago, when he bought his own house with a garden, he began to fulfill his wish.

He divided the garden into small areas to improve the land accordingly. For example, apple melon needs a lot of calcium, bitter melon, squash needs a lot of protein… “The garden is mostly gravel. It took me the first year just to process the soil, add nutrients and plant a test. Summer of this year. Now it’s just starting to grow,” said Mr. Dien.

Europe’s weather is harsh, summer only lasts from May to August (temperature 15-30 degrees Celsius). This year alone, there are only two weeks of warm sunshine, the rests are storms and hail. Mr. Dien has to grow plants in the nursery from April, wait until mid-May to bring them to the garden.

However, if you take the tree out a day early, it will die in cold weather, and it will also die from hail. Once, when the melon was preparing to pollinate, the flowers fell off after two spots of rain. You have to cover the male flower with plastic wrap before it blooms and then uses that flower to pollinate.

As the owner of a mini supermarket, he is quite busy, only starting to garden from 7 pm to midnight. After the tree died due to the weather, due to spraying the wrong kind of medicine, he harvested the first Vietnamese fruit trees in the Czech land.

Mr. Dien grows all kinds of gourds, squash, and melons by the hydroponic method. The garden owner mixes rainwater with hydroponic solution, measuring the nutrient concentration according to the formula of each plant to grow. Gourds when harvested weigh 4-6 kg each, squash 7-9 kg, 90-115 cm long.

Normally, it takes 4-5 days for his family to eat a pumpkin. Apple melons usually weigh about 700g – 1.2kg, but Mr. Dien’s garden has young fruit weighing 1.7kg. Bitter melon also weighs nearly 0.5 kg/fruit, just one fruit is enough for a meal.

The gardener has to make a hammock or fix the fruit with a rope to prevent it from falling because it is too heavy. “The most important factor is how to care. If the soil is well improved, and the nutrients are added in reasonable stages, it is not surprising that the fruit is large,” he said.

Hydroponic water spinach is the pride of Mr. Dien. The water spinach growing area is only two square meters, but the harvest is nearly 5 kg each time. “Vegetables do not need to be cared for, once sown seeds to eat all summer, harvest once every 10-15 days,” he revealed.

Four tomato plants are harvested in the summer, but the owner has fruit to eat all year round thanks to the vacuum method, stored in the freezer.

Mr. Dien calculates money to invest in the garden from 2020 to now, his family can buy vegetables for 5-6 years. “But being able to eat homegrown vegetables grown by hand in the middle of the country and help children understand more about their father’s culture, money cannot buy,” he said. Follow vnexpress

Photo: Tony Duong Cz