去年在后院种植果瓜蔬菜的收获与付出都很可观，心心念要把这段体验做个总结。这几天趁新冠二阳在家，终于把这个心愿完成了。😊

作为人生第一次种植蔬菜和水果的新手，对2022年的收获还是挺知足的。毕竟初衷只是想改变后院的杂草猛窜的地带。邻居把后院打理的精致又充满生机，也给了我们不少压力。在辛辛那提居住时，经常能吃到好友父母种植的有机新鲜蔬菜，当时也留下了“羡慕的种子”。

I have always wanted to summarize the harvest and efforts we got & spent last year at our backyard. I was too busy to do it until I infected COVID again. I had to stay and relax at home. Luckily, the symptoms were not very serious. It was a chance for me to fulfil this wish.

As a new amateur of planting, I am quite satisfied with the harvest in 2022. After all, the original purposes were to change the wild weed infestation in the backyard. The exquisite and vibrant maintenance of our neighbor’s backyard has also given us a lot of pressure. Besides, I often ate organic fresh vegetables grown by my friend's parents when we lived in Cincinnati, which left me big motivation.

加起来不到10平米的边角地，从3月底到9月中前后种植了数种蔬菜瓜果。柿子椒、生菜、茄子啥的，连苗都没有看到。“把种子直接撒到地里，就能长出果实”的说法不攻自破。老玉米全军覆没，因为没下狠药，最终斗不过害虫。通过请教有经验的家人和上网学习，最得意的还是收获了百十来个西红柿和十几个小西瓜。收获时挑出来长得最周正的西瓜，与邻居们分享。

The farming area was around 10 square meters. Quite limited. I tried to plant watermelons and different vegetables including spring onions, green soybeans, carrots, tomatoes, corns etc. I was very ambitious at the beginning. Finally, we only got incredible harvest on tomatoes and watermelons. Roughly, there were more than 100 tomatoes and a dozen of watermelons.

种植的过程真是苦甜参半。对于农民伯伯的辛苦，从小到大都是停留在书本上的认知。这次的亲身体会，才明白了有多辛苦、有多无奈。首先得有个好身板，经得住长时间弯腰劳作；“看天吃饭“，收成如何与天气很有关系；与害虫斗与杂草斗，”你死我活“。最少三成西红柿，被像小时候看到的叫”吊死鬼儿“似的害虫给霍霍了。去年种菜的“后遗症”是，不再那么钟情于虫子啃过的“二手”有机蔬菜，对市场上看上去光鲜好看的“应该是上过药的”各种蔬菜也不再抵触。

The process of planting is really bittersweet. To me, how hard work needed for the farmer in the past, most of them remained in the knowledge of books. Nowadays, I realized how hard and helpless for them. Firstly, one must have a strong body, especially good knees and waist; The weather is good or not is closely related to how the harvest is; fighting against pests and weeds is quite crucial to the success too. At least 30% of tomatoes were “enjoyed” by the pests. Since then, I have no longer been so fond of organic vegetables.

收获自然是最享受的时刻，虽然辛苦，种植过程也有令人迷恋的一面。见证一粒小小的西瓜籽在泥土中发芽，顶着瓜子壳的幼芽，一边拼劲儿向泥土深处生根，一边吸允着“娘胎”籽壳儿中的养料，蓄势待发；某天清晨，它已经崩开了籽壳儿，成为了一个小小苗，两瓣嫩绿的芽叶，无拘无束地拥抱着阳光。每天的日子都很慢，看它总不长高长大，几天不见，它又总是带给你惊喜；添了新叶，长出了卷须，缠住周边任何可以固定之物，茎叶蔓藤式匍匐前进，不把杂草放在眼里。又过一段时间，竟然开出了美丽的小黄花，不学习不知道，花分雌雄，风和昆虫是它们的“媒人”。坐了果，更让人多了期待，不娇好养，见光给水就长；微风拂动，蔓叶随舞，瓜果时隐时现，别有一番心境。

Witnessing a small watermelon seed sprouting in the soil, holding onto the young buds of the melon seed shell, struggling to root deep into the soil while sucking in the nutrients from the "mother" seed shell;

One morning, it had already cracked its seed shell and become a small seedling, with two tender green leaves embracing the sunlight without restraint. Every day the grow looks slow. After in a few days, it always brings you surprises; New leaves have been added, tendrils have grown, entangled around anything that can be fixed, and the stems and leaves crawl forward in a vine like manner, without paying attention to weeds.

In around one month, the beautiful small yellow flowers unexpectedly bloomed. By learning, I know that they are divided into male and female flowers. The wind and insects are their "matchmakers". It makes people look forward to it even more after the female flowers are set fruits. After that, it is easy to take care of the “young melon“. It grows when it faces the sun lights and absorbs the rain water. The breeze blows, the vines and leaves wave, and the watermelons now appearing, now disappearing, which creating a unique mood.

在“地里”干活儿久了，也会发现很多小昆虫。除了害虫，还有很多童年时院子里经常看到的小动物。

After working in the field for a longer time, I also noticed many small insects. Apart from pests, there were also many lovely insects which were the ones I often seen in the yard during my childhood.

吸取了去年的经验，今年只种了西瓜和西红柿。别人觉得最难种的西瓜，在我看来是最容易生长的。西红柿枝干有独特的香味，感觉它天生很快乐，给点阳光和水，就蹭蹭地长，支个干褡个架，按你的“策划”生长。这不，已经开始收获啦！

Learn from last year's experience, I only plant watermelons and tomatoes this year. See, the harvest starts already!