My Summer Balcony Vegetable Garden Lifts My Spirits

Every day, at irregular intervals, I look at my balcony vegetable garden. In summer the vegetables grow vigorously; not to mention eating them, just glancing at them a few times puts me in a good mood. Too many vegetables cannot be grown on a balcony, and the few I plant can never be enough to eat, so their ornamental value far exceeds their edible value. For someone who grew up in the countryside, watching these vegetables sprout, grow and set fruit feels as warmly familiar as returning to my hometown.

Behind our first-floor apartment there is a small terrace of six or seven square meters. An elderly neighbor has been growing vegetables on it for years, but he has only ever used half of it; this year I took over the other half. I also planted some vegetables against the wall beneath the terrace. Better to share joy than to enjoy it alone, and my joining in made the old man very happy. Having a companion in balcony gardening is like finding a kindred spirit.

The kinds of vegetables the old man and I grow are not entirely the same. I planted eggplants, cucumbers, okra and fennel, which he did not. These past few days, watching my eggplants set fruit, he goes over happily every day to take a look. Of course, he is not the only one admiring the "work" on this balcony garden. Several neighbors in our building love the pastoral life, and this "garden" has become a must-see sight on their after-dinner walks.

Sometimes we water the vegetables together on the balcony and exchange gardening tips. He does not pinch off the side branches of his tomatoes; drawing on my experience growing tomatoes in a garden, I persuaded him to pinch them off so the tomatoes would grow better. He readily took my advice and pinched the side branches off his tomatoes. These past two days both of our tomatoes have begun to set fruit, and the old neighbor often stands there intently admiring them.

Not many leafy greens can be grown on a balcony. The cabbages, baby cabbage, small bok choy and leaf mustard I planted were all eaten by insects, leaving only crown daisy (tonghao), water spinach, sweet potato leaves, fennel, malabar spinach and romaine lettuce. The old man has more experience and only grows plants insects avoid, such as purslane, water spinach and lettuce, which is rather effortless.

Summer rains are plentiful, so the vegetables do not need watering too often, but after several consecutive sunny days they still need watering every two or three days. For now we both water the plants with our vegetable-washing water, or collect water dripping from the upstairs air conditioner in an empty bucket.

Since I started growing these vegetables on this terrace, and bought a stationary exercise bike at home, I rarely leave the residential compound. Exercise is done at home and entertainment comes from gardening. This not only beautifies the home and enriches life, but also greatly reduces the risk of catching a virus. At first I bought some planting pots, but later I could not bring myself to buy more, so I picked up foam boxes people had thrown away from the compound's garbage station and brought in some soil from outside to grow vegetables.

Vegetables grown in flowerpots are like miniature versions; their taste is nothing to write home about, and it is hard to expect them to meet our need for vegetables, but they are a feast for the eyes. The asparagus I planted reminded me of an aspara fern, because the result really looked like one, so in the end I just kept it as an ornamental.

I do not know when I will be able to fulfill my wish of returning to the countryside, but for now this "garden paradise" gives me a place to enjoy myself in the gaps between reading, working and writing, and I am fully content with that. Life in itself has no inherent good or bad; only those who are content with what they have can always be happy. If a person can have few desires and few demands, and not be led by the nose by life, then whether in the deep mountains and old forests or in the busy city, the ease and peace of mind within must be the same.