Witty Wife, Better Life-Chapter 74 - 72 Spring Plowing

After finishing with the family plot, the two moved on to Yunfang’s backyard.

Yunfang’s backyard was quite large, even larger than the family plot, totaling twenty rows. She planned to allocate fourteen rows for grains and the rest for vegetables, which would be more than enough for herself.

With her limited variety of seeds, she went to Auntie Wang to scrounge some up, planting whatever seeds she could find.

She planted string beans, eggplants, persimmons, chili peppers, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, luffas, and so on. Along the courtyard wall, she also planted a row of gourds.

She didn’t get to eat the gourds she planted last year, but they could also be used to feed pigs, so there was no harm in planting extra. Today, she planted even more.

Because she wanted to make chili sauce and pickled vegetables in the fall, she planted an especially large amount of chili peppers.

For seasoning ingredients like onions, ginger, and garlic, she set aside a small area to cultivate them specifically.

The remaining fourteen rows were planted just like the family plot.

Later, when she saw the Wang Family planting sorghum, she also coveted some and managed to get a handful. With no room left in the yard, she set her sights beyond the wall and planted two rows of sorghum along it outside the courtyard. The two lines were staggered to look quite pleasing when they would flower.

All this was accomplished using the time in the mornings and evenings when she was not working elsewhere.

Each morning, when it was time to work, she would head to the production team to herd the sheep and lead the flock to the back of her house. She had opened a gate in the backyard to bring out her ten lambs and take them up the mountain from the back.

After climbing for two hours to the slope she was clearing, the sheep would graze while she got busy with other tasks.

After half a month of clearing, she hadn’t managed to clear much land, only about six or seven parts, all of which she planted with sweet potatoes.

Later, when she saw other families planting watermelons and muskmelons, she got some seeds and planted a couple of each in the backyard. The rest she planted here, in what became her own secret base.

Luckily, Yunfang happened upon a discovery: the sweet potatoes used for seedlings had sprouted new shoots beside the original mound, even though she had already planted the first batch of seedlings. She asked Brother Dashuan’s wife and learned that as long as you don’t move them, the seedling sweet potatoes can grow a second batch, and these shoots could be transplanted just as well.

The sweet potatoes left for growing seedlings were still edible, though they were no longer fresh, with a poor taste, they were still good for feeding pigs.

Shen Yunfang sighed inwardly, thinking that life was full of knowledge everywhere.

Seeing the second batch of sweet potato sprouts going to waste, Shen Yunfang wondered where else she might plant them.

Eventually, she really did find a suitable place.

The path from her backyard to the mountain was quite secluded. She had been walking this path every day while shepherding, noticing how lush the wild vegetables grew—ant plants, grey vegetation, bitter hemp, shepherd’s purse, there were plenty.

And all of these were great feed for pigs.

Whenever Yunfang had time, she would take a small shovel to dig deeply, uprooting the entire plant, and then she’d plant the sweet potato sprouts right into the holes she had made.

This spot was hidden, and with the thick grass, once it grew back, it was almost impossible to tell that sweet potato shoots were hidden in the grass unless one looked closely.

With the help of Brother Dashuan’s wife, by mid-May, Yunfang had finally finished planting all the land, and the busy spring plowing finally came to a slight pause.

“Wow, Yunfang, you’re really hardworking, even carrying water to irrigate the fields yourself.”

The speaker was one of Shen Yunfang’s uncles from her extended family, twenty years her senior, named Shen Jide. He was a diligent farm hand. His family’s private land was close to Yunfang’s, with only one household in between, so she saw him tending to the crops almost every time she went to the fields.

“Oh, Brother Jide, you’re also busy. I’m not going to chat, I need to head to the field; this water is too heavy,” Yunfang replied without stopping, carrying the shoulder pole, sweating profusely as she walked toward her private land.

“Oh my, young lady, you shouldn’t carry such a heavy load. I’ll help you carry a couple of buckets in a while, you take a rest,” Shen Jide called from behind.

“No need, thank you, Brother Jide, I can manage on my own,” Yunfang yelled back.

Upon reaching the field, she set down the shoulder pole, knowing without looking that her shoulders must have turned red.

Looking at the less than half-full bucket of water, she felt a trace of pride. Her improvement was evident from the amount of water in the bucket. The recent days spent climbing mountains and clearing the land had significantly improved her physical strength. Although she still didn’t match real farmhands, progress was something to be happy about, wasn’t it?

Farming was a profound science, similar to raising children. After planting, in order to yield a good harvest, you couldn’t just let it be; it required proper care.

How to care for it? That involved weeding, watering, and fertilizing.

Weeding was straightforward, simply needed to be done every ten days or half a month. For tasks like pulling weeds and digging plants, Yunfang believed she was quite capable.

Fertilizing was also manageable; when the time came, Brother Dashuan would help her water the fields with the fertilizer matured in the manure pit. She also spread some earthworm castings in her secret base.

The most difficult task was irrigation. Fortunately, corn was drought-resistant, and as long as there was enough water during the tasseling and grain-filling stages, it would grow well. Normally, not much watering was needed.

But even ‘not much’ was challenging for Shen Yunfang.

There was no well by the private land; villagers who wanted to water their fields had to fetch water from the stream at the head of the village using buckets and shoulder poles.

This task was difficult for anyone, let alone for Shen Yunfang.

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Yunfang had a space that allowed her to cheat, but she couldn’t just conjure water out of thin air. Take Shen Jide just now; he was there working the land every day. If they didn’t see her carrying water but found that her corn was well-watered, wouldn’t that be clearly indicating she had a secret?

So, even just to mislead others, she had to carry water herself. However, watering the fields up the mountain was easier since her space could handle it.