14 days challenge of growing vegetables
5th Oct/2019
My 14 days challenge is to grow some vegetables at home by myself.
Actually ‘ growing vegetables’ being in the ‘14 days challenge list’ already let me think about future life’s scenario. I remember many movies about human’s future have such scenarios about growing food.
In the future , climate and locust disasters lead to food shortages, and the world will no longer be short of advanced technicians, but farmers who can grow grain.
Food is the first step if you are trying to survive on Mars. Grow vegetables, Human!
Because of climate change humans have to live underground. Vegetables and fruit? Stop day-dreaming! Synthetic foods with vegetable and fruit flavors are already great.
Okay, skills of growing vegetables seem to be an absolute advantage in future life, so maybe it is good for me to start to experience and cultivate this skill from now on.
I think the earth does not need to be rescued bu human. Human just need to save themselves.
6th Oct/2019
To be honest, I do not have such a gift or experience to grow plants.(most of the flowers I have grown before have died eventually…) So how can I experience and feel the progress of growing vegetables in only 14 days?(and do not get another plant dead)
After internet searching and asking some experience from my mom and friends, I choose growing some sprouts which is not so difficult and also has short growing period so I can see and feel the changes in 14 days.
I bought some soybeans and mung beans and put them in warm water for a whole night.
PS. Since I share an apartment with my friend, I put the bowls with beans in my bedroom in order to see the situation more conveniently.
7th Oct/2019
Today I got up half an hour earlier than usual in order to take care of my beans.
The beans absorbed a lot of water from the bowl and got expanded.
I washed them and built 2 different styles of homes for them as their grow spaces.
Soybeans’ home is a plastic bottle that I cut in half with holes in the bottom. (maybe in the future this could also become a way of plastic recycling?)
Mung beans’ home is a breathable bowl, and a pot with water under the bowl.I wrapped them with wet cloth and placed them in the corner of my bedroom to provide them a breathable, moist, dark and growable environment.
I water them about every six hours, because the humidity of the environment is the key to the sprouts growth. But I can’t leave them completely in the water which makes it easy for them to decay.
PS. actually I cannot help checking them several times today. It is fresh experience for me and I look forward to see the changes.
8th Oct/2019
After their moving to new house for just one day. The mung beans already Have grown their little tails.The soybeans have not sprout yet, but I can see it is about to.
Since I have to water them about every 6 hours I went back to my apartment from school around 13:30pm during lunch break. I hope in the future, growing vegetables will not be the chain to lock people in their home or growing land.
10th Oct/2019
They really grow faster than I thought. Today mung bean’s little tails have grown longer, and soybean’s little tail have sprung out. I still water them about every 6 hours.
Also today, an interesting thing happened. It was raining yesterday and I found out my roommate, who is also our classmate, collected some rainwater. I thought maybe it is interesting to grow my sprouts with natural rain water so I asked her for some rain water. But I was rejected because her 14-days challenge is to use limited water so she has to keep the precious rain water for her own use. It is interesting and deserves our consideration in someway. In the future, when the natural resources get more and more limited, maybe it would exist more subtle contradiction and competition in human life and their relationships.
12nd Oct/2019
Sometimes I was too busy to remember to water them every 6 hours in these days. I realized that if you want to grow vegetables well and get a good harvest eventually, you have to keep a seat in your heart for them always. Otherwise it is very possible to get a negative result because vegetable’s growth progress is coherent. It is kind of impossible to resurge and start the game again.
13rd Oct/2019
Wow! They really grow so fast like crazy. Even if sometime they cannot drink immediately when they are thirsty (it is my fault) their nature is really strong. Also I found that their growth direction is downward.
15th Oct/2019
Today is my mung bean spouts’ harvest day! I took them out of the bowl, pick out of the bean skin and wash them. Picking the bean skin out really need some patience. But it is really a happy progress to harvest vegetables I grow and take care by myself haha.
16th Oct/2019
I cooked my sprouts today and shared them with my roommate. It is really really delicious!
And it turns out that my roommate is a super sprouts fan and we decided to grow some sprouts every two weeks in the future together.
Till now, my 14-days challenge is kind of finished. Actually growing vegetables is not a big burden, but it indeed has affected some of my life habits and my relationships with others in some way.
