One flower, one world; one garden, one paradise

I live on the sixth floor. There are two balconies on both sides of the small attic on the roof. The south balcony is 40 square meters and the north balcony is 20 square meters.

When I bought the house, I was attracted by the two terraces. Imagine the flowers blooming outside the large floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

There is always a gap between ideal and reality.

After the exhausting renovation, life became busy. My mind is full of children, work, and daily necessities. I feel dizzy every day. Apart from drying clothes, I never think of going to the terrace. The terrace is withered, with only a few drought- and flood-resistant rhododendrons and red-flowered loblolly trees growing here and there. It is worse than a public flower bed.

Sometimes, when I see fresh pictures of the countryside and houses full of flowers, I feel envious and think that I will also have the same after I retire and make enough money.

But before I retired, I often felt that life was boring and uninteresting. For the sake of life and survival, I shuttled between steel and concrete every day, in a daze. It seemed that I had clear goals and pursuits, but I didn’t know why I was alive.

I don’t want to wait any longer, so I take the initiative to change my life step by step. First, we removed the weeds, loosened the soil, cut down some half-dead tall trees, bought countless beautiful flowers, and planted them all in the soil. The garden suddenly became pleasing to the eye.

But without any skills and without considering the local conditions for planting, the result was predictable. Before long, the garden became desolate again.

Learn from your mistakes and plant some plants that are easy to grow first. For example, March greens, sweet potatoes, green beans, golden pumpkins, and ornamental peaches. These crops are cheap. At the small wharf, you can buy 10 seedlings for 2 yuan. As long as you remember to water them, they can basically survive. Of course, how well they grow is another matter.

Finally, the terrace began to look presentable and the aroma of fruits and vegetables filled the air.

Although it is far from the dreamland described in gardening magazines, watching the vegetable seedlings grow taller from small seedlings, turning from light green to dark green, and the yellow, purple, and pink flowers slowly turning into peaches, watermelons, and green beans, the joy of the harvest is indescribable.

At the same time, we adapted to local conditions and bought some roses that bloom all year round and are not afraid of drought or flood.

Now, every morning, while sweeping the floor and watering the plants, I watch the sky slowly change from light gray to orange-red, and watch the sun rise. The cat follows closely, bees and butterflies circle around the flowers, and my heart is peaceful and joyful.

In the evening, I collect the clothes to dry on the terrace and watch the sunset in the breeze, which dyes the clouds light red and dark red. Cars going home from get off work on the road honk and squeeze to see the scenery, and birds chirp as they fly back to their nests.

As the pace of life slows down and attention shifts, most of the troubles in life disappear without you noticing.

The world is big. Pay more attention to the things around you. Respect and observe plants and flowers as living things. You will find that life is really magical and there are so many beautiful things in life.

The garden is constantly improving, with daily pruning and tidying up, and I never get tired of it. The same flower, under different temperatures and climates, will produce flowers of different colors and sizes. It's so magical!

A peaceful mind makes a thatched cottage stable, a calm nature makes the roots fragrant.

With more content in life and fewer desires, happiness will slowly return. Shuttled through steel and concrete all day long, away from nature, life is inevitably boring.

Be glad that you have a garden.

Every flower is a world, every garden is a paradise.