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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
Liem is a self-employed man with three years of experience in rooftop gardening. “Seeing a lot of people sharing their giant produce on a Facebook group, I got so excited and wanted to have my own garden,” he told VNE.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
Last year, Liem tried growing giant squash in foam boxes for the first time. With only one single tree, he collected over 20 large-sized fruits, the largest one weighing more than 34 kg.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
The young man also planted bottle gourd, a species that resembles a wine gourd, with each fruit weighing up to 10 kg. For cooking, he uses only the young gourds, which each measure around 3 kg.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
Kale veggies in Liem’s garden also yield large leaves. His secret is to focus on quality over quantity, planting only one plant per pot.
For leaf-eating veggies, Liem often waters the plant at around 4-5 pm. Watering them at night would only create an ideal environment for pests and diseases, he said.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
A white, giant bitter melon fruit is another highlight of the garden. Each giant bitter melon is comparable in size to a 1.5-liter soft drink bottle.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
All veggies and fruit trees in the garden are neatly arranged and carefully cared for every day.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
He has planted about 30 aloe vera trees. Since the aloe veras are bigger than normal, he once harvested over 50 kg at one time. He saved some for his family and gave the majority to the temple.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
His loofah fruits measure over 1 meter in length.
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| (Photo courtesy of Phan Van Liem/ via VNE) |
From a person with zero gardening experience, Liem turned to the internet and learned from others’ experiences to hone his skills and learn more about growing veggies and fruits. Gardening has gradually become one of his passions.
“The passion gives me more energy to pursue it. Planting trees is like raising a child, it’s important to take care of it at the early stages. When they are cultivatable, we must keep a close eye on them to timely detect any possible pests and diseases,” Liem said.
