Vegetable Basket

ks. 19

MULCH

That day they worked full.until Azan Ashar reverberated Bedeng had started to look, although not all of them.as usual Fathan and Kamal also rested under the guava tree, before they returned home.

"If made a bedeng like this, will be flanked again Tan?" ask Kamal who wants to know what Fathan will do.

"Later we will mix with compost, lime, NPK and TSP fertilizer."

"Isn't it fertilizer later after the plant enters the growing phase?" There are many Kamal who do not understand.

"Later when the vegetative phase, we only need to add UREA fertilizer and care from pests only mang!" obviously Fathan.

"So what now?"

"Now go home, tomorrow we will think how else!" fathan said with a smile and then he got up from his seat and tidied up the farming tools to be taken home.

Seeing that his nephew had walked first, Kamal followed and helped Fathan bring some of the tools.

*****

The next morning, as Fathan had planned, he opened the compost he had been pending for a few days.The smell was quite pungent, but he did not pay attention to it. Fathan began to take the fertilizer into the bucket to make it easy to carry, while Kamal was still focused on making Bedeng using a machine.

Fathan began to sprinkle kohe made of goat manure and grass made compost on the ground evenly.according to calculations that are from half a kilo to about a kilometer for a land area of one square meter. Fathan continued to work tirelessly, so that the soil he had made was sprinkled by compost.

After the compost was sprinkled, he began to sprinkle agricultural lime, plus NPK and TSP. after matching the dose Fathan began to stir the soil to mix well with the fertilizer. Kamal who saw only shook his head. looked at the way Fathan farmed like that. But he did not protest because maybe Fathan's knowledge is higher than his knowledge when farming.

In the following days, Fathan continued to do basic fertilizer in the soil that he wanted to plant vegetables.not to forget he also gave basic fertilizer in the rice fields to be planted with rice. three days later all the land has become a bed with a neatly arranged bed, so just look at it is interesting.especially if the land is overgrown with fresh vegetables for sure, so that the, it will be better when viewed.

After finishing performing the Ashar prayer, as usual Fathan was at his aunt's house. Because since the rejection of his parents he was indeed more often at the house of his aunt, who always supported what he did. Fathan is not trying to mend his relationship with his two fractured parents, but Farhan and Sri are refusing to make up with his son.

"Want to be flanked by those bamboos, Tan?" tanya Sari who saw her nephew was cutting bamboo into several pieces with a size of 80 cm to 1 meter.

"Make Bi mulch!" fathan answered explaining.

"What is mulch, do vegetables need a quota to call?" Ask Sari who is not connecting.

"That's mah, Bi pulse! It's a mulch. wear m, not p." explained Fathan with a smile responding to his aunt's words.

"Haha! that's why, if people talk again let's not hear wrong!" kamal said he chimed in on his wife's ignorance.

"Laughter, does Akang know what mulch is?" sari said as she leaned towards her husband.

"That's it!" kamal answered while puffing his chest.

"Well, if you know?"

"What's obviously not the internet pulse or the phone pulse.it's using m, mulch!" obviously Kamal Laughing, although he actually did not know, but when he saw his wife cornered He was very happy.

"Mulsa is what, Tan! it's the same Mamang you're not clear, she's just pretentious." asked Sari as she stared at her niece, not caring about her husband who was still laughing.

"The mulch is a cover of planting media, so that the plant media is better. Some use organic starting from hay or grass. Some also use plastic, such as Fathan. special plastic for plants that are black in color, but in it silver color." explained Fathan while pointing towards the black roll in the house.

"She wants to farm, kok even covered with plastic. later the growth of how, can rot tuh."

"Let's be helped, Bi! we're gonna put our plants in that hole."

"the uses?"

"The most reasonable, so that the plants we do not plant do not grow, and when cleaning it we are very easy" replied Fathan explained simply, even though the usefulness of mulch is very much. starting from maintaining moisture, keeping plants from splashing rainwater and many more.

"So then we don't clean the uninvited grass?" tanya Sari made sure.

"Well! it's simple as that." explained Fathan as he continued to split the newly cut bamboo into the size of an index finger.

Once it is enough to make long bamboo. Fathan began cutting bamboo measuring 30 to 40 cm and then cut into small, but rather large than the first bamboo.then the bamboo tip was given a bend to look like a nail. Kamal and Sari who had just watched them started to help, feeling sorry when his nephew worked alone.

After finishing making nails made of bamboo. Fathan began cutting bamboo measuring 20 cm, then he split it into small pieces with a thickness of 1 milli. to be easy to bend. his uncle and aunt who actually did not understand what Fathan did. they helped their nephew. So that the work was completed before Azan Maghrib reverberated.

After performing the prayer of Isha. that night Fathan did not chat in his aunt's house. Due to the circumstances of the sky that was not possible.The night sky was very dark, occasional flashes of lightning illuminated, the light of lightning illuminated, it was like there was going to be a big rain. sure enough, when it was 20:30 it rained down making Fathan give thanks, because he did not have to wait another week to put up the start.

Arriving in the garden they sat under a fruitless guava tree while enjoying coffee and snacks brought from the house of Kamal.since Kamal joined the work with Fathan, who had been living in the village, economic life They began to recover, so Sari often made snacks to accompany them to work or chat at night.

"When do you start work?" kamal asked while breathing out the smoke.

"Later wait for the hot Mang!"

"Ngapain wait for the heat, if the heat like lazy Tan. Mending now!"

"Let the installation of the start is effective, when there is solar heat!" obviously Fathan while putting the fried banana in his mouth, because of its elastic nature plastic mulch, mulch will reap perfectly when illuminated with the heat of the sun.

"Well, what do we do now, when do we keep going?"

"Well, what else! sometimes we rest here. Oh yes later when if our plants have started to grow, and only need care.we make Saung here mang! let us take shelter when it rains and there is heat." suggested Fathan.

"From yesterday Mamang wanted to talk about it, but Mamang forgot to continue, busy anyway!"  kamal replied while smiling.

"What's so good we make Saung out of?"

"If you want the sauces to look good, you tell Mang Tatang, he is very good at making Saung soar." explained Kamal expressing his opinion.

"Can it fit the mang design?"

"Oh yeah, until you forget. You're a former architect who was fired, uh, what's his name if you resign it?" kamal said while scratching his head, remembering the words he had heard.

"resign Mang!"

"Yes that! Mom wants to talk about it, too, but it's hard! Just try the picture! later Show Mang Tatang, who knows if he can make. because if not the experts, then the results will be ugly. Mang Tatang is a house builder in our village."

Fathan thought for a while about what he should do, but after thinking about what Kamal said was true.so he did not have to wait later, when he wanted to make Saung a garden, because someone else was working on it.

"Yes, tonight I will make the design, so it looks aesthetic. Hopefully one day our village can be used as a tourist spot! it's not just a farm" Fathan decided.

At 10:00. The sun was starting to heat up, the heat was starting to sting. Fathan and Kamal got up from their seats, and took a scroll of mulch that had not yet opened.

"It's not plastic, is it Tan?"

"This is Mang plastic, but it has been designed in such a way, in order to withstand sunlight, and maintain soil moisture." Fathan began to explain.

"How does it work?"

"But I'm practicing!" fathan answered while opening the plastic wrapper, then he removed the scroll bit by bit. After the scroll was open, Fathan began to take the bamboo he had made yesterday, to become a restrainer.

"This is rolled first Mang, so there is energy when we want to nail it to the ground and not easily torn." explained Fathan while rolling the bamboo with plastic mulch.

Kamal as usual, he watched carefully.fear that there is a science or explanation that was missed by Fathan. because since the arrival of his nephew, he began to enjoy the way of farming that he had never done.

"Pull the mang to the end!" Fathan told Kamal to pull the plastic all the way to the end of the bed.

The ordered one just nodded, then he followed Fathan's advice, he started pulling the plastic up to the end of the bedeng.

"Keep how Tan?" kamal asked after seeing his nephew approaching.

"Pull it tight!" obviously Fathan.

"Continue?" kamal asked after following what he was told.

"Cut half a meter inward from the end of the bedeng.so that this plastic is tight!" said Fathan while cutting the plastic, then he put the bamboo and then roll it the same as he did. after bamboo belonging to Fathan began to pull until the mulch plastic covered the entire bedeng area. after feeling enough Fathan began nailing with bamboo nails.

"Is this Tan?"

"Let's help put the clasps." said Fathan while showing the thin bamboo that yesterday yes made. bamboo measuring 20 cm with a thickness of 1 milli, he began to explain how, he began to explain, that is to break the bamboo but not to break, then both sides are plugged in next to the mulch.

"What distance?"

"Minimum 1 meter or maximum 1 meter and a half. Most importantly this plastic will not fly or be shifted and this plastic can be tight." explained Fathan.