Coming to America 40 years ago, Mr. Trinh Khai lived in California and Illinois before settling in Oklahoma. Thanks to real estate here being much cheaper, in 2009, he and his partner bought a one-hectare piece of land, allowing them to comfortably grow crops without worrying about running out of land like in their old places.

When he had a satisfactory garden, Mr. Khai decided to quit his job in the information technology field. The garden owner shared: “I want to retire early to stay home and take care of the plants. If I were still working, I wouldn’t be able to take care of 200 plants of all kinds, especially in the hot, dry summer, it takes 4-6 hours to grow them. water the tree”.

The greatest joy of garden owners in cold countries is that when spring comes, the trees in the garden sprout, flower, and bear fruit.

At that time, every morning, Mr. Khai sat on the balcony, sipping a cup of coffee, looking at the green trees, listening to the birds chirping on the branches. In the afternoon, after watering the plants, he watched the sunset fall over the big trees. In the evening, there was a cool breeze so he could take out a hammock to lie down and watch the moon and stars.

In the first 5 years, the garden mainly has shrubs and flowers along the fence, alternating with spring and summer blooms. Later, in the middle of the garden, more fruit trees were planted such as apples, plums, pears, peaches…

Each season, the garden has its own beauty, such as in autumn, the leaves turn yellow, and in winter, the snow is covered with white.

Every year, Mr. Khai works in the garden from April to November, taking a 5-month winter break. Occasionally, to avoid the cold, he returned to Vietnam to visit his homeland because at that time he no longer needed to take care of the garden. When he was young, Mr. Khai liked sports, music, and traveling around the world. Now, he likes to return to Vietnam more.

Ice accumulated on trees in the cold season of November 2015, in weather of 1.2 degrees Celsius.

The first year, Mr. Khai spent about 3,000 USD to buy plants, soil and gardening supplies, lawn mower… In the following years, the costs gradually decreased, currently about 500 USD a year.

Winter in Oklahoma is quite cold, sometimes below 0 degrees, so only plants that can withstand the cold can be grown. The tree hibernates and buds again in the spring.

The biggest difficulty for gardeners in Oklahoma is the tornado season from March to May. There are times when strong winds collapse houses and trees, so homeowners have to rebuild from scratch. Therefore, people often take many precautions (digging shelters, buying insurance).

When the flowers and fruit trees are stable, Mr. Khai plans to grow vegetables and fruits such as luffa, cowpea, eggplant, okra, and cucumber this year. Some of the seeded plants have sprouted, but the garden owner is still a bit nervous because he has no experience growing vegetables.

The garden is so large that cutting it with a hand pusher would take 2 days. Therefore, the homeowner has to use a lawn mower. It takes 2 hours for the front garden and 2.5 hours for the back garden to be cleaned.

To gain more experience, Mr. Khai often watches programs teaching how to grow plants and reads gardening books to learn and experiment. Plant pots sold at supermarkets often have additional instructions, which also makes it easier for plant lovers.