June blooms

The flowers in my garden in June this year have blown me away – so much so that I decided to devote a special post to them! Undoubtedly, the lily takes the prize with its mesmerizing beauty, subtle fragrance, and splendid colors.

Lily

Last year, I planted five of these plants after root division and three of them are bearing flowers, while two are yet small. Each time I go into my garden, the lilies beckon! Definitely the flower of the month.

A close second comes the Rose of Sharon. Last year, my friend Utiyama-san presented me with a small potted plant. The same plant has grown to about a meter in height in the planter and has given me the first beautiful Rose of Sharon.

Rose of Sharon

This is one of my favorite flowers – like the cherry blossom, I love the delicate pink in white. I have another variety of the Rose of Sharon with dark red at the center. The first flower is yet small and others are in the bud stage.

Next on my list of favorites is the peanut blossom – quite different from the rest of the crowd, like a butterfly in flight. Judge for yourself.

 Peanut blossom

I found a small begonia in a planter along with other flowers and had carefully taken it out, planted it in its own planter and forgot about it. Suddenly, the flowers have bloomed and the plant has caught my attention.

Begonia

The beauty of the Okra blossom never ceases to astound me! Here is a one that has appeared in all its glory to give way to a delicious Okra within a few days.

Okra blossom

My perennial favorite, the Hydrangea also has a place in this special edition of June blooms. I’m wondering whether I should change the acidity of the soil around this plant and observe whether the color changes!

Hydrangea

Is this for real? Did somebody make an origami out of shiny paper? There’s beauty even in an eggplant blossom (and yes, that’s the roof of my house in the background, so you can predict which direction the flower faces) .

Eggplant blossom 

 

I bought seeds of the Balsam in India and planted these in spring. The first flowers are up. The peculiarity of this plant is that the flowers seem to be blooming from the bottom first, so they tend to get covered up by the leaves. The shape is of this flower is rather extraordinary – some of the plants give pink and some red flowers.

Balsam

 

I also retrieved a small begonia uncared for in a Yesterday, today, and tomorrow planter and transplanted it into its own pot. This one has yielded a beautiful pink begonia, as if to thank me for giving it a new home.

Pink begonia

Lastly, here are blooms of the Soapwort in my herb garden. Pink seems to be the catchword this June for my garden. Lush leaves of the Yarrow are in the background.

Soapwort

Until the next post (which is not far away), happy gardening to all my viewers!

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Corn, peanuts and yam

After returning from a four-day family trip to Malaysia, I found rapid growth in most of the vegetables and flowers. I harvested potatoes, shungiku (edible chrysanthemum) and broccoli and promptly replaced these with yam, corn, green pepper and peanuts (yes, Chiba Prefecture, where I stay grows lots of peanuts so why not try them in my little garden, I thought). Today, here’s what my main vegetable patch looks like (click to enlarge).

Main veggie patch

Before I left for Malaysia, I made sure that the white butterfly didn’t make a mess of my cabbages by leaving eggs all over the leaves and turn them into minefields. I covered them with a net and firmly tucked the insides so no caterpillars could get in. I also placed all my planters on the walkway and requested a kind neighbor to water the plants while we were away. Here’s how the patch looked like.

Main veggie patch before the trip to Malaysia

I was delighted with the potatoes – a first for me! The smaller ones were utterly delicious. Unfortunately, I won’t be growing them next year, in the same patch because I read that you need to grow them once in three years.

Happy with the beans too because I harvest about 8 to 10 one day, just enough for breakfast and the next 8 to 10 are ready the next day. Radish, beans, shungiku (edible crysanthemum) and lettuce will be standard veggies in my patch every year. My neighbors and friends were happy too with the shungiku I presented them this year. You cut off the tops and after a few days, these plants grow back to the same size. Remarkable! This is the first time I saw a shungiku blossom (see photo at bottom right below).

Clockwise from top left: Potatoes, beans and mini-tomatoes, shungiku, blossom

Isn’t spring wonderful? Anything and everything seems to grow well in my garden this year. Here are some new arrivals:

Clockwise from top left: Strawberry, blueberry, grape, tomato

The grape plant is in a large planter that I keep on the balcony ledge. I planted strawberry, grape, and fig, and peach last autumn; all except the last in planters.

Here are some flowers in bloom:

My favorite flower – Hydrangea

Plumbago in bloom

I also started off on a lasagnia-type bed. Set up a stone border, laid wet newspapers on the ground, built up a layer of dried leaves, weeds, crushed egg shells, coffee ground, a layer of used soil, and so on. And I put in another one of my favorites – coriander in my small herb garden.

Clockwise from top left: Newspaper layer, brown layer, black layer (soil) and herb garden with coriander

I’m pretty sure my garden is going to look neater henceforth, since I have a place to dump all the weeds!

Finally, I leave you with a photo of my favorite flower bed with lilies just about to burst into bloom!

Happy gardening!

Technorati Tags: Corn,peanuts,yam,hydrangea,plumbago

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Pests, potatoes and petunias

God made all creatures – even the slimy green crawlers that frequent my cabbage leaves – for some reason, I suppose. Every morning I start out with my trusty chopsticks and hunt out these slimy worms that make my cabbage leaves look like minefields. Today, I picked them up gently and deposited them on the ground at the diagonally opposite corner of my house. The average length of this green worm is 1 cm, assuming that the distance that it travels per step is half its body length of 0.5 cm, and I place them 25 meters or 2500 cm away, the number of steps each worm needs to take to re-reach my cabbages will be 2500/0.5 = 5000 paces. Considering the obstacles that that it has to overcome, including a compost box, a net, an outdoor storage cupboard and various objects – I thought to myself with glee:  my dear worm, if you manage to make  your way back to my cabbage patch, you have earned it! Go for it. I only hope that God has not given these worms the homing instinct as in pigeons!

My main veggie patch looks this now.

My main vegetable patch

In place of the harvested radish, I have planted “edamame” or soya beans. After harvesting “komatsuna” I have planted Okra, my favorite vegetable. The potatoes to the left are probably ready for harvest. The leaves are turning yellow and I tentatively scraped the ground around one of the plants to find some lovely potatoes peeping out. Since this is the first time, I’ll get my daughter Maya to pull out the first of the potatoes on a trial dig. The carrots too seem to be maturing, but I have no idea when to pull them out! Broccoli is probably ready ready for harvest.

In the meanwhile, I found that the best way to save time I use for removing weeds is to dig and create a flower bed! So I now have another flower bed that I have turned into a herb garden. Here are my beds:

Beans – back; eggplant – front row	Sugar snap – back; okra – front row

 

My new herb garden	New flower bed – Balsam, aster, iris

 

The creation of a new bed at a place that was infested with weeds and stones was back-breaking work; but the satisfaction upon completion was tremendous, knowing that maintenance henceforth would be minimal I wouldn’t have to waste as much time in disposing of weeds again.

I transplanted the following herbs from my planter to my small herb garden:

Fennel, sage, yarrow, oregano, rosemary, soapwort, thyme, lavender, lemon balm

In the other new flower bed, I planted Balsam and aster that I had grown from seeds purchased in India; and German iris that were presented to me by my good friend, Utiyama-san. I await with eager anticipation the aster and Balsam blooms. I have no idea what the flowers would like like!

I had my daughter do a trial dig of the potatoes since some of its leaves had turned yellow. We got about six decent-sized potatoes and about five to six small ones. At lunch, we cooked it and when steaming hot, cut each into four halves, placed a small dollop of butter at the center, and added some salt to taste. I tried out a little chat masala too, and the taste was “simbly incredibul” as some of my dearest friends down southern India would say! I’m looking forward to harvesting the rest of the potato plants (seven).

This year I have planted flowers at the corners of each row of vegetables – mainly so that the flowers would attract insects and they add color to the vegetable patch. Here are some of the flowering plants I placed at the corners:

 

Petunia	Mini-sunflower

 

Salvia (sunflower behind)	Dahlia

                    

I was also delighted at seeing new leaves on some cuttings I had planted around March – I had almost given up hopes on the Daphne Odora, but several of them sprang up new leaves to my delight. Was also successful with my favorite plant, Hydrangea.

Daphne Odora cuttings (front) Japanese Photinia (back)	Hydrangea (from cutting)

 

Other flowers in bloom in my garden today are:

Geraniums in profusion	Azalea

 

I’m afraid I waited too long to harvest the broccoli; I harvested them up today. Well, you live and learn!

Broccoli – delayed harvest?

Finally, an update on my curry leaf plants. There’s still no change in the cuttings I planted in – hold your breath – February! Should I give up on them?

The photo (right below) is a quiz for you, dear reader? I found this plant with small white flowers growing out of a crack. I’m not sure what flower it is; I do hope some of the experts will assist me in this one. 

Curry leaf cuttings	Mystery plant – what is it?

 

OK – here are two more closeups of the mystery plant. The flower has petals that are small at the top and large at the bottom.

Mystery plant – 1	Mystery plant –2

 

Finally,  I leave you with a photo of the lovely roses that my friend Utiyama picked from his garden and presented to me. He’s already sold me on the rose idea – I’m planning to plant roses next year!

                                              Fragrant roses

Happy gardening!

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Violas and chopsticks

A pair of chopsticks is my indispensable gardening tool. I am never without it when I step into my little garden.

 

“Please pull me up – I’d like to be as tall as my sisters and see the view”

I can almost hear the little viola say these words to me when I approach the planter. I bring out my chopsticks and gently pull up the little viola. I can hear the little sigh of happiness from the viola.

 

Violas standing erect and overlooking the garden

I use chopsticks to:

Pull out unwanted weeds

Create a hole and plant a small seedling

Take away dried leaves and other unwanted object from pots

 

And perform a host of other jobs, such as inserting a chopstick through the hole at the bottom of a polyester pot to work loose a new plant for transplanting, remove pests such as green worms from cabbage leaves, pick up small seeds and sow them, mark lines on the soil and even use them as props for small seedlings! The disposable chopsticks are an indispensable weapon in my armory of garden tools.

I was also delighted to see my first flower of the potato plant! 

 

Flower of the potato plant

I planted the clover seeds in autumn last year after reading that they improve the soil on which they are grown.

Clover – an ethereal quality

They possess an ethereal quality and I love their elegance. I’m not sure how to make best of these after the flowering season is over. Do I allow them to dry out in place and bury them?

 

 Peach tree – is that a fruit?

The peach tree that I planted last autumn flowered and I was surprised to find a fruit too! Does such a small plant yield fruits? It is less than a meter in height from the ground.

 

Geraniums – white and red

In the meanwhile, the small bed that I made especially for geraniums at the corner of the house has burst out in red and white!

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

I was delighted to find the first bloom of the fragrant flower with the cryptic name Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in my planter on the balcony. The flower is now purple, but over time it is likely to turn white.

 

Blueberries

The first blueberries up for grabs! Looks like this time I’m going to have some blueberries. I planted six of these last year – three belonging to the Hi Bush variety and three to the Rabbit Eye variety.  And yes, that is the price tag. The Hi Bush is the most expensive plant in my garden.

 

 Carrots

The carrot plants seem to be doing fine – although I have no idea how to know when to harvest the carrots. This is the first time I have sowed carrots and that too from seeds purchased in India in February this year. The primrose (pink) plant next to the carrots are dwarfed by the pot marigold plants. I have decided to move the primroses to a different location.

Finally here’s the latest view of my veggie patch.

 

Veggie patch as in the first week of May

After harvesting the komatsuna in the foreground, I have planted four Okra plants. I also planted a colorful dahlia at the corner. The empty space in the middle row will soon be occupied by a different vegetable species – this is where I harvested the small red radishes.

And to end this post, here’s the colorful Dahlia!

 

Happy gardening!

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Vegetables of the month

Unarguably, three of the vegetables I harvested in my small garden in April have given me immense pleasure – radish, fava beans (broad beans), and potherb mustard – and  I select them as the vegetables of the month. For March, I have selected green peas (planted green peas in autumn last year and harvested this year). The taste of the green peas was just out of this world. I planted radish and fava beans last year; so I learnt from the errors I made last year! Pot herb mustard (called “mizuna” in Japan) was a first for me this year.

Radish – just picked and ready for breakfast

This year I made it a point to lightly dig around the radish plants and to cover the root completely with earth so as not to expose it at any time. This helped to maintain the shape and the size of the vegetable. The entire period from the planting of seeds to the harvest was 40 days! Radish will be a permanent feature of my garden. The taste of the raw radish is “zimbly zuperb” as some of my countrymen in a certain southern state in India would say.

Next, I harvested the pot herb mustard likewise in just about a month’s time, although I did not start it with seeds. It makes a great salad together with radish and lettuce, especially with a dash of lemon and olive oil as dressing.

 

  

Pot herb mustard – quick harvest!

The fava beans (broad beans) are called “sora mame” (literally “sky beans) in Japan. The beans on the plant point to the sky; when they stop pointing and drop down, they are ready for harvest. After  I picked the fava beans from my planter, boiled them for about two minutes and peeled the skin, I was astonished. The ones sold in the market tend to be large, hard and you usually eat them with salt after boiling them. The ones I picked from planter were tender, soft and sweet. I wish had grown fava beans in six planters instead of two in autumn. I planted these in summer last year and had a tough time with pests that ate them up voraciously. I found planting them in autumn and harvesting them in spring is the way to go!

 

Fava bean – looking down, ready for harvest?

 

The flowers just about to bloom or already blooming this month are:

The resplendent Reeves Spiraea (Japanese name Kodemari)

 

The Gymnaster savatieri (Japanese name Miyako wasure) in a verdant background

 

Elegant and erect clover

 

The bright and colorful Abutilon

 

Cluster of white flowers – Lantana

 

Have a great day!

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Cherry blossoms – here today, gone tomorrow!

My Japanese friends love cherry blossoms that come up on us suddenly in a burst of pink and white and disappear as suddenly as they came, to make their appearance the next year. Here is a scene from a small park on top of a hill near my house – check the pink and white in flowers in the background too. They are all over the town and last for less than a week.

Cherry blossoms – here today, gone tomorrow!

The green peas in my planter gave me immense pleasure. The peas were delicious and I made it a point to eat them raw at breakfast. Next year, I’m going to have several planters full of green pea plants!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green peas in planter                                   Harvested for breakfast!

This week, we had a bit of rain and then bright sunshine. This seems to have worked wonders – I found significant growth in all the plants the next day. Here is what my square-foot garden looks like today (you should be able to see a large photo if you click on it):

My veggie patch today

 

I have already harvested Potherb Mustard (Mizuna), which is great for salads. See photo below (left) of Mizuna. The photo on the right is the status of one of my flower beds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My sprout project seems to be on course. The radish sprouts have come out well, and I have removed the covering on the plastic containers. The alfalfa sprouts seem however, to have stopped growth. Maybe time to eat ‘em? Let me know what you think after seeing the photo below.

 

Incidentally, I visited my friend, Utiyama-san last week and was astounded at the varieties of plants he has in his garden. In addition to space around the house, he has a large plot on which he grows various vegetables. His plot must be at least 10 times the size of my patch! His wife was kind enough to give me the Japanese kerria (yamabuki), which I promptly planted in my garden and also cuttings.  Here are the Utiyamas and their garden:

 

The Utiyamas – friends and avid gardeners from whom I’m learning a lot about Japanese flowers and vegetables

 

Here is their large plot in which they grow various kinds of vegetables including onions, beans, corn, ginger and so on.

See these Japanese kerria in all its glory here. Thanks, Utiyama-san.

Japanese kerria

 

I also spotted the the first bloom of the Gymnaster savatieri (miyako wasure), a kind of Aster in my garden.

Gymnaster savatieri

I planted some flower seeds that I had brought over from India last February, and am happy to report that the seedlings have sprouted. The seeds I planted were Aster, Balsam and Marigold. Aster seems to have sprung up profusely, while had success with only four of the marigold seeds.

Aster, Balsam and Marigold seedlings

Finally, I moved two of my curry leaf cuttings into the open and have taken off the plastic covers on the pots. I intend to experiment by spraying these two pots with a fine mist of water everyday. Still keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the curry leaf plants will make it up to summer in July!

Three of the surviving curry leaf cuttings out in the open!

Finally, here is an early morning view of my square-foot veggie patch.

 

Early morning view of my patch

The tomato and cucumber plants are just below the net on the left side.

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: Cherry blossoms,Japanese kerria,hosta,Gymnaster,curry leaf plants

 

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Daffodils, violas, camelias, peaches, beans, curry leaf plants and potatoes

The title just about sums up the topics I’m going to cover in this post.

Isn’t spring wonderful? New leaves and buds seem to be sprouting up everywhere, flowers bloom and there’s a nip in the air! Here’s a camelia that bloomed and gladdened my heart!

Camelia – as perfect as perfect can be!

 

The peach tree I planted last autumn rewarded me with lovely pink flowers.

Here’s one of them:

The peach flower in all its glory!

 

And then of course the daffodils. They stand tall, erect and elegant. The first ones bloomed last week. Here’s one:

Daffodil – pretty enough to make you reach for the Wordsworth poem!

And the violas too, which were slightly dull in winter have suddenly perked up in a rash. Take a look:

A rash of violas!

I still have clover, rapeseed and geraniums waiting to bloom in the next few days. My cup of joy filleth over!

On the veggie front too, I started a new sprout project. Made use of plastic bottles – cut them in the middle and used the lower halves to grow sprouts and the upper halves to cover seeds in the garden, give some warmth and prevent birds from eating them.

 

Tools used for planting sprouts

I immersed alfafa and radish seeds in water overnight. In the morning, I spread vermiculite to cover the base of the recycled plastic containers, wetted the vermiculite by mist, and evenly spread out the seeds on top of the vermiculite.

Next, I covered the containers with aluminum foil – I had hoped to use aluminum foil on all three containers but our kitchen ran out of foil, so I used pamphlets (junk mail) that came inserted in the newspaper. I hope to keep these seeds covered for 3 to 4 days until they grow to a reasonable height and then open them up to the sunlight, naturally after spraying them with water everyday.

I was also happy to see potato seedlings finally making their appearance! This is the first time I have planted potatoes. However I found the seedlings coming out of unexpected locations in the squares of my square foot garden!

 

Potato seedlings                             Cabbages, broccoli – healthy growth

The other veggies such as cabbages, broccoli, lettuce are also doing well. The warm weather makes all the difference, I guess.

I planted beans (the climbing variety) in another bed and marked out the location where I planted the seeds with sticks. Soon as I have enough recycled plastic bottles, I’ll remove the sticks and cover the seeds with the necks of the plastic bottles.

 

Bed with 5 x 2 squares

Four squares with climbing beans and one square containing the leftover radish seedlings can be seen in the left row of squares. To the right, I planted edamame (soya beans) and covered them with the top half of a plastic bottle, which will serve to keep the soil around the seeds moist and warm, as well as protect the seeds from being eaten by birds. I have also put up nets along the wall to take up the beans as they creep up.

 

 

Finally, here is a photo showing two rows of radish seedlings per square. These are the fastest growing vegetables, and I should be able to harvest them in about a month from now.

And lastly, the curry leaf cuttings that I had brought with me from India are still fighting to keep alive! When I brought them, it was midwinter here in Japan. Spring has finally come and most are still alive as far as I can see. I am desperately hoping that at least a few will make it up to summer and hot weather in which these plants thrive. Here is a photo of a surviving curry leaf cutting (plastic cover removed – keeping my fingers crossed!):

Until the next post, happy gardening and have a great day!

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Technorati Tags: daffodils,camelia,viola,peach flower,beans,curry leaf plants

Peas, figs, favas, fencing and flowers

The title says it all – a summary of the work I did this week on my garden.  I was lucky to have better weather than in the past few weeks, and I made full use of the good weather to get some work done in the garden.

I was excited with my first harvest of green peas – they were fresh and sweet. The faster you pick the almost-ripe pods, the faster they grow. Here are some photos of the green peas in the planter on my balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My children saw green peas in pods for the first time! I’m quite sure that many kids in Japan have never seen peas in pods – they generally come in frozen packs or cans!

 

Equally exciting for me was the first of the fava beans jutting out from the spent-out flower. I was a little worried that the flowers of the fava bean were calling it a day with no sign of the beans – but no, they had done their work! The beans, although tiny made their first appearance today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo on the left shows a fava bean jutting out of the flower, and on the right is a bean pointing to the sky (called “sora mame” in Japanese, literally “sky bean”).

 

The highlight this week was the framework of bamboo supports and net that my son Uday helped me to put up. This is in preparation of the tomato and cucumber plants that I intend to grow in the last row of squares in my patch.
We were pretty pleased to put up the framework with whatever materials we had on hand, and when we finished it, it appeared to be fairly solid and stable and most likely would have the capability to withstand the weight of tomatoes and cucumber and, of course, the strong winds and typhoons in summer!

Uday surveying his handiwork!

Another view from the back of the framework

We set up the structure so that the net would be inclined and light to the vegetable plants would not be obstructed when the cucumber and tomato plants were fully mature.

I also got my fig plant from the nursery and replanted it in a pot. I have had success with the fig tree in the past, and I might try to grow it in a planter this time.

 

Fig tree replanted in a pot

Used akadama tsuchi: fuyoudo : kanuma tsuchi in the ratio of 5:3:1. The type of plant was “Maruseiyu” — would that be Marseilles? I need to get hold of a good horticultural dictionary. I picked up gardening after coming to Japan, and my horitcultural vocabulary in English is rather limited; so you are likely to find this blog with a lot of Japanese terms!

 

 

 

 

I planted my first few “sugar snap” pea plants in another part of my garden that I had just prepared. I have strung up nets against the wall just behind the plants and will guide them over the nets as they grow.

These sugar snap peas supposedly have soft pods that can be eaten. This is again a first for me. I prepared the soil by mixing it with lime a week before to reduce the acidity. Just before planting these, I mixed it up with compost and compound fertilizer (N:P:Ca = 8:8:8). I also included a small amount of organic fertilizer just before planting them.

Two rows of mini-radish plants have also come up at last, and so also the komatsuna plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To end this week’s post here are some flowers from my garden – the pot marigold is a different one than last week’s.

Pot marigold

 Pansies

Until the next week, happy gardening!

Technorati Tags: Sugar snap,figs,fava,pansies

Beginnings of a square-foot garden patch

The weather has finally shown signs of warming up, and I have finally made a start on my square-foot garden patch. Here’s what the patch looks like:

I have managed to put in 7 x 7 squares into the patch with two walkways.

Already planted as seeds:

Potatoes: 1 per square x 8 squares

Komatsuna (Brassica rapa): 5 per square x 4 squares

Clover (flower): 6 per square x 1 square

Rape blossoms (flower):] 6 x 1 square

(all the above are on the extreme right of the photo above – planted on March 2, 2009)

Radish: 5 per square x 4 squares

Shungiku (edible crysanthemum): 5 per square x 4 squares

Carrot: (Probably) 6 per square x 4 squares

Primula (polyanthus): 2 per square x 1 square (one pink, one yellow)

Pot marigold: 2 per square x 1 square

(all the above are in the middle between the two walkways of the photo above: see enlarged photos of primula and pot marigold below – planted on March 9, 2009)

Primula (primrose) or Polyanthus

 

Pot marigold

 

Planted as seedlings:

Red cabbage: 1 per square x 4 squares

Broccoli: 1 per square x 4 squares

Cabbage: 1 per square x 4 squares

Mizuna (potherb mustard): 2 per square x 4 squares

(the above can be seen on the extreme left – planted on March 16)

The last row of squares is yet free and I have plenty more to plant here!

Help! I need more land!

 

I was excited to see the first of the Komatsuna and radish shoots in my squares today. I was also happy to see my daughter Maya, lend a hand today with the planting of cabbage and brocolli plants and general digging and leveling of the soil.

My green peas and fava beans in planters on the balcony are doing well too, and I can see the green peas within the pods growing larger! The fava bean plants have plenty of flowers, but I have yet to see the beans. I’m hopeful of a good harvest around the end of April or beginning of May.

Fava beans in planters

Green peas growing fast!

I also planted Hydrangea cuttings last week – they were hardwood cuttings and I’m hoping that roots will develop from these cuttings in a month’s time. Let’s see how it goes. Here are the cuttings and the hydrangea plant with new leaves just coming up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to end this post, here is a photo of the two pot marigold and primrose plants in two squares.

 

Pot marigolds and primroses

 

Happy gardening!

Technorati Tags: Red cabbage,potherb mustard,carrot,radish,primula,pot marigold

Preparations for spring!

I’m already excited at the prospect of growing and propagating lots of vegetables and flowers this spring, which will be here soon! I plan to propagate quite a few of flowers in my garden and exchange it for other flowers with friends! I have also got hold of quite a few vegetable seeds from India and hope to try them out. Moreover, I’m bubbling with energy this time because I’m trying out something new – a square foot garden. Yes, I have just started off by marking off and preparing a part of my small patch with 30 cm x 30 cm squares, and have laid a small stone pathway beside it. Here’s a photo:

  The patch to the right of the walkway of red stones will have 7×2 squares of 0.3m each. Each square will contain one or more plants. I intend to start with potatoes (a first for me) and Komatsuna (Japanese green – Brassica rapa), with probably one potato plant in one square and about 10 Komatsuna plants in one square (5 cm spacing).  The weather however, is still cloudy and rainy.I have still not decided how to demarcate the squares. I’ll probably use bamboo, wooden flats, string or maybe just grooves.

I think a square garden is the way to go because of the variety of plants one can grow and rotate in the patch.

 

  Next, I planted cuttings for propagation of the Japanese Photinia (benikanamemochi), which I use for fencing my garden. These plants require very little maintenance, grow well throughout the year, and their tops turn a bright red at certain times of the year.  The photo to the left shows the cuttings.

I hope to exchange some of these propagated plants with others that my garden doesn’t have with my gardening friends. The geranium plants that I propagated through cuttings have already flowered. Geranium is probably the easiest plant to propagate. Just cut pieces a few centimeters each from a healthy branch and stick them in soil; roots develop in less than a week and the plant grows on its own. I have already given away some of the geranium plants that I propagated this way to friends.

 

 

Here’s a geranium plant that I propagated from a cutting; a young Begonia is on the left. The cutting developed roots even during winter and has given white flowers (a little difficult to see against the white background).

 

I plan to propagate others during this spring including Sasanqua, Azalea, Japanese anemone, Hydrangea and some others.

 

 

 

I harvested my first cauliflower today and it was delicious! Here’s a photo of the cauliflower; our family cat too was also fairly interested in the fresh cauliflower!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mint cuttings that I had stuck in a planter in early winter last year, also showed new leaves! I’m looking forward to mint chutney in spring.

 

 

 

Mint plants

I love the fragrance of these leaves, and especially, the mint chutney!

 

 

 

 

Finally, here’s a photo of the Hina Ningyou or Japanese dolls that adorn my house during the Hina Matsuri (Girls’ Day or Japanese Doll Festival) on (March 3).

 

 

Hina Ningyou – Japanese dolls set up during the Japanese doll festival (Hina Matsuri) on March 3.

 

Until the next post, have a great day!

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