cool and breezy

The first summer I spent in Gifu it was over 30C (85F) from May 1 until mid October. And most of it was well over 30C. That was also the last summer I spent the entire summer in Gifu. "Never again," thought this Connecticutie. This year, however, I could possibly consider it. It is cool, downright chilly at times and we are already in mid-May. (Don't worry, Mom, of course we are going to the US)

Today was not only cool (in the teens!) but windy. Seriously windy. Majorly-regretting-having-planted-the-poor-defenseless-tomatoes-out-in-the-fields windy.

Here is our red maple in its new location at the bottom of the embankment (near the pumpkin patch).

And here are the poor defenseless tomatoes. Not only was it windy, we planted them diagonally, as I have read you are meant to do to help the roots expand. This means they were not centered in the hole. Well, this is a newly made field (thanks to my husband!) and still full of weeds. The weeds have grown since we planted the tomatoes 5 days ago, and have lifted up the black plastic. You can sort of see in this photo...
That, combined with the wind and....
I spiked it down after the fact. I know it is too late, but we'll probably put a new one in here.

The potatoes don't mind the wind. We are starting to "worry" that with so much going on above, there may not be much happening below. But given the number of potatoes that were planted, this may prove to be a good thing!
The zucchinis were whipped about a bit, but seem to be hanging in. Two baby zucchinis will probably flower tomorrow, but there are no male flowers yet. Why are the boys always so slow to develop?
And here is our future three sisters plantings so far. Corn and pumpkins. We have the timing a bit wrong. Should have planted the corn sooner. Did, in fact, plant the corn sooner, but it all got eaten before it sprouted. We will add climbing beans, too.
The cornflowers in the yard have started to flower. And Bagus likes to pretend he is in a prison with a nice view.
But we do let him roam free, see...
The chives are flowering away. These look really pretty on salads. We eat immense salads daily. By "we", of course, I mean the girls and I eat 10% and my husband eats the remainder.
One of these blue flowers must have self seeded from last year and is blooming amongst the balloon flower foliage.
The dark pink osteospermum looked like they might not survive the winter, but they did and are blooming their little hearts out now.

flowers: May 9, 2010

This is my last set of photos from May 9, tomato planting day. Not the best photos, because I was in a bit of a rush, but you get some idea what flowers are blooming.

The irises are blooming one color at a time. Purple are just past their peak and yellow are beginning. I keep buying different types of purple irises because there is one kind I really like, but I don't know what it is called and keep hoping to get lucky. So far, no luck, and I have 3 different shades of purple irises.

This flower bed is just starting to get going. The bachelor buttons at the rear right are just starting to bloom. The silver duster at the back is practically a shrub despite brutal pruning. The Campanula are almost ready to bloom, and the balloon flowers will be close behind. In the front are pansies, a rather sad New Guinea Impatient, an osteopermum, a few anenome (most didn't come up again this year), and a few petunias in case all else fails. Also I planted a few turkish balloon flowers again because I do love them, even though they don't love me.

My husband made a new slightly terraced area at the bottom of the embankment for the blueberries. I planted extra pansies and other misc flowers here.

Also a new yellow osteospermum. It is really pretty, but I realized I will have to move it, because this whole area will be taken over by pumpkin vines by late summer.

My father-in-law gave us a few of this pretty pink flowers, which we planted behind the pumpkins at the base of my husband's baby tree patch.The yamaboshi (Japanese dogwood) started flowering. It seems very healthy, but hasn't grown at all in the 2 years since we planted it. We wonder if perhaps its sun exposure is too good, so it doesn't feel any need to grow taller.
The yellow magnolia by my classroom door is blooming.
And I have started planting flowers along the border of the empty lot next door to our driveway.
And I'm also putting flowers in the holes in the ugly cement fence by the driveway. I love this white flower, it continues to bloom every May. I think this is its third year.
My more expensive petunias from last year proved to be worth the extra money as they have come back in force again this year.

March 8 flowers

I took way too many photos on March 8. Lots of flowers, and then we had the big seed planting in the afternoon, too!

A look around the neighborhood flowers during Jackie's morning walk. This first photo is to show that I take these while holding the dog, so it is very difficult to get a good shot. She is a very sweet dog, but was abused and abandoned before we took her in and has serious emotional issues, including fear of almost everything (except children) which causes her to try to run away. Usually, while I am trying to get a photo.

Anyway, this is a nanohana. We meant to sow these along our embankment this year, but forgot. Next year!

These are from the garden plot to our east. That's our house in the background. Actually the lot next door has 4 plots. The people who use the plot closest to our house are wonderful and them giving us a big bag of snap peas when we came to look at the house pretty much made up my mind to buy it. The man with the middle plot lets it all go to towering weeds and only shows up on really beautiful days to ruin them for everyone else by spraying horrible smelly chemicals on his fruit trees. The people with the far side plots are also very nice.
And, in one of the far side plots, pink bachelor buttons are blooming!

And then I saw blue ones blooming, too, a bit further down the embankment.

For some reason our garden and embankment is always weeks behind the rest of our neighborhood. Here is one of our bachelor buttons...

Not even close! But, our efforts to get them to grow on our embankment have been paying off. For two years I have been pilfering seeds from the neighbors embankments and sowing them along ours while walking the dog, and my husband has been weedwacking away the past two years. This spring several plants are growing. Maybe in a few more weeks.

A cherry tree along the embankment in front of the weird guy's house is starting to bud. It really is spring!

Of course, the one flower of ours that is in sync with the rest of the neighborhood is the dandelion.

Back at home...
crocuses
The new anenomes I bought this spring are about to bloom.
Mini tulip
surrounded by crocuses. I planted a bunch of mini tulips in here, but only one seems to have come up. These are at the base of the dead frog tree.
Grape hyacinths from my husband's friend (thank you, Lさん) are doing great.
More daffodils and narcissus are blooming.
Osteospermum
My pansies I planted from seed are finally starting bloom, though the plants are still tiny. I mean, you can't even see any leaves here.
These weren't my favorite flower, but I made a pot of a yellow one, an orange one and daisies for the front of my classroom and they look so cheerful, I am really starting to like them.

Guardian of the Garden

With a face like that, I don't really think she will manage to scare away any robbers. In fact, we are rather hoping they might help themselves to some broccoli which is all about to flower.
Peas are starting to sprout in the plot next door.
Which my husband, the human-rotatiller has been busy expanding...
I tackled some weeding. I started with the lawn. See all those green bits. Those are weeds.
I did about a third and gave up. I figure the grass will turn green in a few more months and then the weeds won't stand out so much.
I turned my attention to the weeds in the flower beds.
My mini irises are starting to bloom.
And the white narcissus are getting close to blooming, too.
Flower bed post-weeding. The daffodils will be blooming soon!
I moved two extra sweet peas to the back of this flower bed. I wonder if this blue hibiscus tree is still alive?
I moved most of these hardy yellow flowers to the embankment where they can multiply to their hearts' content. They are a bit much for the flower beds.
Crocus.
Last year I got some mystery osteospermum from the weird little flower shop I frequent. When they bloomed, some of them were pretty, but one had these weird pinched petals that reminded me of a clown. I didn't have the heart to outright murder it, so I moved it to an out of the way, partially shady, totally sandy and devoid of nutrient corner. Well, it turns out that it loves partial shade, total sand and no nutrients! Look at how it has thrived, threatening to engulf this baby camellia tree.
And it is about to bloom. If I am not mistaken, I think its petals might not even be pinched any more!
One of its sisters which stayed in the flower bed has also started to bloom.