June 3

We have this really ugly metal fence on concrete blocks around our property that was there when we bought the house. Though it is good for keeping children in the yard, it is not very attractive. I am trying to find ways to either cover it up, or use it to my advantage, or both. My latest experiment (after the failed sweet peas in containers) is to plant flowers in the holes in the concrete blocks next to the carpark. One of the flowers I am testing out (matsuba botan or moss rose, thank you Vicky) bloomed today...

I also tried shibazakura (on the left) but was too late for it to flower this year, we will see if it survives until next spring. If either work out, I will expand along the fence next year.
The lawn is really ready for rainy season to arrive...brown brown brown.

bugs and other bits

Here are the promised, and eagerly awaited (?) aphid photos. They aren't very good photos, because I was in a rush to get to tomato planting, but you can get the general idea. The green aphids have infested our soramame (large beans, English, anyone?)

Whereas the black ones prefer to destroy one of our Rose of Sharon trees, oddly leaving the other three identical (well, except they have leaves that haven't been eaten by aphids) neighboring trees untouched...
Here are the girls feeding the fish which they caught from the river with my husband. The little fish (medaka in English?) are going strong, and the water plant that has pretty purple flowers in the summer is starting to get leaves.
This is my next project, the herb garden is in a dreadful state, the rosemary and lavender need pruning, the chives are flowering away, the basil patch-to-be is overrun with baby weeds and I haven't planted any basil yet, and the whole thing is dandelions and moss...
The girls spent most of the time while we were planted tomatoes in the west plot chatting with the lady who has the garden to the east. She lives downtown, but she and her husband have rented the plot next to us for many years.
And, the girls must have been charming because they scored a huge bag of sugar snap peas! I have been coveting their peas for the past week as ours are not quite ready yet. Hooray! Here are a few...

Purple rain, purple rain

Spring arrived in Gifu at the end of February, and, keeping with tradition, there has been a lot of rain. Nice, ground soaking, helping plants (including weeds, unfortunately) grow type rain.

This is our little Japanese dogwood (yamaboshi). It is just outside the back door and is very happy there, but never grows. We wonder if it needs a bit of competition to encourage it to reach for the sun.

Warning Warning! Graphic photo follows! Those who are recuperating from operations may wish for their fuzzy vision back...

We have these birds, I have no idea what they are called in English, but in the summer they hunt frogs and birds and store them for safe keeping on various tree branches throughout the yard. But they are busy taking care of baby birds and get a bit forgetful (we know how that is). As a result, we have slowly mummifying frogs impaled on various tree branches around the yard. Lovely!

We used to keep our umbrella stand outside the front door. Well, one rainy day, running late as usual, I grabbed our umbrellas, wrangled the girls into the car and pulled into the parking lot of their preschool, which was full of other harried, slightly damp mothers and children. I whipped out my umbrella and popped it open. SCREEEECH! Impaled on my umbrella spoke, right in front of my eyes was...

Well, almost exactly the same. Of course, no one else saw the nasty dead frog, they just saw (and heard) the crazy foreign mom having a fit in the parking lot shaking her umbrella like a madwoman. Oh well, I have gotten used to standing out.

So now we keep our umbrella stand INSIDE. The trees, however, remain ghoulishly decorated.

Back to the rain...

One of our two camellia trees, tucked into the gaps between buildings where they can hardly be seen. Some day, maybe 20 years from now, they will look lovely from the road when they get tall enough to be seen.

First Signs of Spring!

loose ends

We are leaving tomorrow and I still have lots of photos in my blog file, so here they are...One of the pouring rain days we've had every day for the past few weeks, until today which was (and still is) boiling hot.

Ready to be made into casserole.
One of my many sick (now dead) tomato plants.
New baby Money Maker. This was the best tasting tomato, so I hope this baby plant makes it.
This is a small bushy plant with little white flowers that my husband "rescued" from some mountain. It was totally attached to the ground and blocking my access to the reisentraube tomatoes. My husband finally moved it and we saw why I couldn't get the pots to budge. Serious roots! My husband replanted them along the path up to the embankment. No need to worry about landslides with those roots.The new access to my tomatoes!
Harvest a few days ago.
Our second mango seed. My husband clipped it before planting. Our first mango seed (planted as is) sprouted a baby mango tree! Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a photo.
My wonderful husband filled in the moat surrounding the new pumpkin vines with cut grass from the embankment.
Our only significant Howden pumpkin.
Newly potted tomatoes. I am going to try to cage them.
M washing carrots.
Balloon flowers have loved this terrible weather.

fall?

I thought cosmos were supposed to bloom in late summer/fall, but apparently this one is confused. I love cosmos, so would be happy if they bloom from now till fall.
Finally some of the flowers in the flower bed closest to the house (NE bed) have started to bloom. This is where the bulbs are, and time between irises and lilies is a bit barren.
More nasturtium.
The SE flower bed is doing pretty well, but I have a bit of a gaping hole in the center that I have to think about. I'm hoping it will look better when the balloon flowers and gladioli start blooming. One Turkish balloon flower (? Turuko kikyo) seems to have survived the winter, hurrah! I love them.
I am still hoping for id on this blue flower which I love.
Reisentraube cherry tomato has zillions of blossoms in each cluster. If these all turn into mini tomatoes we will be in tomato heaven.
Strawberries are plugging along. Down to only 10 or so a day from a peak of 20. Not bad considering they are just in an out of the way corner, half under mud when it rains. They are to the right of the neighbor's garden tool shed in the photo below. Next year we should look into putting down some rice stalks or something for them to lie on.
An view from the girls' bedroom. The lawn has greened up, but the most trodden patches don't really get a chance to grow in .

busy busy

Today was the first nice Sunday in a long time, not too hot either, so we spent most of the day in the garden.You can't tell from this angle, but I pulled lots of these wild flowers in the corner which were threatening to overwhelm a baby mikan tree.
My husband trimmed and staked the cucumbers.
The weeds by the sides of the embankment vegetables were getting out of control.
before
after. Next time I really have to do it before they get shoulder high.
My husband pulled the shiso and cosmos from his baby trees. Both were taller than the baby trees.
I finally pulled the pea vines,and my husband started preparing the space for his next generation of cucumbers. And planted cucumber seeds in pots.
Another view of the former pea site, back right.
I finally repotted these tomatoes which I started in sand from trimmed suckers. They really thrived and grew strong roots. All I did was stick the suckers in sand and water them daily.
My new profile photo, I thought I should update with the seasons. You can even see me by the shed if you squint really hard. My husband took the photo.