World garden blog carnival. Gardening for the new year

Time for the carnival. I hope we get a lot of nice posts to showcase.

I have a lot of projects coming for this year. And one of the most important is my grape.

My grape fading into winter

I have always wanted to grow a grapevine in my garden. But, I always thought it would not happen until I got a house for myself. When I started my little garden here I considered buying one for one moment, but then I thought there would be many problems when caring for one in a small balcony and I kept coming up with excuses not to do it.

Even when growing on a small container grapevines can spread quite far. And since I don't have a permanent house yet, I didn’t wanted to risk having the grapevine climbing all around a balcony and then having to move and loosing all the effort from that year.

I hope I can train my grapevine like this

But, one day when I was at a library looking at gardening books (And I mean looking because I cant read that much japanese, so I usually only look at the pictures) I saw a very nice photo of a grapevine growing on a small pot, all coiled around itself and with a lot of fruit hanging. The pot could not had been more than 15 cm tall, and the hole plant looked under a meter, but yet it had a lot of fruits. It had never occurred to me that was possible! Back in my country I have always seen it growing big, even when in a small pot. I don’t know why I didn’t thought of it before.

I already set it up for starting

I looked around more in the Japanese books and the same layout was in almost all of them. They all explain more of less how to do it. I guess in Mexico we don’t try because we have the space. But here in Japan, where space is a luxury some times, growing mini grapevines is common. That is the good thing about traveling, it helps expand the horizons and think outside our own box.

Just have to keep the branches in order
and make some good pruning

So having no more valid excuses, I got my grapevine. I also got a nice planter and some bamboo sticks to make the frame. The plan is very simple, let only one or two branches grow, keep it coiling around itself and prune a lot to keep it tight. Hopefully next year I will have it set and I will get some nice fruit our of it. The original photo I saw in the japanese book only had one level of "circling", but my planter is quite big so I think I can get away with a "two stories grapevine".

By the end of the year it should be ready

Oh and also, some time later I saw them in person. They had a couple in the garden center. I have even seen a bonsai grapevine with some fruit too. That should teach a lesson about thinking out of the box.

Now is your turn, What are your gardening plans for this new year?

For the blog carnival, please input the link directly to the post you are submiting in the widget below. Just click the blue button that says add your link.

Remember it must be a post about what do you plan on doing at your garden this year, maybe about one particular plant you want to have, a renovation you will do, a special patch you will grow, a new gardening technique you will give a try, or any other project you have prepared for this new year.

If you have more questions about the carnival or you want to add a link to this page click here to go to our carnival main page. There you will find more information and some resources you can use.

Or if you want to see past carnivals click here.

Also, add a comment if you like and let us see what your garden is bringing this new year!

World garden, the best of your garden! My favorite plant now is nochebuena (poinsettia) and yours?

Time for the carnival. I hope we get a lot of nice plants to showcase.

My favorite plant now is nochebuena

First of all want to thank everybody! I started this blog just as a little journal of what my little garden has gone through, but I have gotten such a nice response and a warm welcome from fellow gardeners all around the world, that it have become much more.

I set some goals at the beginning, to be completed on three months. All to decide if I should continue, or if it was just a nice experiment. I hoped to have more than 1000 unique visitors, have one day with over 100 visits, pass the 10$ in advertisement (to cover what the domain costs ), and have 50 followers on Twitter.
I am very happy to say, thanks to you, pretty much all of the got accomplished. This blog is a bit past its three months, and so far we have 1,123 unique visitors, with the day with more visits being November 15 with 112 visits. We also reached the goal for advertisement, and are just two followers shy of 50.

My little garden in japan has grown so much because of your comments and your visits. It is quite an encouragement . I will keep up with this little project and I hope you will continue to follow my journey.
So, once again, thank you very much!

Here is my little attempt to give back to the online community. A little blog carnival so everybody get to know each other and show their beautiful gardens and plants.

Ok, here is my submission to the carnival. I hope is the first of many to come.

My little nochebuena

My favorite plant now is my nochebuena (poinsettia), which I got back when I got the rest of the flowers.

I really like this plant. First, because is native from Mexico, which makes me a little proud; second because it represent this winter holidays, which are one of my favorite seasons; third, and most important, because it makes me remember my garden in México. Back at home, my mom and I used to go get some nochebuenas every winter. They look beautiful at the entrance of our house. It was one of the little traditions of the holidays, one that I sure loved.

My nochebuenas back at home

We tried to keep some to last for next season, but they mostly burn down in the hot days of summer. They are meant to live in the colder weather of south Mexico. There is where they really thrive, I have seen trees of nochebuena (poinsettia) down there.

For my mom, our little tradition

Then, being here in a more tempered weather I had to get some. I also was fascinated by the many kinds of nochebuenas (poinsettias) they have here. They have some pink ones, some shaped like a tree, some mini ones, and some even are sprinkled with glitter.

Pink poinsettias are new to me

I don’t know if mine will last the season, but I certainly hope it does.

Now is your turn, which is your favorite plant?

I disabled the links temporarily to make room for the new carnival. Please wait while I upload the old links into a list.

For the blog carnival, please input a link to one of your posts on the little widget below. Just click the blue button that says add your link, add a comment if you like and let us see which one is your favorite plant.