My little garden in japan September 2010

I would like to start every month with a little update on the status of my garden. That way I can try and keep track on how it has been changing over time.

My strawberries have been acting weird again, this time they started to get a little down during midday, like if they lacked water, even if they don't. It might be some fungus, or maybe beetles got in their roots, I hope it's nothing serious and they recover soon. Any ideas what it can be?

Also my peppers, I had talked before how this year I didn't get any luck with my peppers, they bloomed like crazy but they only give out one single pepper. Today, finally, that one pepper changed color, it is the yellow one.
I had lost track of which pepper was which one after moving them around, they grew a lot during the season, mostly on leafs, but today the one pepper that did grow turned color. Now I know which one is the yellow and which one is the red. I hope next year I will be more lucky and the plants will give many peppers.

My only pepper of this year

My maple tree, haven't changed much, I think it will be late autumn when it start changing, it is still very hot now.

The calla lily, the globe amaranth, the basil, the rose, the grape and the torenia are doing great, I might need to trim a little of the torenia since it doesn’t have as much flowers, but it's all good. The calla lily is still very green, if I remember last year it didn’t go dry until November.

My mints, seem to be doing great in their new house, I expect them to continue their crazy growth in a week or more. Also because I part them now I have a lot of branches growing in little starter pots, I wonder what will I do with all, there are too many.

My kalanchoe seems to be doing great, it starts having new sprouts, I might need to change it to a bigger pot soon.

My tomato, my blue salvia and my beans are no more. I took them out, I will wait for next season to get more.

My geranium are so so, the white one doesn’t have leafs any more, and the red one started to get many white leafs (that’s how the white one start to loose its leafs) I don’t know why, I read online it's because they have too much sun so I try putting them in the shadow, I hope they can recover. Although I have seen this same effect all over Yokohama and Tokyo lately, so it might be something natural. I guess I have to wait and see.

My coriander, got attacked by beetles or something. They ate all the seedlings, I might try to sow some more and hope they are still on season.

Also I got a huge 50lt planter, and I will try to sow some veggies, probably lettuce, and maybe onions if I get some purple ones.

Did I miss anything?

My vegetables

Back at my country I had grown food many times before. At my parents' house we have lots of lemon and orange trees, papayas, and once we even had a mango and a watermelon. However vegetables are something I had not tried since I was a kid (well we do have a chili pepper bush but it practically grows itself).

Here in japan I was convinced I wanted to try to grow some vegetables in my garden. Apart from my tomatoes here I also have beans and peppers.

My peppers

My peppers finally got some fruit

I have a red and a yellow ornamental pepper. I got them from the trash of a flower shop last fall. I wonder why they threw them away, when I got them they still look good, I think the flower shop just needed the space. I didn't have any problem with them all winter, even though I kept them on their starter pots. They continue to flower and fruit thought the winter and into early spring.

I wasn't sure where to put them, but finally I did change them into a bigger pot. However when I change them I used some leftover banana milkshake fertilizer and I think it was too much because they stop giving fruit after that.

After the re-pot they had a couple weeks of rapid only leafs growth, then they started to bloom like crazy but dropped all flowers with no fruit. They continued doing that all spring and early summer and only until recently the amount of flowers diminished. Still no peppers though, well only one.

My beans

The beans never fully recovered from the drought

I like to grow beans because they remind me of my childhood. I always remember when I was a kid and I used to walk between the very tall bean stalks at my house garden. I don't think they were that tall, but when I was a kid they felt like giants.

Here in Japan I first sow some beans on late June. They grew like crazy, and started to take over the balcony fence, they were growing really good, and I was already counting how many I would harvest. Sadly, the beans were one of the most damaged plants on the week of the draught. Now they are only thin stalks with a couple of leafs. I guess I should get them out and try to sow some more but I haven't had the heart to do it.

For this winter I want to get some more vegetables, something that I can grow in my little balcony garden. I was thinking コマツナ (Japanese Mustard Spinach) and onions but I haven't decided yet, any recommendations?

My plants

Here is a small ever-changing list of the plants on my garden.
I will try to update this page accordingly to my current garden status. All my plants are now on the "my garden" page

 

• Mint: One apple mint and one peppermint
• Beans: No idea what kind I just try to sow some I didn’t eat
• Grape: It's a Pione, I just got it this month 
• Cilantro: Now on the second sow, I hope they are still on season
• Basil: Sweet basil, I want to try to cook with it
• Japanese maple tree (紅葉): The pot actually has four different kinds I'm waiting for autumn to see which one I keep
• Kalanchoe: Pink, donated by a shop
• Strawberry (苺): In memory of my grandfather 
• Tomato: On the end of season
• Pepper: Rescued form a garden shop trash
• Torenia: White, so many flowers
• Blue Salvia: Beautiful purple flowers
• Zantedeschia: My first plant in japan
• Rose: A little yellow mini rose
• Geranium: White and red for my mom
• Globe amaranth*: For the butterflies  

 

All of my plants have been an adventure on its own, some have worked some have not. Also besides from this I hope to acquire some tulips and maybe some other plants along the road.

*Updated 27 Aug 2010: A brand new globe amaranth