Making a strawberry tower

One of the first steps to help my garden recover after its last disaster was to start propagating the strawberries. I lost my main crop completely, but I was very fortunate that all of the back up strawberries survived, with them I can very easily replace all the lost plants.

I need all the strawberry runners I can get

I'm in luck, because most of them are giving out plenty of nice runners. I only have to guide them and then separate into the big strawberry planters.

Lucky me they are a lot of healthy ones growing

Now I only had one plant of each variety and there is a risk to lose some if anything happens. Also, I need some time to make sure there are no more grubs and to renew the soil from the big strawberry planters, so the first thing I am doing is filling all the gaps in the strawberry tower. It has been quite easy as all the runners seem to be just the perfect length to reach all the other levels. I am sure the tower will be full very soon.

The tower is already filling up

My only worry is that there will be enough runners to fill everything before the cold comes and the strawberries go into their dormant state. I need at least 24 plants to fill every gap available and so far I only have 6. I will add a bit of fertilizer to help them keep spreading, but other than that I can only wait and cross my fingers.

A perfect container for growing strawberries in the balcony

As you know, I have lost my strawberry twice patch so far, once to some unknown disease and other time to beetles. So, to avoid having to buy everything from scratch again, I decided I must have some sort of back up strawberry patch. The only problem is that my little garden hardly can fit more plants and having duplicates for six varieties of berries takes a lot of space. Fortunately I found a perfect container to fit all of my berries in a very compact way.

A great container for growing strawberries

While I was browsing around the 100yen store (dollar store) I found this amazing planter. It is a stackable three way pot. It is great, just the perfect size and depth. I can set my strawberries the same way as in a traditional strawberry jar pot, but because this one can be taken apart it is much easier to maintain. Also, I can shuffle around the levels to assure each plant gets lots of sun when they need it.

I can stack them and keep all my strawberries in a little corner

It is always good having a back up for valuable plants and this is just the planter I needed. Some of the strawberry varieties are hard to get or a bit expensive. I will save a lot of troubles and costs in case something bad happens (it already did, but more about that later).

Now I only need to make some tags

The next step is to keep organized, I need to make some good labels and tag which strawberry is which one.

Summer crops

This summer was an amazing season for the edibles in my garden. All of the crops grew like crazy and even thought I got a couple setbacks there were still a lot of vegetables and fruits with every harvest. Not bad at all for a small balcony garden.

Every harvest gave me a full platter of food

I had four big harvest out the plants, and every time I got to fill a big plate with all the produce. I also got a lot of minor harvests because every time I needed herbs or more fruits all I needed to do is pick them from the balcony.

I got many fresh beans from the garden

This year there were many plants in the garden. The tomato plants were definitely my main crop, I had tree big plants, they grew a lot and gave a many fruits. I also have basil and some more herbs that took very well the summer and grew many new leaves.

The strawberries were few but good

Pumpkin flowers taste great with cheese

The chilies also gave a big crop although a bit skinny. I had my first batch of blueberries ever and a bit of strawberries. And the pumpkin, even thought it didn't fruit I got many flowers to eat.

Not bad for a very small balcony garden

It was amazing having so much fruits and vegetables, I had never grown so much food. I deeply recommend to anybody with a garden to grow at least a little corner of edibles. It is very rewarding, it saves a bit of money and it gives you very tasty fresh food to eat.

My little garden in Japan June 2011

I can't believe it is the end of June already, this month went by so fast I couldn't really notice. Here is how my little garden in Japan is doing lately. Summer has really kick in at the garden, and pretty much everything is doing great right now. The balcony is completely green and grown, I can hardly walk among the plants, even though I do pruning regularly they are still overcoming me with so many new leafs.

Hope for more flowers and soon some pumpkins

• The veggie planters are doing all great! The beans are so full of pods and the pumpkin is ready to give many flowers.
  
  
• The flowerboxes are in a small period of growth with not many flowers because I just got the pansies out and new plants in, but I am expecting a lot of new blooms soon.
  
  
• Finally I have some strawberries in the garden. This year because of April's vacation drought my strawberries lost their strength and most of them probably won't give any fruit for the season, however a couple of them did manage to put some flowers and now they are getting ready to be eaten.

Finally, delicious strawberries

• The blueberries are growing more and more, I can't wait to august for them to be ready.
  
  
• The tomatoes are completely covered with fruit, and If I count both the mini tomatoes and the big tomatoes I have more than 100 fruits getting more and more ripe every day. It is going to be an amazing summer for them.

The tomatoes keep growing and growing

• The calla lilies keep on flowering. I discovered five different kinds among them, It is going to be so great next year when they bloom more properly.
  
  
• The rest of the plants, with very few exceptions are doing well.

My little garden in japan is all full of green this summer

And last, the butterflies are all grown, but more about that later.

A visit to an "all you can eat" strawberry farm in japan いちご狩 食べ放題

Here in japan, they love having "all you can eat" (tabehodai 食べ放題) trips to different farms. They have it for almost everything: strawberries, grapes, blueberries, tangerines, cherries, melon, peaches, sweet potato and many others. It is really fun to see the trips being organized and promoted all around the year as every fruit or plant reaches their season. This time of the year is the season for strawberries (greenhouse raised of course). I was lucky enough to join in one of these ichigo gari (いちご狩) trips this week to a strawberry farm.

I take "All you can eat strawberries" as a personal challenge

For the tour they first give a small explanation about the farm and the berries, and then they tell you the rules of the buffet. They are usually set with a 30 minutes limit and like in most places, you can only eat there, not taking any out. After the explanation they lead us to the green house room where the strawberries are so we can start eating.

To get there we walked trough a greenhouse maze, with big rooms of plants connected with smaller tunnels and little hallways all protected with plastic from the outside weather. I was lucky because our room was on the far side of the farm, so I got to see a bit more of what else they had. On that same farm they had blueberries and grapes, which I am sure they will host their own "all you can eat" (tabehodai 食べ放題) when their season reaches.

It was good learning how the professionals raise strawberries

It was very interesting to see the layout and the arrangement of the greenhouse. As you can see on the photos they plant leeks and similar plants at the borders, probably to protect against aphids and other pests. They also had a beehive on each room, but the bees seem very mild and only mind their own. Other thing is that they water from underneath, so the fruits are very clean, no need to rinse at all before eating.

They had a lot of plants, and many ripe and ready to pick strawberries

Another interesting thing have I noticed here is that many ichigo gari (いちご狩) farms have their plants growing at chest level to help people pick them easier. The one I went, though, was not of this kind. This is because is the strawberries there are not only intended for the "all you can eat", they are a big farm that sends their fruit all over japan, so they grow them from the ground to allow for bigger crops.

They were delicious, I hope mines will be as good

It was a lot of fun, I got full to almost exploit of very delicious strawberries and I also got to see how the professionals handle the plants. I hope my little strawberry baskets will give fruit like this one when their time comes. They were delicious!

New everbearing strawberry for my garden

And yet again, I had another gardener compulsive shopping disorder episode. Last week I went to the garden center just to see what was in store for the winter.

My new everbearing strawberry

Since winter is coming, they don’t have as much flowers anymore. However, they did had a bunch of plum and cherry blossoms trees getting ready for spring, and some winter tulips too. I was almost going to buy some, but I managed to convince myself not to. I already have some tulips in my garden, so I can wait a bit. And the cherry trees are just to big for my small balcony. However, there was one thing I could not resist. They had some everbearing strawberries for sale! I just had to get me some.

From what I know, the everbearing varieties are a bit hard to get here in Japan. Last time, after loosing my crazy always blooming strawberries to beetles, I tried to get some more of the everbearing kind. But, even when I look on more than 10 places, I could not find them anywhere. I found that, here in Japan, summer blooming varieties are much more coveted than everbearing, so it's very unusual to find the plant for sale. I was also surprised to find out that mines where not really true everbearing, they just had a lucky mutation that gave them that characteristic.

And this one is still blooming growing fruit!

So, when I saw this one for sale, I had to buy it. And even more after finding they only had three plants left.

I hope it grows well on my garden. I still have to find it a place. I think I will put it in the same pot with the others, but I am hesitant in case something happens and some disease wipes away all the strawberry pot like last time. You can never be to careful with your strawberries.

Strawberries in my little garden in japan

If you visit this blog regularly, your probably know strawberries are one of my favorite plants to have, but also one of the most tricky to raise for me.

One of the strawberry pots in my little garden in japan

After some problems with beetles and little setbacks earlier this year, I found myself replacing my strawberry plants. Luckily it all finally seems to be going ok now. The only thing is that, I ended up with so many strawberries that I don't even know what to do with them (not that I complain).

Here are the strawberries varieties I currently have on my little garden in Japan. I found the information about them in the charts at garden center and also doing a little extra reseach.

女峰 （にょほう）Nyohou
From the first replacement batch, and currently on quarantine because the others on that batch got diseased. It got a bit down for some time, but it seems like it will make it. I will get a new shoot out of it and raise that one as the main just to be sure. It is already growing new leafs, so I think it will be ok. This is the same type as my old strawberries; I didn't realize this until after I had bought it. They have a good balance between sweet and acid and they give a big yield with a nice shape and color.

びっくりイチゴ Bikkuriichigo, 宝交早生 Houkouwase
and ひがり小町 Hikarikochou strawberry

宝交早生　(ほうこうわせ) Houkouwase
One of the most hardy of the bunch. It has a soft texture, with a bit of acid taste. It is supposed to be very easy to grow, so I hope it will thrive nicely. It also has the characteristic that it starts giving fruit early and its season last a bit longer.

びっくりイチゴ　Bikkuriichigo
The name translates something like "surprising strawberry". The main characteristic of this one is its size but it is also very sweet. It can grow as big as 7 cm. I got it because it will be fun to see how big it gets, doesn't matter if I don’t get many.

アイベリー　Love berry
I have tree of this kind. One is a little shoot I rescued from the first batch that got diseased; The others are from the second batch. They came in the same little pot, but I separated them to give them a better chance. It is one of the bests in terms of flavor. Very sweet, good size, nice aroma and a very rich texture. I will treat this one as my main crop. I hope it grows well in my garden.

My three アイベリー Love berry strawberry

章姫　(あきひめ）　Akihime
Like the love berry, this one also have very nice flavor and size, but it has a different texture. While the love berry has a firm flesh, this one is more on the soft side.

ひがり小町　（ひがりこちょう）　Hikarikochou
A well balanced strawberry, nice shape and color with a lot of sweetness and a strong flavor. It is also very hardy and disease resistant. Because it is one of the most resistant and balanced, this will be my wild card in case something happens.


Also, asking a strawberry guru from the garden center, I found out something about my old ever bearing. Turns out that it was not really one, it was just a lucky struck. Some of the strawberry varieties here in japan (like Akihime, Kunouwase, Nyohou and others from the same family line), sometimes develop ever bearing characteristics. It happens on one or two plants of each fifty or so. What happens is that they just start giving fruit whenever they feel like it, regardless of the season.

They must have some ever bearing genes that kick in now and then, but it is not something planned, is pure luck. I find it to be a very funny trait. I will double cross my fingers and toes so I get lucky again or at least try and get a hold of one of those if I see one ever for sale.

女峰 Nyohou Strawberries from my July harvest

On a different topic. I got some great response about the blog carnival. Based on your comments it will be about a favorite or special plant in your garden. I am not sure if I want to try to make the carnival post a monthly thing, I know for sure I would get tangled with the dates or I might get busy with school. But, I do want to have it now and then. This way more of your favorites will be able to showcase. Because ,like Green Lane Allotments said in the last post's comments, picking only one, it's like asking a parent to choose only one favorite child!

Maybe having one per season, or every couple of months will be ok. That way you get to show your beautiful maple or ginko in November, tulips in April, strawberries in June, etc., etc.

For this first one, because we are starting and also because it is a bit of the down season in gardening, lets make it about any favorite you have. It can be either your favorite for that month or any other month, other year, other life, you pick. Just choose one that you really like.

Now for the date, should it be Sunday 28 or Tuesday 30? Please let me know in the comments.

Happy gardening!

More problems with my strawberries

Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits and also one of my favorite plants to grow. So, when I started my little garden in japan I decided I they were a must. The only thing I didn’t take into account is that they would require so much work.

If you remember a couple posts ago, when I talked about buying strawberry plants in japan, I mentioned that I had some problems dealing with my new strawberries. Well, here is the story.

My strawberries, before all of this happened

They were all living nicely on their planter, started to grow and they even had a couple runners, which I promptly cut away. But suddenly, after a couple weeks, the one on the middle start to dry out and as always I had no clue what was going on. At first I thought it was beetles again, but I had not seem any lately and the problem was only on one, not all.

After around a week of looking pale, the plant finally died. I dug it out and examine it but there wasn't any obvious problems. The roots didn’t seem very affected, the crown looked a little black but it still had enough healthy feeder roots, it was only the leafs that had just gone dry. The next week, a second one started to have symptoms and after some days of going worst it died the same way.

The autopsy was inconclusive, some white feeder roots, but dried branches and leaves like if the water doesn't get to them. No idea what does this. I think the cold probably got to them, we had a little rollercoaster of temperatures back when the symptoms started.

One of the most suspicious symptoms was that the branches started to turn red before drying, but I think this is normal on dying branches. I also suspected red stele but I did not see much red on the stele of the root.

The lone strawberry survivor on quarantine

To try to protect my garden I took out the lone survivor and put it on a separate planter on quarantine. I threw away all the soil and I plan on giving a good scrub and some scalding water to the planter they where in. I hope this will allow new strawberries to grow there.

Of course I freaked out from the start of all this, I didn't wanted my garden to be strawberryless for next season. So, I went and got a bunch of back up plans. Now I have a whole set of new strawberries, and I already put them on a brand new planter with new soil and new pebbles. I even disinfected my little shovel. I will introduce them to you on a post later.

It was very sad, but not much more to do about it, the only regret is that I lost the one plant that had flowers, so no crazy blooming all year strawberry for next season.

To lighten up the mood, a strawberry in a strawberry bag!

Any ideas what could have happened?

Buying strawberry plants in japan

Now here in Tokyo we are in strawberry buying season. I keep seeing they sell little plants almost everywhere, in the supermarkets, at little stands in the street, flower shops, and of course the garden center.

My new strawberries

Since I needed to buy some new strawberry plants to replace my old ones that died, I was more than happy to take one afternoon to shop around and see what o could get.

I find very interesting how they do marketing here in japan. They have a very specialized kind of approach. For example when I went to buy my tulips, they had a very nice display and everything was set up to help you get what you want and also a nice shopping experience. So this time, when going for strawberries I had a lot of expectations about how they will do. Luckily I was not disappointed.

They had a lot of strawberry varieties

When I arrive to the garden center, their main display was, of course, the strawberries. They had set up several tables outdoor for their display. They had a large selection with many variety's and different types, even some special kinds that I didn’t know existed. Among the most interesting were; a variety that has peach flavor, one that blooms with pink flowers, several white strawberries, one that can give fruit as big as 8cm, and many others.

Because there was so much to choose form I was having trouble and getting confused about what to get. Also I don’t know that many about strawberry varieties, so I could not pick a specific one that I know would be good.

Fortunately among the information they had, there were some charts about each strawberry main characteristics. I used this ones to find what kind of strawberry I would like. The chart say which ones are easy to grow, big, sweet, big crops, etc. I found it very helpful.

One of the strawberry types and characteristic charts

They also had a lot of other growing strawberry related articles, all with a strawberry theme. They where specialized books, tools, fertilizers, planters and others. There was even a brand that does their packaging using a very funny strawberry shaped bag. I had seen this brand doing the same thing with tomato shaped bags, back on tomato season.

Strawberry soil and fertilizer

At the end I chose one that has big and sweet strawberries, one with big crop and easy to raise and also one ever bearing with flowers at bloom, you know to maintain the spirit of my crazy strawberry that gave fruit all the time. I hoped that would had me covered for next season.

Every variety had their own starting pot color

I got home and set them on their planter, where they seemed to be doing fine. Of course if you follow my twitter you know that is not the rest of their story, but that is for another post.

To honor my old everbearing a new blooming strawberry

The whole experience was very nice, I learned some new things about strawberries, saw something I had never seen, and had fun. I enjoyed buying for strawberry plants here. I still wish I could get more, but no more space in my little garden in japan, maybe next year.

Beetles!

Today I finally discovered what happened to my strawberries. Beetles ate them!

Beetles ate my strawberries!

I arrived from the garden center today, I had gone there to buy some tulip bulbs, and when I got back and put the things in the garden I discovered a little something crawling happily under one of the strawberry leafs. I look closely and saw that it was a green june beetle larva. I give it a very mean eye it and started to look for more.

I had dealt with green beetles this summer, they ate some of the strawberry flowers and even some of the leaves. It wasn't that big of a problem. I did caught them several times trying to lay eggs on the soil, and I thought I kept them from doing it, but I guess one of them managed to go unnoticed.

I found 10 beetle lava in the soil

I dug all the soil I could around the strawberries and I find ten of them, they seem to be very well developed, not rare since they had plenty of food from all the roots they ate. I will continue to dig around the strawberries to look for them over the next days, maybe I can get them all. I know it's silly, but I don’t want to give up on the strawberries yet. Their particular sweet taste and their ability to give fruit all year round is too special to lose. Now, since it was just beetles, and I caught them, there is a chance, a very, very small chance, that the strawberries will survive. It's much better than cero chance, so I will take it.

Hang in there you can make it

I feel relieved that it's only beetles and not verticillium wilt or other even worst fungus, now at least I know It wasn’t my fault, my watering is good, I did check for beetle eggs every time they dug, but I guess one sneaked up on me. Also in case I can't recover the strawberries I can reuse that pot and soil and the rest of my plants will be free of danger.

Green june beetles are not that dangerous to a garden, they do like to eat fruit and pulpy plants, which can be a problem, and the larva can eat the roots of some plants, but on a normal garden the damage they do is minimal compared to some other pests. However, in my case they were too many in a little container and no other food besides strawberry roots, deadly combination.

My advice to other container gardeners is simple.
Keep an eye open for green beetles, they usually go around early in the morning trying to get food or lay some eggs. And if you see a beetle sized hole that appeared overnight, check for eggs, it just might save your strawberries.

Help! my strawberries are dying

Help! my strawberries are sick and I don’t know what I can do.

Like I said before, of all my plants my strawberries are the ones that surprise me the most. The problem is that it's not always a good surprise. This past few days the strawberries started to get a bit down during the day, they acted like if they lacked water, but I have been taking good care of them. I wonder if is a fungus, or beetles on the roots. I hope it's nothing serious, and they will recover soon. However, they don't seem to be getting better at all.

Today they really got down

Today they really flopped. They went down and stay like that. I took out the one that seemed almost dead to check for any problems on the root. It does not look good. The root is all gone, almost all black or rotten and almost no white healthy roots remain. It doesn't look like a pest, so i am guessing is a fungus

This root doesn't look good at all

I wonder what can I do. I hope they survive.
Anyone have an advice?

Strawberries in August!!

This weekend I harvested the first strawberry of the august batch!

my strawberry harvest of August!

I don’t know why, but my strawberries just keep on giving fruit. I was surprised when they gave a batch in November, but now they have been giving since may and again now in august.

I think they might be the ever bearing type, but the label they come with says it is a June bearing. Also they continue to give out many runners, I have to cut some out every week, and ever bearing are supposed to give very few runners. So it's very confusing.

this strawberry was getting big in mid august

Last month after the July harvest I thought that was the end. The plant had given out a very generous batch of several branches and then stopped giving flowers. But this time I noticed some new flowers were about to come out early august. Another week and they were at full bloom. I artificially pollinated the first flower and let the others be as nature intended.

Last week that one strawberry started to ripen and the rest started to get some volume. And finally this last weekend I harvested successfully that one strawberry. It had a very funny pear shape, very different to the ones I got this July.

Pear strawbery

Now the rest of the batch doesn’t look like it will grow more, and they didn't got enough pulp, so I guess I should have pollinated those as well. But well I'm very happy with my one pear shaped strawberry harvest, it was very sweet, one of the sweetest of this year.

I wouldn't be shocked if the plant will try to fruit some more this fall. Like i said before, of all my plants it is the one that continue to surprise me every time

It was very sweet

My flowers

Every garden needs flowers. They look great, smell great and help to attract many beneficial insects to the garden.  

My flowers at their best

Having a garden is a tradition that starts with my grandparents. They always had a very full of life garden. My grandpa had grapes, strawberries and even an "amaze everybody he could grew it" pineapple. My grandma on the other hand always had many beautiful flowers, she often woke up early and cut some flowers to adorn her house, filling it all with the fresh scents.

Back at my parents, we also used to have lots of flowers in the garden. Usually we grew petunias for spring, and "Nochebuenas" (Poinsettias) at winter, but we had many others as well, including a huge bugambilia that covers the whole front fence.

My Calla lily blooming this summer

Having a garden here in japan, I could not miss out on having some flowers of my own. I already had a Calla lily, and a Kalanchoe but this spring I got a bunch more.

My torenia

It just keeps on blooming

I bought this one at my favorite garden center. It was quite full of flowers when I got it, but at my garden it went crazy growing and blooming nonstop. They remind me of the full white carpet of petunias that I used to have at my parents' house.

Now it continue to give flowers, but it is not as full after the vacation drought.

My Blue Salvia

I love this purple color

I had seen a lot of this flowers around since last year, but I didn't know much about them. Silly me at first I used to believe this was lavender. I think it's an honest mistake, the flowers do look alike a bit. However when I visited Hokkaido last year and I saw the lavender farms, I realize it’s a different plant.

This spring I spot some at the garden center, and I had to buy them. This deep purple color is one of my favorites of all my flowers.

Sadly this plant got a lot of damage on the week of the drought, and it never fully recovered. Now it still have some green and some tinny flowers but I think it's best to take it out. Next year however, it will sure be on my list of flowers to get for spring.

My Marigold

The flower basquet

This is another flower I got because it reminds me of the flowers back in my country. I wanted to have it because I know it attracts a lot of beneficial insects and because I really like the scent. Sadly I lost it because of vacation drought, maybe next year I can get some more.

My Mini Rose

It finally started blooming again

I love roses. It might seem as a cliché but I think they are the most romantic of all flowers. In my garden I have a tinny yellow mini rose. Well, it started as tiny, the pot it came in was barely half a cup. When it started growing I changed it to a bigger pot but then problems started.

At the beginning it was full of flowers, but after a while it stopped. I assume it wanted some food so I prepared some banana milkshake fertilizer and it started blooming again.
Now it continues to live very happily and it already grew five times its initial size.

My Geraniums

Geraniums for my mom

I got this plants because they remind me of my mom. She loves geranium. I remember once we bought a bunch from a plant nursery and then we felt bad because they where only stems (back then we didn’t know that’s how geraniums reproduce).

In my garden I have a red and a white one. They seem to be ok, but they are growing slow because they got a little hurt from lack of water on vacations. The only problem is that white one seems to be growing albino leafs, I think it got too much sun, I hope it recovers soon.

My Globe Amaranth

Butterflies love Globe Amaranth

I didn't knew this flower before, and so far I had only seen it in japan, but it's definitely one of my favorites. I had seen it growing in many gardens here but strangely I didn't found it for sale last year.

I wanted to have one on my garden because with that shape it looks like it’s the kind of flower butterflies go crazy about. Luckily this week because of a post at tokyodiygardening.org and thanks to @a_small_lab I was reminded of them, so I went to my favorite garden center and I found them there. Of all the displays it was the one with the most butterflies, it think I counted around 14.
So that’s how it become the new acquisition for my garden. I got the one with more buttons, so I can be sure to have butterflies at my garden.

Oh and turns out this flower is native back in my country.


So those are my flowers.
Besides from all of these ones, when they were on season, the tomato, the strawberry, the peppers and specially the mints were full of flowers and add to the flower collection.

Strawberry flowers