My tools for balcony gardening

This is a post I have been wanting to do since long time ago. I wanted to show the gardening tools I use to take care of my little garden in japan.

My balcony gardening tools

First of all, a little disclaimer. If you want to have a small garden, you don’t really need to have any tools. They do help make the work easy sometimes, but you can always get away without them. For bigger gardens they might be necessary, but for a little balcony like mine, no tools are really needed. You can always use your hands or whatever is available to get the job done.

So, don’t be afraid of starting your own little garden, no tools or anything special equipment required!

Having said that, here is the very small collection of tools I have gathered over my time in Japan.

My little shovel

My shovel. A very basic component of the gardening gear. Good for moving soil around fast with out getting the hands dirty. I got this one very cheap at the dollar store. It is sturdy and has a wide spade, just what I need. I usually only use it when I need to move a lot of soil from one pot to another or when I need to mix soil. Otherwise I prefer using my hands. I like the very cool organic feeling of having a bunch of dirt on my hands. Also, using my hands gives me better control to handle the plants with the proper delicacy and finesse they sometimes need.

A set of gardening pruners can be handy

My pruner. This is the first big budget tool I got. I bought it because I wanted to shape around my grapevine with more control. I decided not to go with the cheap one for this because I consider it to be like a doctor scalpel, only for plants. I would not like my doctor to make an operation on me with a dull or bad scalpel, so I won't do it to the plants either. By the way, also remember: It is best to always clean your blades after using them. You wouldn’t want a surgeon to cut you with a rusty blade, so why do it to the plants? Also they will last much longer that way. They are way too expensive to be buying more every time just because we didn’t wipe it afterwards.

Is always good to know how is the weather

My thermometer. I only got this one because I wanted to see if the coldframe was really working or not, but it has become more handy ever since. It Is always good to see how the weather is doing. Being to know when is the time to sow some seeds or when to take some plants in. The on-line weather report might get it close, but will never tell you exactly how cold is out there in your little balcony.

Gardening scissors are good for the small jobs

My gardening scissors. The most recent acquisition. I used to do most of the beheading of dead flower buds, the harvesting of vegetables and some other fine jobs with the big pruners, but they always felt a bit too big for that task. It was hard to maneuver them between delicate leafs or in the inside of the branches. The pruners were just too bulky. So, when I saw this good set of gardening scissors for sale at the garden center, they had to come with me that day. They do get very handy. And now, since harvesting and beheading is what I do most, they have become my most used tool. Of course I still behead and harvest with my hands sometimes, because is just more fun that way.

What tools do you use on your garden?

Also, It was a busy start of the week for me. I have so many exams, and after that a lot of projects to finish. But I will still try posting as often as I can.

Happy New year! and the best gardening for 2011!

One very interesting thing I discovered here in japan, is that seals are a very big thing. They are very used, mainly as signatures, but I have seen them applied in many other ways.

So, since I was trying to make an identity for my garden and the blog, of course I could not be left behind. I looked around but having them made was too expensive for me, so decided to make one myself. I browsed around some stores and they had a lot of do it yourself tools and material for making them. It was very easy and cheap enough.

My little garden in japan seals!

To make them I just printed the image and pasted to the seal rubber temporarily for reference, then I carved it with a little knife cutter. I did two of them with different designs that go together, that way I was able to have two colors on it. It takes some good alignment and to wash it every time is used, to keep the inks to stain each other. The result is a bit rough, but I like it. I already use it for the mint labels I gave away to my friends at tokyoDIYgardening.

What do you think?


Now on a different topic, how about another blog carnival for starting the year?
I think most of you are having a new year resolutions post. So I think it would be a good idea to put them together.

Just a post about what do you plan on doing at your garden this next 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.

I think between 15 and 20 of the month will be great, what do you think? Please let me know on the comments.

Happy new year!

And so we reach the end of another year! I hope It has been a great year for everybody.

Keep posted, I have so much more planed for next year, many projects and ideas I want to try.

Happy New year, Wish you the best for 2011!

Coldframe V2.0

I had been wanting to upgrade my coldbag, because even it works really nice, the little seedlings could have even more advantages. In particular I wanted something that would let more sun to the little seedlings. 

The new seedlings are doing great

So I started scavenging for materials to use. I didn't wanted to build one out of wood and glass, because my goal was keeping the portability and cheapness of the cold bag. I considered using a cardboard box, but I knew that on the first rain, or with the water pouring out from the little started planter, I would end up with a cold frame soup in no time.

Then I remembered that here, at some grocery stores, they always leave all the plastic boxes from the food, all cleaned and ready for people who need them to pick them up. So, one day I went grocery shopping, I took a small look at their little recycle corner. There I found the perfect box. It was a deep, thick expanded polystyrene box, in perfect condition.

Building the new coldframe

The build was very simple.

1. I carved a small window on the cover of the box to leave only a frame. Being sure to leave a small edge


2. Cut apart a transparent plastic bag to have two sheets to use as "glass".


3. I taped one of the transparent sheets to the edge I had left and cover the hole in the frame.


4. Turn around the lid and tape the other sheet from the inside. This will make the window a sandwich of plastic, air and plastic.


5. Finally use little pieces of tape to cover any hole in the borders. The more airtight the better

I used two plastic sheets, one in each side of the cover. That way the insulation will be much better. The air in the middle will work as the insulator. The same way a double glass (double frame) windows work better than a single glass window. 

So far it has worked beautifully. The little seedlings growing there sprouted in no time, they have even reached the size of the ones in the coldbag already.

From back to front: Bekkana, Spinach, Komatsuna, Lettuce

The first to grow were the Bekana and the Komatsuna, then the spinach and finally the lettuce, coriander and the chives. I was surprised the chives and the lettuce sprouted, they are supposed the be past their season. They must really be very cozy and warm in there. I hope they all keep growing nicely, I will post more about how they develop later.

Now, the only setback is that the new coldframe has such a good insulation that every morning the inside screen appears all damped because of the condensation. I have to dry it a bit and clean it up so it will let the sunshine in.

I recommend anybody who wants to have a nice cheap planter at their homes to use old expanded polystyrene boxes. First, because is much better to reuse them than throw them to the garbage. Second because they are great planters. Expanded polystyrene is a great ecofriendly material, even though it certainly doesn’t look like it. It is a great insulator, and has an amazing endurance for such a light weight. It definitely won't mold and It will not degrade easily, so I can last lots of gardening seasons.

The first seedlings sprouted in 4 days

One more thing about polystyrene. It is highly recyclable, but it very hard to do it because it has to be sorted away from other materials, which is a very troublesome task. This causes a big problem because it is usually thrown with normal garbage and pollute instead of being recycled. So, if you can rescue some polystyrene from going to the dumpster, and give it some more years of use please do.

The seeds sprouted, the coldbag works!

Today, I found some komatsuna and lettuce seedlings already showing enough strength. I plant them last Saturday afternoon and the first ones started poking out from the soil the morning of Wednesday. I'm very surprised they sprouted so fast, I thought they will take at least until next week.

The first sprouts from my coldbag!

I am planning on letting them a bit longer on the coldbag, until they get some more strength. Although not much because they are already fairly tall. I don't want them to reach the top of the bag and get hurt.

Komatsuna is so easy to grow, and very tasty too

The only ones left to come out are the chives. I wonder if they will come out at all, because their season has been over for a while. I'll keep my hopes high though.

Komatsuna and lettuce seedlings

Also here is a picture of the pumpkin seeds I will try next year. I took them out of a little pumpkin I carved for Halloween. I have no idea if the seeds are viable. Sometimes the products they sell are hybrids, so even if they do sprout and grow into a full plant, I have no idea if they will give any new pumpkins at all. It is going to be a fun experiment.

My pumpkin seeds drying with the sun

For now, there is only step one, letting the seeds dry, then store them on one of my seed jars until next year. I hope they succeed.

My attempt at having a coldframe

Because the weather is getting a bit colder, and I still want to sprout some last seedlings. I decided that It would be a nice project to have my very own cold frame. Of course that with the limitations on space and resources of my little balcony garden, I can't have a proper cold frame, so mine would have to be a cheap and easy knock off version.

To build it I just decided to go with simple and cheap materials. I went to the 100yen shop (the equivalent of a dollar store in japan) and got a plastic fabric bag for clothes, also used a tray that I had bought before from the same place. One more thing, because the fabric bag still lets some air go trough I added an extra layer of plastic to avoid any heat to escape by convection.

My new coldbag!

The good thing about using the tray is that I can easily move the whole contraption inside in at night, if I want them to have an extra amount of heat.

Getting ready to set some new seeds

I got some seeds ready in the colorful started pots from the strawberries, and now just let them be and wait.

All set up, tight and tidy

It seems to be working well. The temperature inside has been one or two degrees higher than outside. Hopefully the seedlings will sprout soon and I will be able to have them ready before is to cold.

I decided to set three different kind of seedlings in it. Komatsuna and lettuce, to replace the ones I already finished on my big lettuce planter, and also chives because I think my garden was missing something from the onion family.

They get a nice amount of sun, to make sure the temperature raises

Hopefully it will work, I will keep posting to let you know how it goes.

High Tech Japanese style gardening

Sometimes I am amazed about in Japan technology can reach levels of awesomeness that border in craziness.

One of the major mobile carrier companies in Japan (NTTドコモ Docomo), announced a new system that provides custom instructions to home gardeners via cell phones, based on special sensors installed on the garden.

Docomo gardening sensor

It works based on data collected by special little sensors like the one shown in the photo. This sensors are stuck in soil to measure temperature, moisture, sunlight and more. The data is then sent to gardening experts wirelessly. They analyze it and provide garden-specific feedback advices, like when to water the plants, all via cell phone emails.

This is what I call high tech Japanese style gardening.