To Gardening Misadventures Index
2007/MARCH/14
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2006/NOVEMBER/05
Woke up feeling a bit seedy, but managed to get out and do some digging - possibly the last full free day I'll have at home before spring unfortunately. I bought 230 tulip and hyacinth bulbs earlier in the week and was determined to plant all of the little buggers.
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I thought planting these would be the easiest job, but when my shovel went in I discovered that there were 2 very large flat slabs of stone blocking my progress. They were only about 15 centimeters below the surface, but it took ages to get the bastards out. I'll use them as weed suppressants somewhere else.
About 20 red tulips are planted along the front of the house and assuming they all sprout, should form a nice line in front of the
hibiscus and hydrangea. Also put some lavender in next to the
water tap. I don't know anything about lavender, except that people
actually fly all the way to Hokkaido and Furano just to look at fields of the stuff.
2006/OCTOBER/29
I bought a strange looking composter. You bury the base of it into about 10 centimeters of soil - and thats it. There is no
ventilator, no maintenance required. Since the lid is screw-on but not airtight,
I'm worried that there may be a bad smell from rotting plant matter. The lid certainly isn't going to blow off and no enterprising
cat could open it, but even so no household food scraps are
going be dumped inside, just weeds, grass clippings, fallen leaves etc.
Given that it will probably be full by late spring, and weed & grass growth is rampant from late Spring right through summer,
I've no idea what I'll do then. Hopefully the compost will be usable as soil as early as March and I can empty it to make space.
2006/SEPTEMBER/10
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2006/AUGUST/14
Just got back from a long trip to Aomori for the Nebuta festival and to Sapporo to check on the Hokkaido Japanese summer program. There was a heatwave up north so its a relief to find that the garden had coped well enough. The roots are now deep enough that the good soaking I gave the new plants before departure proved sufficient, though a friend mentioned that there had been some heavy rain on one of the days due to a passing typhoon. The wisteria are growing quickly now, so it looks like they should might actually be good for privacy next year, screening much of the lawn from view from the street. I was only thinking they would be nice to look at in May, but will happily accept any added bonuses. The vines aren't woody yet so it has been easy to train them back along the fence. I had to unwind one vine from the mysterious tree but it was easy enough. The weed matting is wonderful and has done much better than I was expecting.
2006/JULY/22
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2006/JULY/03
Pulled out most of the weeds from the flower beds again, so think its time to try the matting approach. In this heat it takes less than 10 minutes to be drenched in sweat, and I can taste the salt running down my face. Eyes stinging from either pollen or salt. This isn't fun.
2006/JUNE/28
I moved a fair bit of soil from the vegetable patch (previously moved from the side of the house) across to the bed near the fence facing the road. Makes the bed a lot flatter, so if matting was used the water should hopefully soak in rather than run off. Planted a california rose - the summer heat hasn't hit us yet, so hopefully it can get some root growth going before I head away for Nachi & the Gion festival.
2006/MAY/04
Planted a cherry tree in the corner, along with two wisteria. Not sure how the cherry tree will go, but since wisteria is the city flower the climate (at least) should be perfect for them - hopefully these bloody plants will obey orders and grow along the fence as directed. Usually they grow upwards, or straight towards the sun (in this case that would entail vines crossing the lawn), so it might be a bit of a challenge at first.
2006/MAY/03
The answer to the "How long..." question in the previous post is, 2 weeks. Japanese weeds are indestructable. I'm still stumped as to the identity of the "mystery tree". Its pretty, but what the hell is it?
2006/APRIL/19
Cleared all of the weeds from the flower beds and dug up the infestations in the veggie patch. How long will it take for them to grow back? My plan for the side of the house is to use some weed matting, so maybe if that works out something similar can apply here too. There is an interesting development, a sapling I thought was dead appears to be alive, with small flowers beginning to appear (no leaves).
2006/APRIL/10
The new students have arrived and settled in so no airport runs today. The back garden was a jungle. Weed growth here is incredible and it took about 2 hours to get the lawn back to a state where it looks and feels like a lawn again. Main problem is still around the edges, especially the flower beds and along the back of the house where the air conditioning units are placed. Before I do anything other than the lawn though the side of the house needs to be cleaned up, and its probably best not to even think about the vegetable patch for now.
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