Neglected garden

Written by: adekun on 18 August, 2010 3:02 pm - Filed under: garden — 1 Comment »

I’ve hardly watered the garden this year. The summer has been very dry and very hot. It looks set to be long too. This year’s summer vegetables have finished. All that seems to be doing well are the weeds. What herbs that go to seed have done so leaving little worth checking upon except pumpkins. I should have done a lot more. It is remarkable just how quickly things go awry.

Tags: chilli peppers, garden, weather

Desperately seeking sunblock

Written by: adekun on 21 July, 2010 9:57 am - Filed under: blog — 5 Comments »

It might not be the case in the larger cities, but here it is impossible to find affordable sunscreen/sunblock. There seems to be only a few other alternatives: imported Hawaiian Tropic (SPF 0) at ￥1600 a bottle, or bottles (SPF 50) the size of a dental floss dispenser, about half the price. Probably need one bottle of the latter for the front and another for the back. Continue reading

Tags: japan, weather, whinge

Kabocha peekaboo

Written by: adekun on 7 July, 2010 12:24 pm - Filed under: garden — 6 Comments »

Amongst the sea of grasses a couple of kabocha have plumped up nicely. They look to be somewhere in the expected 500 g to 800 g range. Not sure when will be the best time to harvest them. The skin should be darker anyway.
Tomatoes are good. Following a deluge the larger ones tend to burst before the crowns have had chance to turn red. However, this year, the fruit have ripened fully and been picked before any such calamity. Not so many made the kitchen.

Tags: garden, kabocha, tomatoes, weather

Summer fungi

Written by: adekun on 30 June, 2010 10:57 pm - Filed under: garden — 1 Comment »

There has been quite a lot of rain fall recently. Weeds are running rampant despite weekly culls. The odd day of sunshine offers a chance make things a little more orderly.

Several mushrooms have popped up. It would be nice to know what they are. No doubt they are common; somebody will know. The second has a strong mushroomy smell and appears to be more Agaricus than Amanita.

Tags: fungi, garden, weather

Wednesday’s weeding

Written by: adekun on 16 June, 2010 5:52 pm - Filed under: garden — 2 Comments »

The rainy season reached Kagoshima on Friday. Rain reached here yesterday. Strangely, today is hot and cloudless. With work starting late in the day, there wasn’t reason to skimp the blossoming garden chores. June is especially punishing if the weeds are untamed. Firstly, the month grants ideal conditions for them to run rampant. Second, it is generally an unpleasant time to exert oneself outside; hot and humid with purposeful mosquitoes on the prowl. Continue reading

Tags: garden, herbs, sweet corn, tomatoes, weather, weeds

Samui for seeds

Written by: adekun on 16 April, 2010 8:43 pm - Filed under: garden — 5 Comments »

Parsnip seeds have been in since the end of last month. A week on from those, different chilli peppers and herbs followed. Since then, the unspringlike weather has favoured everything else in the ground. I hope it warms up and the sown seeds spring in to action.
If I’m going to risk sowing everything in situ, then in the least, I should contemplate tunnels and cloches. The weather is too erratic. The first few months of the year felt drier and warmer. Now each day is different, drifting down in temperature. It is truly miserable.
There has been a lot of bird activity in the garden.

Tags: garden, seeds, weather

Kusatori

Written by: adekun on 26 February, 2010 6:08 pm - Filed under: blog — No Comments »

It was 21°C yesterday. With all this rain and sunshine I expect the weeds will get off to a good start this year. The asparagus bed is already ahead of the pack; full of rogue grasses that are already hopelessly intertwined with their hosts. The wind has been strong too, the first spring wind (haruichiban) has passed.

Tags: weather, weeds