Butter scotch pumpkin, Hawk's claws chillies, etc...

Was trying to dig out an azalea plant to make space for the 'Southern Cross'...   

Slipped, fell over and hit my head on the concrete steps... 

Next thing I knew was the sound of my own heavy breathing...

My missus came over to look me up...

Lucky thing, it was only a minor cut on the right side of the head...

Lesson learned: be careful and wear the safety helmet while working... 

(I often do so, actually, and today was one of the few instances that I didn't...)

Anyway, am happy to be able to do some harvesting...
My missus bought a butter scotch pumpkin last year from the farmers' market...
We like the taste of it and kept some seeds...
Am delighted that the plants produced 6 large pumpkins...
This one weighs about 900 grams... not too bad...

Similarly, we kept some seeds from the winter melon that we bought from the farmers' market last year...
We manage only one fruit, however... 1.7 kilograms...

The first time I ever planted potatoes years ago, we harvested over 11 kilograms from one kilogram of seeds...

Subsequent plantings were rather measly...

This time, only 3 kilograms from one kilogram of seeds...

Reason? I did not fully dry the cut-up seeds before I planted them, so most of them rotted...

Chillies this season... not too bad although it could be better... 

These finger-sized ones are called 'Taka no tsume', aka 'Hawk's claws'...

They are spicy and they taste good...

I got some okra seeds from my younger brother in Malaysia last year...

And I must say that they have adapted very well to our potager...

These are the last of the harvests for this season... 

Compared to the Japanese okras, these are gigantic...

Some of them were about 30 centimeters long...

And they were tender, super delicious and combine very well with curries... 

Will certainly grow them again next spring...

The Autumn Giraffe, among others...

Autumn days at Shikoku have been super pleasant... 
Cool, dry, and simply heavenly to be outdoors...

Took a shot of our potager today...
The marigolds are still blooming, as are the zinnias...

This dwarf of a flower is called 'wild chrysamthemum'　（野菊）in Japanese... 
They grow so well in our garden, without any attention from us...

The Japanese folks call this flower 'Hototogizu' (ホトトギス）, which is the name of a bird belonging to the cuckoo family... Apparently, the spots of this lily-family flower is similar to the spots on the chest of the bird...

Think this is called Larkdaisy or Porcupine flower.
The Japanese name is Murasaki Rushan （ムラサキルーシャン） or Ringo Azami（リンゴアザミ）...
Leaves emit apple-like smell when rubbed...

This chrysanthemum is endemic to the island of Honshu in Japan... 

It's scientific name is Chrysanthemum pacificum Nakai but I prefer the common name Isogiku (イソギク) meaning, Rocky Shore Chrysanthemum...

 

We enjoy looking at this wild flower in our morning walks... 

Took back home a specimen of this 'Aki no kirin so' （秋の麒麟草）, literally, Autumn Giraffe flower...

Am linking this post to GBBD, which is hosted by May Dreams Gardens...

Berries from the Inumaki/Kusamaki tree...

Was visiting the University of Victoria at Vancouver Island, Canada, a couple of years ago when I first witnessed birds eating these berries... 

I actually went over to the trees and tried one...

Sweet, it was...

Years down the road, was really happy to discover that we have those Inumaki or Kusamaki trees (native to China and Southern Japan) in our property...

Five of them are females, and I managed to harvest 1.3 kilos of these delicious berries from them...
The round, green portion is apparently inedible, and there is a small seed inside the berries...

The Inumaki trees and the Mountain Peach tree had been 'over-growing' in our garden for a while...
They were blocking the sun from our goldfish pond...
And my suweeto haato had been urging me to trim them down...

Finally got to doing it today...

And, whoaa, what an amateurish a job it turned out to be, I said to myself...

Well, at least we got the sun in, and the view of the mountains from our house improved markedly...

China root berries, strawberries, pineapple sage, etc...

There has been just so much rain this year...

Not to say that I am complaining... 

It is just marvelous for the plants, in fact...

This is a picture of the berries of a climber plant called 'China root'...

They grow wildly in our property... 

The young shoots can be eaten as a vegetable (pictures next spring?)... 

Some folks use the berries to make wine but apparently they do not taste good... 

For the time being, we just plan to enjoy their beauty...

I bought two types of raspberry plants from the store some years ago... 

And they do give very good fruits...

Only thing I really have to do is to fertilize them more...

I had thought that this specie fruits only in spring but we found it fruiting this season...

Hmmm, lovely, of course... 

We had taken the liberty to name this beauty 'Princess Pink'... 

My suweeto haato found it growing semi-wild in the hills...

We took back some cuttings and this beauty of a rose has been thriving very well in our potager...

This white chrysanthemum is also grown by my missus... 

As with the above mentioned rose, this cutie has adapted very well to our environment...  

And finally, the pineapple sage... 

Apparently, the name comes from the pineapple-like fragrance that the flowers leaves emit when crushed...