Sakuras a-blooming

Sakura blooms normally last about a week.
This year, due to the rather unusual cold and rainy weather, it was reported that blooms stayed on for up to 15 days.
The sakura tree in our compound normally begins to bloom a few days 'late'.
So we get the pleasure of seeing the flowers even after the other sakura trees shed their petals.
This last weekend, we took a walk in the woods on the east side of our house.
It was actually the first time for me to walk over there.
And the view of the sakura tree and our house from there was quite magnificent, I must say...

We paused for a while to enjoy a view of the hamlet...

Kites (top right) are very common here.

Was 'lucky' to see two of them copulating just meters away from my vegetable garden the other day.

It was over in perhaps 30 seconds. 

Meanwhile, planted black soy bean seeds, sweet corn seeds, and sponge gourd seeds. 

Some of the seeds I planted last week are already sprouting... wooh...

Vegetable seeds sowed

April 11, Sunday... cloudy, rain in late afternoon...
Sowed over 40 types of vegetable seeds today...


Komatsuna (a type of mustard green)
Taro yam
Kang kong (seeds from Malaysia)
Lemon basil (seeds from Bangkok)
Sweet basil


Moroheya
Japanese mountain yam (seeds collected from the mountains nearby)
Swede (seeds bought from Brisbane)
Kailan (seeds from Bangkok)
Parsnip (seeds from Brisbane)


Calendula
Coriander
Red okra
Green okra (seeds from Malaysia)
Red amaranth (seeds from Malaysia)


Bayam (seeds from Malaysia)
Carrot
Burdock
Radish
Flowering pakchoy


Jalapeno chili
Habanero chili
Big red chili
Takanotsume (eagle's claw' small red chili)
Bird eye chili (seeds from my village)


Marigold
Potatoes
Strawberry
Kiwi berry
Bitter gourd


Ceylon spinach
Sugar sweet pumpkin
Bocchan (mini) pumpkin
Sponge gourd (loofah)
Green bell pepper


Red tomato
Yellow tomato
Green beans
Long beans
Red long beans


Swiss red, orange, and white chard
Korean perilla (somewhat like a sesame plant)
Japanese mitsuba (collected from the mountains nearby)
Japanese beefsteak plant (nothing to do with stuff from Wendy's)
Garlic chives


Besides these, there is asparagus, saffron, tansy, borage, geranium, winter green beans, silk beans, fava beans still active from the previous autumn planting...  


Plus also, there are several others whose (English) names I still have look up....


Next weekend, it will be peanuts, corn, cucumber, among others... whooo... lovely...

Vegetable bed preparation

Did some weeding and tilling in the vegetable garden to prepare for spring planting...
The soils is still cold but the weeds are having a head-start already.
So, need to remove them before they get too big.
Am putting up a boundary for all the beds with materials such as planks.
The idea of the boundary, slightly raised higher than the soil levels, is to provide some space to do mulching with dry leaves.
The raised boundary-planks is also intended to give the leaves some protection from the winds, which can be quite strong in the spring.
But oops! While working on the soil, I inadvertently woke up a couple of frogs that were probably hibernating in the soil.

They seemed a bit agitated as they hopped away from the intruder.
Sorrrreeeee...
Managed to snap some shots after they settled down...
This one found its space under one of the planks.
We thought it was a 'tono sama gaeru' (literally, the 'king of frogs') due to its color and patterns.
Apparently, they take on the color of the surroundings, camouflaging...

But from the same vicinity came this equally cute little one...
It was hopping away from me, profusely... until it settled upon some dry twigs near a bush.
My missus is particularly fond of this 'ama gaeru' (rain frog).
But, how come this cutie is green while the other, light brown... beats me...

Harvested some red and white radishes...
They mature in about three weeks and are easy to grow.
Real crunchy and sweet they are...

And a purple cauliflower as well...
They lose their color when we boil them.

Looks quite nice but I think they taste just about the same as the white ones.

Mimosa blooming...

The weather here in Japan is warming up.

As usual, I am out in the garden, digging my hands into the soil and cherishing every minute of it.

When we moved into our house about 5 years ago, we found a tiny, odd looking seedling in the garden.

Later on, we found three more such seedlings.

They turned out to be mimosa trees.

This plant is about one year old, and it is already flowering...

Such pretty flowers they are... and what a joy just to look at them...

Mimosa belongs to the acacia family and is apparently native to Australia and man, they really grow fast just like the eucalyptus. 

We trim and trim them but each year, but new branches keep shooting out...

Bees seem to love the flowers but I cannot really imagine there is nectar stored in those little ball-like flowers.

Chillies, figs, pumpkins, watermelons

As always, autumn here is so pleasant.
The air is dry and cool... only thing is the remaining few pesky mosquitoes...
Been enjoying the garden all along and ignoring the blogging...



This is a picture of the chillies I am growing this season.
The roundish ones are the so-called (second by now?) hottest chilly, habanero.
It is really hot but soaked in vinegar, it is quite lovely especially with noodles.
The greenish one is jalapeno, thick flesh and crunchy, not too hot...
The slim, red, longish one is called taka-no-tsume in Japanese, literally, claws of the falcon...
The whitish one is really flagrant and spicy... brought the seeds from my village in Kedah...
And finally, the classic big red chilli, which is called super chilly here...

Think I mentioned before that figs is one of my all time favorite fruits.
Was invited by a Japanese friend to harvest from his field.
Wooh, heavenly it was to stroke the fruits right off the trees...

Was quite successful with pumpkins this year.
The dark green ones are really tasty, with a chestnut-like flavor.
The elongated, yellow ones are called spaghetti pumpkins...
The flesh is somewhat like noodles, am looking forward to eating them.

And tha-da... watermelons from my garden...
This one weighed about 800 grams, not too big but sufficient for two...
Sweetness was alright and ooh, what a feeling to sink my fangs into the juicy meat...