Tiger lily... pink rose...

We put on the kerosene stove to keep us warm in winters...
On top of the stove, we sometimes put a pot there...
From the pot, we cook soup, boil water, and at times, red beans...
With the red bean soup, we put in the bulb of the tiger lily...
My missus bought them from the neighborhood market...
The bulb peels off like the onion...
And we kept the inner innermost layers, so as to try planting them...
(Actually, my missus did the planting, and me, only the picture-taking...)

See the pretty flowers?
They are the result from the bulbs...
The so-called tiger lily... pretty and delicious...
Shall be planting them this weekend...

We bought our Honda CRV more than 10 years ago from the local Honda dealer...
I am hopeless with machines, so we send the car to the Honda workshop once a year or so...
Never have had a problem all these years...
The pink roses... yes, birthday presents for me...
As in the last few years, the Honda salesman had been bringing me birthday presents...
Madagascar jasmine, garbella, anthurium, rose... 
I suspect he is trying to win my heart into buying a new car from him...
Anyway, we always try to plant these plants after a period of enjoying them at the dining table...
They all died...
And my missus just told me a minute ago, that the rose had probably died too... sigh...

Failures and successes this spring season

We had thought that it was a human thief who stole our sweet potatoes...

And then my missus talked to one of our neighbors who said that their sweet potatoes were also stolen...

By racoons, they said...

Just then, my missus had buried some fish bones left over from dinner...

She buried it quite shallow, and there it was... dug up by some animal...

The paw marks were too big to be a cat's...

This morning, I checked the potager and found more paw marks from a freshly dug out patch...

We are almost sure that the culprit is a racoon...

They are apparently very intelligent animals but I shall try to think of a way to trap them...

Anyway, this post is about the failures and successes of the spring season...

Failures, I have many...

The potatoes were miserable... only managed about 3 kilos...

I probably planted too much of 'companion' plants in the same patch...

Strawberries, garlic, onions, celery... too much...

Corn... tried to plant some seeds brought from Malaysia...

Didn't work out... by the time I switched to the Japanese seeds, it was a bit too late...

Still, managed to harvest 14 ears... not too bad...

Zucchini... ooh, big failure... bought three seedlings (green, yellow, and Toscany)...

Pumpkin... ooh, another big failure... like zucchini, no fruits at all...

Green peppers... arrgghh... tiny, and too few fruits... probably didn't water them enough...

Jalapenos... sigh... too sweet, and too small...

Moderate successes included tomatoes...

Grew some big ones, and some mini ones...

Managed to harvest quite a bit...

Okra... better than the previous season...

Bitter gourd... not too bad, but could be better...

Loofah... oh dear, I wonder what happened...
Most successful was the cucumbers...

Was determined to succeed this time, and we harvested 221 cucumbers from May to August...

Very tasty stuff... I brought them to eat at my workplace several times...

I still have yet to harvest the swede and the parsnip...

Wonder how they will turn out although I have a feeling that the swede is probably too old and tough...

Resumed working on the potager today, after an absence of more than one month...

Prepared six beds for onion, carrot, burdock, spinach, beets, radish, lettuce...

I am making sure not to over-plant the beds... otherwise, duh!

Sweet potato thieves in the hamlet

Returned home after two weeks of holidaying in Malaysia...
We knew from the news that it had not rained at our home throughout this time...
The hot temperatures and the rainless days...
My missus was most concerned that our pond would be all dried up and our goldfishes, all dead...
So, the first thing we did upon opening the gate was to rush to the pond...
The pond was dried, but luckily not completely...
In the remaining little water, our goldfishes were there, alive...

The next thing to check was the potager...
Was very surprised to see my sweet potatoes being dug up...
I had planted three varieties of sweet potatoes...
Altogether, there were 42 plants...
Initially, I thought it was the work of wild boars...
But after some investigation, we could not find any foot marks of the boar...
And, the dug-out areas were just too 'neat'...
Boars would have been more 'destructive'...

The thief or thieves took almost all of the sweet potatoes...
There are about three or four plants that were untouched...

Japanese society is supposed quite 'safe' and free from such things...
Oh well, another lesson learnt... was really looking forward to harvesting them... sigh...
Next season, we should perhaps harvest the potatoes before we leave for our summer vacation...

Tomatoes... fighting off the crows...

Was eyeing to harvest the first tomato...
But the crows always seem to know what is on the farmer's mind...
One day before the harvest, they took three of the biggest ones...
Ooh... that was painful...

Immediately put on a protective net...
And luckily, could harvest some of the fruits...

The big one weighed about 450 grams...
Quite a feast, actually...

For the last few months, have been enjoying our breakfast with vegetables freshly picked from the potager...
Here, we had tomatoes, dill, cucumber, and nasturtium flowers...

Success with Cucumbers

Had been trying to grow cucumbers for the last two seasons...
Thought this season would be equally bad...
But luckily, they are growing very well...

Tried the 'two' (rather than three) sisters method wth corn...
The corn is actually now overwhelmed by the climbers...

Was a bit too late in putting up the supports....
So, this one was just sitting on the ground, waiting for the harvest...


See that one leaf sticking out from the body?