Potager frosted...

Went out to the potager to harvest some rocket and mini radish for breakfast...
Almost let out a scream upon seeing the plants 'frozen'...
The carrots, chard, radish, lettuce, onions, fava beans, snap peas, parsnip... ouch!
Wanted to pour water on them to melt away the ice...
But was stopped by my missus... you will only make it worse.... let nature take its way and wait for the sun to warm them up, she said...
Went off for a function and came back in the afternoon to check...
She was right... the plants had recovered... ahh...
Now I am wondering if I should cover my plots with some protective plastic...

We use green peppers to make 'pizza toast' for breakfast almost everyday...
But we need more 'kick', so next season, I shall be planting more Jalapenos instead...
We grew habaneros once, but ooh, no way we could enjoy that fiery stuff...

We have water lily and lotus in our pond...
The water lily flowers every year but not the lotus...
Perhaps I should add some cowdung into the lotus pot...

'POP' index

I started vegetable-gardening in 2008, expanding the plot-size a bit at a time...
By the end of 2009, the potager was more or less in full swing...
I kept a journal to record the activities and progress...
And why not some indices to track the harvest, I thought...
Some indices that can be used a proxy of how I am doing with the crops...
So I came up with this so-called POP thingy...
Potatoes, Onions, and Pumpkin, that is...

Now, why these three?
Reason is, they can all be conveniently weighed as they are harvested in one go...
I can't do this with other crops like peppers or spinach or okra...

I have two potato crops in a year...
My first ever potato harvest in 2009 yielded 6.1 kgs. and the second, 11.5 kgs.
Not bad...
But in 2010, the yield dropped to 3.1 kgs (planted too many companion plants), and 5.4 kgs. (planted too late in the season)...

We also grow another type of potatoes, the sweet ones...
Sweet potatoes was one of the first crops I took up...
We had 5.5 kgs in 2008, followed by 7.0 kgs in 2009...
In 2010, the racoons got the better of the harvest, leaving us with only about 1.5 kgs...
My wife is fond of red onions...
I grow one crop each year and the harvest for 2009 was 6 kgs...
Again, in 2010, as with potatoes, the yield dropped to 1.5 kgs...

Pumpkins... we love pumpkins...
As in onions, one crop per year...
In 2009, we had 11.6 kgs. of that good stuff...
But come 2010, it was zero kgs... complete failure, that is...
I would love to try growing that Butternut squash or better still that Queensland Blue Pumpkin next season...

Yes, my POP index sort of nose-dived in 2010...
Which can only mean one thing...
That is, to improve that POP thingy in the 2011 season...

Pruning the hedge on new year's day...

I have some vegetables growing in the potager now but they are not much of a photography subject in this weather...
So I am picking a photo or two from sunnier days gone by just to spruce things up...
This pic shows the flowers and pods of lentils...
Malaysians are fond of making a sweet coconut-based desert from these beans...
I just wanted to see how it feels to grow this plant...
Think I shall not be planting it next season...

In April, when we walk in the hills, we can sometimes pick wild berries...
If we are lucky, that is...
These berries tasted quite like raspberries, although not as sweet and flavorful...

Yesterday, 2nd January, was a beautiful day...
No wind, sunny, with a high of about 9 degrees...
Could not resist the urge to go outdoors...
Decided to prune the hedge of Juniperus chinensis or 'Kaizuka'...
They have grown too fast and too dense...
I cannot keep up with their pace...
Am planning to thin them out, carving little ball-like shapes at the end of their branches...
There are about thirty such plants in the property and it is quite a task to prune them...

Then, my missus came out and announced that my mother-in-law had advised me through the phone, to take it easy on the second day of the new year...
The gods are visiting, said mother-in-law... so it is rather impolite to do such 'work' which may offend the gods...
They shall be here until the seventh day of the new year, so it goes...

Oops, no arguing with the missus and no insubordination against the mother-in-law...

Gales on the 1st of January 2011

Looking at the picture above, I can't wait for spring to come...

It was taken one morning in the spring (April) of 2010...

Was returning from a morning walk with my missus in the hills...

And was carrying a gunny-sack of dried leaves to mulch the plots...

The sakura trees in the background are 'natural'...

They offer a beautiful view for us each year...

Today was very windy with a low of 2 degrees and a high of 6...

Went down to the slopes to check out my cauliflower plants...

Arrgh...five cabbage worms were feeding on the cauliflower head...

The tomato plants are still going strong...

Wonder why the crows are not eating them... hehehee...

Planted my potatoes late in October last year...

Due to my returning home to Malaysia, I had missed buying the potato seeds...

A neighbor had offered to give me some of the smaller potatoes he had harvested from the spring season...

Although we know that 'spring' potatoes do not grow that well in autumn, I accepted his offer...

Some of the plants were drying up, and I did not want to risk them being eaten by racoons...

So, with nose a-running in the winds, I harvested them today...

Very nice looking indeed...
They weigh about 5.4 kilograms... not too bad...

Bones into the soil

Winds are howling and temperatures are dipping...
The lows are around zero degree with the highs hovering around five degrees...
There was sleet last night and snow is forecasted for this evening...
The Japan Inland Sea is choppy and fising boats nor fishermen are nowhere to be seen...
Hopefully, my plants are bracing well for this cold weather...
We bought two pieces of 'chicken skeletons' from the supermarket two days ago...
My missus make soup stock from them...
We do not throw away chicken bones or fish bones...
The same goes for other kitchen scraps...
I just took the bones to the potager and had them buried in one of the plots...
They make good fertilizer...
And the cold winds... ooh... had to make a run back to the house...