My wife and I started gardening in Fukuoka (Japan) in 2003. There was nothing but muddy clayey sloping land. At the beginning we made several structure such as steps and paths, and planted turf, fruit trees, roses, herbs etc.
In 2010, we visited several famous English gardens, including Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Mottisfont Abbey Garden and Hidcote Manor Garden. We were shocked by the glory of those gardens. Since then, we have been trying to make small but glorious gardens by ourselves.
The colder it gets, the more I want to eat a baked sweet potato. These days we often bake sweet potatoes on the grill of our built-in gas stove in the kitchen, but there's nothing quite like grilling over an open fire.
The rose ’Dainty Bess' is gradually blooming in the border flower beds of the potager, where the cold wind is blowing. Because of the cooler temperatures, flowering is proceeding slowly.
I found and photographed a flower that had just started to open, and the next day it had opened a little further. It is only in the cold season that the flowers last longer.
The weather had been warm until last week, but this week, after the rain on Monday, a cold air mass came down from the north and it suddenly became as cold as winter.
Even during the daytime, the temperature was only just over 10 degrees Celsius, and with no sunshine and strong wind, it felt really cold.
Our town, located on the northern coast of Kyushu Island, has a lot of cloudy weather in winter, which is a little depressing.
A couple who lives nearby goes to the Kanto region (near Tokyo) only during the winter. I would like to do so if I could. I wish I could do that, but I can't, because I have many gardening jobs in winter.
There is a utility pole that I can see from my window where birds often perch.
Large birds such as Tonbi (black kite) often come to this pole, but crows also often perch there. Crows also often perch on the TV antenna of our neighbor's house.
The crows often perch on the TV antenna of the neighbor's house, and the kites and crows are enemies, with the kites chasing the crows away and the crows attacking the kites together. They may look like they are taking it easy, but they are in trouble.
From the window of my house, I can see the garden transitioning from autumn to winter: changing colours of cherry, maple and wisteria leaves, and dogwood whose stems turn bright red in winter.
It's late autumn and some of the deciduous trees in the garden are losing their leaves or changing colour, and the flowers and plants are dwindling. Despite this, some roses are still in flower.
In the main garden, the lemons and oranges are beginning to change colour. The tender flowers such as coleus are almost finished. The Lantana montevidensis will continue to produce purple flowers for some time to come. Chaste tree is still blooming, which mainly flowers in summer, but they will soon be pruned and will go dormant for the winter.
In the potager the glory bush is in full bloom. Leaves of potato are getting bigger, but if the weather gets colder soon the potatoes may not get any bigger. The leaves of the asparagus are changing colour a little. The standard rose 'Mary Rose' bears the last flowers this season. A seedling of Echium vulgare is growing at the base of the rose.
In the bluebell garden, the cherry trees are turning red and beginning to fall. There is nothing growing, where the bluebells bloom in spring, at the moment. The flowers of toad lily is still in bloom. We have harvested 'Karin' quince fruits to make a honey-soaked drink, which is good for throat.
The rose 'Angela' is blooming on the iron arch. It is blooming well in spite of damages by disease or insects. There are fewer flowers than in May, but the bright pink petals are very beautiful.
In the morning, when the sun begins to shine in the garden, the beauty is exceptional.
