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 hosta flowering season is from June to July. The first flower to appear in the garden is the Blue Cadet, which appears in early June. This is followed by the Mediovariegata, the Fragrant Blue, the Francee and finally the Fragrant Fire in late July. The flowers are all purple in colour, but vary in intensity, and the flowers are as individual as the foliage.
The Jerusalem artichoke, the Japanese name for Kiku-imo (Mum-potato), is a tuber (potato) whose main constituent is inulin, which has very few calories, does not raise blood sugar, improves bowel movements, and is attracting attention for its health benefits. In autumn it produces small sunflower-like flowers, and is also known as sunchoke by association with the sunflower. It tends to produce intestinal gas, and it is secretly called Fartichoke.
In the garden it has already grown to nearly ten feet and is high enough to look down on the garden over the fence.
This year I made some dried flowers from the big flowers in my garden. Grove artichokes, acanthus mollis and others. I cut them when they are finished flowering and dry them indoors.
The dried flowers in the wicker vase we made last year are displayed in the garden room. Please watch the video.
This summer, for the first time, Wisteria flowers bloomed on our brick wall.
I say "for the first time" because, first of all, they bloom in April without exception
and they do flower now in July. I was surprised. I didn't expect it to be flowering at all, but it is already in full bloom.
And the second reason is that this is the first flowering since we grew and trained it on the brick wall. I was expecting it to take years, but now I have hope that it will bloom next spring.
The garden room was built last summer to look out over the garden in the harsh summers and cold winters, and as a shelter while we work in the garden.
It is a small trapezoidal room built in a narrow trapezoidal space between the deck used as a gazebo and the central flower bed, which is air-conditioned.
From the room you can go out onto the deck and look down on the potager.
The room is comfortable even in the heat of the summer, a complete change from previous summers when the garden was too hot and the mosquitoes made it impossible to relax.
The wall on either side of the garden room window was a bit of a dead wall, so I decided to grow some vines here, so I put up some welded wire netting and planted passion flower and potato vine in the spring.
They are now starting to flower. The flowers have come earlier than expected.
