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 giant upright elephant ear or Alocasia odora is a weakly cold-tolerant plant. It is characterised by its large, elephant-eared leaves. Every winter the leaves wither and die from the cold, but last week's strong cold spell caused them to shrivel up and die all at once.
Thick clouds covered the sky at sunrise this morning, but gradually the sun came out from the west and by 10am the sun was shining brightly. It has been a week since last Saturday since the sun shone this bright. The once-in-a-decade cold wave was predicted, and it turned out to be true, with low temperatures continuing since Tuesday, with occasional snow flurries and very little sunshine.
When the sun did shine, it was very warm in the house. I now know how much I appreciate the sunshine.
Yesterday and today we have been hit by the coldest wave in seven years, comparable to the strong cold wave of January 2016.
North-westerly winds of over 10 metres per second blew and snow fell at times.
Yesterday the temperature fell by 10 degrees in half a day, from 7 degrees in the morning to minus 3 degrees in the evening.
The cold wave that hit on the same day in 2016 killed some of the less cold-resistant garden plants, so this time potted plants were brought indoors and ground plants were covered.
The water in the small fountain and pond is frozen, but the killifish are safe.
Alocasia odora with leaves as big as elephant ears is vulnerable to the cold, its leaves are wilted and it is definitely going to die. But I think it will leaf out again in spring.
January had wet weather from the 13th to the 20th. This is an unusual amount of rain even for this time of year. We were not able to do any work in the winter garden. I walked around the garden at a fast pace in the rain to have a look around.
