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 white Japanese apricot in the Bluebell garden is starting to flower. This winter was colder than usual and the start of flowering was delayed. When the sun shines, they glow white in the sun. Fruits appear in early summer.
Wooden benches have been coated with wood-protective paint. The bench in front of the brick wall is already 14 years old and is quite damaged and has been repaired, but we hope it will last a little longer. The other bench on the deck was given to us by a friend and we want to take good care of it too.
Mube (Stauntonia hexaphylla) is an evergreen vine with pretty flowers in spring and edible fruit in autumn. It is a pest- and disease-free plant that grows wild in the nearby mountains and fields. It is attracted to the reinforced steel arch at the entrance to the bluebell garden and acts as an entrance to the garden. It is a vigorous grower and pruning is essential for growing it in the garden. This time we pruned back the overgrown, thin and dead branches and also dropped all the leaves. Buds are already swelling up and in two months' time the flowering season will arrive in April.
We replaced the wooden gate that was left behind after the white wooden fence was removed with a new one. This time we purchased a ready-made gate and assembled and installed it. The work was completed in one day.
The narcissus flowers in our garden are beautiful right now. Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis is the most common, but there are also 'Paperwhite', pure white, small-flowered daffodils, and double-flowered 'White Lion'. All of them have a strong narcissus fragrance that wafts through the garden. I cut a few and displayed them.
Two types of summer-flowering vines are trained to the garden room wall. The vine is potato vine on the left side of the window, and passion flower on the right side. Both survive the cold of our winters and flower every year.
Cut dead and newly growing branches in mid-winter. Unlike roses, they have no thorns, so the work is easy.
A lot of pruning work in the garden has been done, with the exception of the sasanquas.
The strong cold wave that lasted for a week is almost over and it is a little easier to work in the garden. So we spent a day pruning and training the climbing roses in the garden.
We finished in one day, and now the roses are ready to welcome spring. May they bloom as beautifully this year as they did last May.
The day before yesterday it snowed intermittently throughout the day, with snow accumulating at one point. But yesterday the weather recovered and the afternoon was sunny. However, the temperature was very cold, about 4°C during the day.
After the white wooden fence that we removed, we painted the steel pipe posts white, and installed welded wire mesh on them so that we can train the climbing roses. We then trained Mary Delaney and The pilgrim to this wire mesh.