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.
Agapanthus exposed to the afternoon sun are prone to leaf scorch in the height of summer; as this year’s particularly intense sunshine and high temperatures have persisted for more than three weeks since the end of the rainy season, we have covered them with a silver shade net. We have also covered the entire shade garden to protect plants such as hostas, whose leaves are sensitive to strong sunlight.
The potato vine has been in bloom throughout the summer. Several large bumblebees (carpenter bees) have been coming to feed on the nectar, and it’s quite amusing to see the flowers swaying heavily as the bees cling to them. The agapanthus had been blooming beautifully for about a month, but as they’re now coming to an end, I’ve cut off the spent blooms. There were about 25 of them. This is a scene from the garden on a slightly cooler morning during the hot summer.
It has been raining a lot and the garden is wet, but the blue flowers blooming amidst the greenery are truly beautiful.
The potato vine growing on the wall of the garden room is a climbing perennial; although it loses its leaves in winter, its long stems remain. Come spring, new shoots sprout from the stems, and by June, blue buds appear at the tips of the branches, giving way to blue flowers. The flowers gradually fade in colour until they turn white.
Agapanthus is a bulbous plant, characterised by its beautiful evergreen foliage. It also flowers in June, with numerous beautiful small flowers blooming in a spherical cluster at the tips of its long spikes.
The chaste tree is a deciduous tree; if left unpruned, it can exceed 5 metres in height and spread. In this garden, it is pruned back to a height of several tens of centimetres above ground level every year in late autumn; in spring, from the many new shoots that emerge, about three are left standing to produce flowers. These too begin to bloom in June and continue flowering until November.
All the flowers are a very beautiful blue with a slight purple tinge, creating a refreshing impression.
It is now the end of June, and the chaste tree has come into bloom. It is displaying flower spikes covered with numerous small, pale blue blossoms. It will continue to bloom through the height of summer until around November. Even in the heat of summer, the refreshing blue gives a slight sense of coolness.
There are plenty of blue-toned flowers in the garden—ranging from pale blue to purplish blue. In the blue border, Hardenbergia blooms in winter, catmint in spring, jacaranda in early summer, Salvia guaranitica from early summer through to summer, agapanthus during the rainy season, and chaste tree from summer through to autumn, ensuring that blue-toned flowers are in bloom all year round. Furthermore, on the wall of the garden room, potato vine blooms from the rainy season through to summer, whilst on the bathtub pool where water lilies grow, potted Brachyscome Brasco blooms from spring through to autumn.
In the shade garden, the hosta (Mediovariegata) is starting to flower. To the right, the potato vine is also starting to flower on the garden room wall, and to the left, the agapanthus are starting to flower in the blue border flower bed. The seasons are changing and midsummer is almost here.
Catmint is now in full bloom in the blue border garden. Just a touch and you can smell the delicious fragrance. The video also shows other plants in this flower bed.
The main garden in mid-July, at the end of the rainy season, with occasional heavy rain.
The coleus are starting to grow bright foliage.
The area after the central flower bed is now being used as a temporary place for potted plants.
Several species are in flower. The newest of these is the pineapple lily. It is a bulbous plant, which at this time of the year grows strangely shaped spikes of flowers and produces many small flowers. The name pineapple is used because of its shape.
The agapanthus and the chaste tree are still in flower all the time.
The chaste tree is a shrub with beautiful blue flowers in summer. The tree reaches a height of several metres.
In small gardens, it should be cut back to a few dozen centimetres from the ground at the end of autumn each year to limit its height and lateral spread. By early summer it produces many new branches, from which a few are selected and propped up to keep them straight; by early July the flower buds begin to grow and the flowers bloom, continuing until around the end of October.
The many blue and blue-purple flowers on the thin flower spikes look very cool in the hot summer months.
Although the days are hot, reaching 35°C in between the rainy season, they bloom together with other blue flowers such as agapanthus and potato vine, making it feel very cool for a brief moment in the early morning.
