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.
My second crop of edamame has grown quite a bit. It’s been just over three weeks since I sowed the seeds. I’ve put up a pest-proof net. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed that the leaves have been eaten away quite a bit. I wonder what sort of pest is eating the leaves.
When I looked for the pest, I found just one caterpillar on a leaf. It appears to be a cutworm; when I moved some soil aside to have a look, I found two more. I wonder if adult moths managed to get through the gaps in the netting to lay their eggs?
I don’t usually observe the edamame at this time of year, so I’d never seen them before, but I noticed that small flowers were blooming. There are pink ones and white ones. As I sowed two different varieties, I suppose that’s why two different colours of flowers are blooming. It looks as though they’ll be ready for harvesting around the middle of next month.
It’s been about 70 days since we sowed the seeds at the beginning of June, and the edamame are now ready for harvest. We started by harvesting the very early-maturing variety. Perhaps because we’d been using insect netting since sowing, there was hardly any damage from pests. The harvest was much larger than we’d expected. We boiled them straight away and enjoyed them as a tasty snack with a beer.
A few days later, we harvested the early-season edamame too. Although some grasshoppers had got in through gaps in the netting and eaten a few leaves, there were plenty of pods, so we were very pleased.
The end of the rainy season has been officially declared, and the maximum temperature here during the day rose to 36.3°C, the highest in Japan. Roses are blooming here and there in the garden. Blue flowers are in bloom in the blue border, and several one-day-bloom passion flowers are flowering on the wall of the garden room. In the potager, small watermelons, cherry tomatoes, edamame and asparagus are growing. Looking up at the sky, I saw a dragonfly flying by. Higher up, a kite was also soaring. The hot summer is set to continue. Watering will become a daily routine.
A variety of flowers and vegetables are growing in the potager. We are continuing to harvest asparagus, albeit in small quantities. Although the leaves of the cherry tomatoes have been quite badly eaten by pests, there are plenty of tomatoes on the plants, and we are continuing to harvest them little by little. The edamame beans, which we sowed in early June, have grown quite a long way.
As for the small watermelons, whose seedlings we planted in late April, the fruit from the first female flowers pollinated at the end of May has gradually grown larger and is now ready for harvest. When we weighed one, it came to nearly 2 kilograms. After chilling it in the fridge and cutting it open, we found it had turned a beautiful red colour and tasted sweet, just like a watermelon should. It looks as though we’ll be able to harvest a few more. Let’s hope the pests stay away.
In the potager, we harvested the potatoes (Andes Red). It was a decent harvest. We’ve set aside some seed potatoes for planting in the autumn, and are already enjoying the rest.
In the triangular raised beds, the baby watermelon seedlings have grown considerably, and as the first female flower has bloomed, we removed the male flower and carried out hand-pollination. We are looking forward to seeing the fruit grow large.
The green soybeans (edamame) sown in early June have reached harvest time. Covering them with fine netting prevented almost all damage from pests like grasshoppers. The yield was greater than expected. Boiling them straight away for a taste test proved delicious, so we enjoyed nibbling the edamame while sipping ale, watching the night-time London street scene through the lighted window of the garden room pub. The remainder was frozen for storage.