POOL & BLUEBERRY （水槽とブルーベリー）

In the pool, water canna and sweet flag are growing.  Last November we divided water canna and reduced rhizomes.

Blueberry fruits are also growing behind the pool.  We will probably have the same good harvest as last year.


（水槽ではカンナとショウブが育ってきています。昨年11月にカンナは株分けして数を減らしました。水槽の後ろではブルーベリーの実が大きくなってきています。今年も去年と同じようにたくさん収穫が多分できそうです。）

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PETALS AND LEAVES TO BE SWEPT (花びらと落ち葉)

On Wednesday there was a shower of the cherry petals, and it looks like snow covering the whole garden.


（水曜日には雨と風で花吹雪となり、庭全体がうっすら雪で覆われたように見えます。）

Spring is another season of fallen leaves.  Leaves of Ilex integra are falling now, and we must sweep them every day.


（春はもう一つの落葉の季節。モチノキの葉が今落葉していて、毎日掃き掃除をします。）

 Ilex integra

I covered the pool with fine net to catch fallen leaves.  

 It takes time and labor to sweep them, however, it's a worthwhile job because we can enjoy beautiful flowers, leaves, and fruits.


（落ち葉掃除は時間と手間がかかりますが、美しい花や緑、そして美しい実を楽しめるのでやりがいはあります。）

English Garden blogs

DIVIDING WATER CANNA (水性カンナの株分け)

Yesterday we divided water canna in the pool.  It really has grown so large and its pot became easy to lean.

I bought tree plastic cages for planting water plants.

We took canna out of a pot, and divided it by hand.  Its rhizomes were bound tightly each other and it was hard to divide them.

Most of rhizomes were canna, and sweet flag didn't grow well.

So, water canna and sweet flag were not planted in the same cage.  Water canna in two cages, and sweet flag in one cage.

Three cages were placed in the pond with a pot of lotus.

Remaining canna rhizomes will be planted somewhere else.  We are discussing about it now.

In the pond, we keep small fish 'Japanese rice fish' (Oryzias latipes) .  They were presented by a man who have a large pond in his biotope.  They eat mosquito larva.  We netted them to confirm that they survive.  We found eight fish.

We wish the water plants flower beautifully next year.

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PAVING SLABS

Today's afternoon, I bought concrete paving slabs for making a path in front of the bathtub pool.   As we often walk on the lawn there to a steel outdoor storage, there are bare lawn patches.  It may be due to compacted soil, poor soil drainage, or lack of sunlight...

One 22.5 x 22.5 cm slab costs 332 yen + 8% sales tax.  

We started to make a check pattern path.

At first, we temporary placed the slabs to confirm the design.

Then I cut a turf with the same size of a slab using a lawn edger, and remove the turf.

A paving slab was placed in the square hole.

It took an hour to complete the path.
Removed turfs were replanted to bare patches.
It looks better, isn't it?

MY MOTHER'S BATHTUB

This is a very small pool in our garden.  In this, we planted water lily, sweet flag, and canna.   And a lotus is planted in a pot.

June 2014

A light blue sweet flag flower is blooming now.

At the end of June a gorgeous lotus flower bloomed. (June 2014)

This small pool is made of a bathtub of my mother.  She suffered from brain tumor when she was 50s, and since then she had been bedridden for 30 years.  She had used this bathtub in her bedroom.  It has four casters for moving in and out her bedroom.  She died in 2006.  

In 2011, I hit upon a plan to make a pool by using the bathtub.  My son helped me to make it during a Christmas vacation.  A water lily withered, but other water flowers bloom every year.  

Dec 2011

The bathtub was covered with wood panels.  

My son lent me a hand to make it.  

A STUNNING PRIVATE GARDEN

This private garden is located on the southern hillside of Mt. Yatsugatake.  I really had been looking forward to visiting the garden.
Mr. and Mrs. T & K have been creating this stunning English garden for years by themselves.  A ruin of stone wall, a garden pond, stone pavements, gate posts, steps etc. are his works.

Though roses had almost been over, many perennials such as catmint and clematis were so beautiful.

A front view looking up from the formal garden. 

A stone paved path with full bloomed catmint leads to the ruin of stone wall.

In the court with a pond and a chess board, we were discussing about gardening. 

A pool in the court, in which many red carps live. 

The back yard used as a kitchen garden is surrounded by wonderfully designed wooden wall

A formal garden designed with boxwood hedges

The garden was far more stunning than I expected, and Mr. and Mrs. T & K were really nice persons.  In spite of weather forecast of rain, it was a nice day without rain and a unforgettable day for us.  

Photographs of his garden can be seen on the site below.  

http://www.bises.co.jp/photo/gallery_10258_258.html