Bush rotation

Haha, well now it is official. The daikon radish were a failure. I picked the 2 biggest ones, and they are no bigger than my carrots.

Actually they are smaller

I think the reason is that the soil has very poor quality plus I started them too late so they didn't get enough sun.
Had a week off and nothing to do in the garden, so I did the only thing I could come up with: clean up the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. Yes, although they did their best to keep on going, they finally gave in to the frost, which to be honest was not very severe. So their place will be unused until spring.
Lesson learned: pull up the vegetables much earlier even if they start re-blooming cause the harvest will be minimum and the place can instead be reused for winter crops earlier.
After the beds were cleaned I noticed how much the blueberry branches occupy, and decided to do something...

This is what it looked like before

Of course before doing anything I had to clean up the weeds and mini bamboo grass jungle that had formed around the bushes, to even be able to access the blueberry itself.

from the side. The branches pretty much cover the beds 

It took a while but I cut all the grass. I think the mini bamboo are starting to weaken after me cutting them down so many times... Could it be the roots will die in a few years if I keep on repeating this?

Without the weeds, you can see the blueberry bushes more clearly

The leftmost bush, the biggest of them all, is right next to the cherry tree. So I cannot pull it out with its roots as they pretty much share the same spot with the tree's roots. All I could do there was to tie the branches up with a rope and pull them up as hard as I could, bend them backwards and over to the cherry tree trunk's other side. So now they are not hanging over the beds anymore, and are pulled back with a rope, and are also supported backwards by the cherry trunk. Maybe in a couple of years those branches harden and take this new form...
The middle bush has its own spot, and I took the bold step and pulled it out with its roots (not all its roots but hopefully the major parts) and rotated it 180 degrees so now it is hanging upwards. Just hope the roots take hold again. We'll see next year if I managed to kill it or not.
The rightmost bush was not as much nuisance so I just tied up a couple of its branches and pulled upward.

tied up and rotated. Blueberry roots are wide and shallow

So now the beds underneath the bushes are more open and seem bigger. Hopefully I can use them better next year.

from the side. So clean.

We met up with the surveyor by the way, for putting in the border posts. There was not much to measure... he looked around for natural indicators of the boundaries, such as big trees or different growth, and with the two other owners in place it was easy to come up with spots that we all agreed.
One of the owners kind of knew which tree was part of which plot, so that helped too. Neither of us really minded that much to get as much margins as possible, and no one was interested in pushing the boundaries to gain a couple of extra centimeters so I think this method was fair. Finally the spots were defined and wooden posts put in place. They more or less ended up in the same spots as the selling real estate agent had marked, actually a bit farther away so now my plots are bigger than I thought.

One of the wooden posts. 

Next the surveyor will measure the distance between the posts and calculate roughly the areas, and get our hanko on agreement that these posts are OK. And then he will replace the wooden posts with concrete markers.
After that I can get to work. Finally.
Oh while we were there following the surveyor around I got to chat with the owner of a farm plot nearby, and it turned out he was not using his plot so he agreed to lend it to me for free so I can grow something on it. He said it is 1 tan which I think equals 1000 sqm. Yeay! A real flat farm plot with good soil and sun. Have to plan what to grow there by end of winter....
I have got an electric chainsaw now. After the forest boundaries are defined, I will start by cutting down all the bamboo, and put them sideways in the north side among the existing bamboo to keep them from rolling down. Then I shall rent a small excavator and dig out the roots. And then cover the whole area with sheets of carton to keep weeds and new bamboo from growing. After that it should be easy to keep the bamboo controlled.
Still haven't figured out a way to stop the roots from spreading into my plot again from north and south. Maybe dig a deep trench and fill with concrete?
After I have cleaned the plot, I will be planting fruit saplings while keeping the cardboard mulch between them. And I am also thinking of honey bees.... 

Winter is coming

The potatoes in the backyard took their time to pop out and develop a few leafs and for a while it seemed they were big and strong enough to make it. But we had a couple of sudden frost nights in a row and I guess the top row of the backyard is the coldest (lesson learned) cause now they all look pretty dead... better luck next time I guess. I will plant potatoes up there in summer instead, and more hardy vegs in winter. The other veggies on the lower rows and under the nets are still fine.

Good to know what survives the cold

In a week or so I am going to start pruning the bushes and trees. Just waiting for the final leafs to fall too. Also I am supposed to widen the holes of the roof netting of the chicken run, so that snow doesn't pile up and collapses the whole run like it did last winter, and still not too wide holes so that chickens can fly out...
It is getting real cold now, and I am not going out more than necessary, which means only to feed the chickens, early in the morning when it is the coldest. Brrr, get out of warm and cozy bed and straight out into the cold.
The cats feel the cold too cause they more often than before set their differences aside and cuddle together to keep warm.

They fight a lot, but deep inside they are all friends

Oh, after 1,5 years, finally I came up how to make borders for the forest plots. After talking to the owners of the neighboring plots and a couple of surveyors, I picked the cheapest solution which means getting the neighbors' agreement and hanko on a measurement by the surveyor. The measurement will not be registered with the city, but is still official as there is a written agreement between us. The surveyor will basically define 4 lines using 8 concrete posts. These lines will be the borders between my 2 plots and their surrounding ones to the east and west. North and south borders are not going to be well defined. South border is a dirt path belonging to the city, which is so-so defined as its shape can be seen, kind of, without having to measure. North border is a narrow and very steep strip of forest which is share-owned by over 100 people, many of them I assume are not even alive. It is not really used.
Anyway, having the west and east boundaries defined, I can do what I want within my land as long as I don't try to push to north or south too much. I will just leave a meter or so just to be safe.     
I am not interested in planting anything in the south path, and neither in the steep north strip.
First measurements are supposed to be done next week.

Garden snoozing

Gradually it has gotten colder, and although the delayed cold at first confused some the trees so much that they started blooming and even fruiting (the lilac started budding anew, and yep, I found 1 big berry on the little mulberry tree), now they are all finally going to sleep.
Some of the veggies still thrive. Surprisingly the mini tomatoes, the peppers and the eggplants have not sang their last songs...

still going strong

and I can still go out and grab a handful of fresh tomatoes from the freezing cold garden any day.

Still sweet, and still the kittens like to watch

The carrots are now shaping and I already picked up 3-4 so so sized ones. Very very delicious.

Although one had this weird shape.

The round tiny one in the picture, even though on the surface it looked bigger, its roots somehow had not developed as much...
The daikon patch is not exactly successful... but one or two have started to look like daikon.

Not sure when to pull it out though

I'm gonna let it be there a long while to see how big it gets. The broccoli are now blooming, tiny tiny green flowers are forming.

still lots of leafs

Oh, here is a picture of the walnuts losing their leafs and going to sleep. Almost invisible again.

the salad leafs decided to grow out now

The "main" bean patch doesn't look so main. Most of the broad beans rotted before even germinating, and the green peas are not climbing as they should for some reason, maybe it's too windy cause they tend to cling together in clumps...

At least the garlic seem to like it

This morning we had the first frost. The soil was white and crystals had shaped. I suppose officially everything not winter should go to sleep or die now.

frosty

But of course I still have all the year-round veggies and winter stuff, plus some netted stuff

The green peas in the backyard are "main" now

I was gonna harvest the last of the peanuts too, but it looks they are still small... I will wait until there are no leafs

almost there...

Roasted peanuts

We had a couple of nice sunny days here so I went out and pulled up all the peanuts. It is unusually warm for being almost December. Even the strawberries are getting confused and blooming...

Not sure what I am supposed to do with these rebels

The green peas are blooming too but that is as expected. Here is a picture I took from the backyard when it was the most sunny...

I also added an extra rope for the passion fruit to climb

The chooks are molting as hell, and nowadays I find more feathers in their coop than poop.

At least their coop gets warm and fluffy

Back to the peanuts, now the big patch is cleaned out. I noticed a potato had decided to grow there as well, so I moved it a bit more to the middle of the bed, and left it there. Hopefully it won't die.
Here is a couple of pictures of the peanut roots when I pulled them up.

Renegade potato is at the bottom

Quite a lot of big ones

After roasting them for about an hour, it turned out almost half the shells were either empty or had underdeveloped nuts. But the other half that had nuts in them... My... those peanuts were big, juicy and oily. Yummm yumm. Will definitely plant more of these.

After I was done

Slow growth

Not much happens in the garden. It is a mild autumn. Hardy vegetables are growing but very slowly.
Last weekend I finally cleared off some of peanut leafs and branches that had crawled out of the bed and were blocking the path. It was about 30 cm wide, and I also dug out about 5 cm into the bed to see what condition the peanuts were in.

Lots of peanuts just for being the edge of the bed

 They are almost ready, just a week or two more and I can harvest them as I like. I boiled these and they were very tasty. Maybe I dry or roast them next time.
More of the potatoes are emerging in the backyard. It was a long wait...

I am not sure, but I think all three are potatoes

Other than that, chingensai are almost fully grown, and I pick them eventually for cooking. Broccoli are getting bigger and bigger too... but still no flowers

Early in the morning, the dew is beautiful

Slim chances

Summer is officially over, and a clear sign of that is that the chickens have almost stopped laying eggs. I used to get 3-4 eggs a day, but now they are down to 1 egg every 3 days between the 4 of them. Oh well.
Bought some very yummy african peanuts from a local farmer at the store, along with some imported grapes from U.S. which were extremely sweet.
Thought I should experiment and see if any of those can be grown in my garden...
As for the peanuts, I just dug some of them in the soil. I am not expecting any miracles but just wait and see what happens...
And for the grapes, I cut it a bit and dipped it into root hormone and planted it in a pot. Let's see if we can repeat last year's pomegranate cutting success...

The bathroom is the only place the cats won't go into

Chances of either of them growing is very small but it's interesting to see what happens.
A few of the many many potatoes I put into the backyard's upper bed have finally decided to emerge...

It can be seen as the only green leaf on top

The broccoli is growing nicely. I guess it is thanks to the space I left between the seeds, and the initial netting. 

Time travel with Google Maps

When I took a ride to the "countryside" of my countryside town, I used Google Maps to navigate around. And saw by chance that they have updated their satellite picture of my home.

First though, a bit of history...

March 2011

The orchard next door looked kind of barren, at least weed wise. There seems to be structure to the land and there are many beds arranged there. Amazing how chaotic everything gets after a few years and the nice fields turn into jungle. On my plot it's just empty except for the big tree and the row of trees along the southern fence. I can't see the fruit trees (maybe they were still too small) or the blueberry, but there is something there.. could be the tiny bed where the previous owner planted roses. Note that the line between the orchard and my plot is very clear.

March 2012

No big change. Looks like the rose bed has moved. So maybe it's not a bed. Maybe a barbecue? Maybe a mini-tractor they used to till? Who knows. There seems to be a white limo at the end of the street, hehe.

The slope on south which leads down to the railways is still quite clean. No jungle there yet. The beds in the orchard are still there but the lines are starting to look sloppy.

March 2014

Two years later, and the limo is gone. The row of trees along the south side fence are growing taller, and on the other side of the fence a jungle is starting to form with weeds. In the shade of the big tree a white corpse can be seen. Or is it a ghost? no idea

October 2015

Maybe it's the seasons when the pictures were taken though. Maybe the jungles were there earlier. Anyway, a year later after the summer growth the south of the fence is a proper jungle. Can't see the orchard for all the leafs but I assume the jungle is established there as well. On my plot there seems to be just lawn. Can't really distinguish blueberries or fruit trees because of bad image quality.

February 2017

A year and a half further on. Just after winter, the same year I bought the house. I can't see the rose bed or any other beds so they must have put those in that same year.

And finally, over a year later, after my move in:

May 2018

The pond is there, and the paths version 1. The roof and the house is painted and look nice and clean. The big tree is gone and so is the row of trees along the fence. Of course the chicken coop and the run can be seen too. 

Getting colder

Especially in the mornings it is really cold out. I can almost see how the ground is just on the border of frost. The sun is quite low all day and the vegetables are not growing as fast as they did earlier.

I have now covered the wide strawberry bed with a double tunnel. Hopefully it will reduce some frost damage. This was a lesson I learned last winter. The big difference in temperature in the tunnel and outside. This summer I think I learned another lesson. Pruning helps.

I did a bit of pruning in the beginning of summer but after that I pretty much left everything to grow as they please. As result, the vegetables I got in the beginning were nice and big but got smaller and smaller as time went.
Here is an example of eggplants I picked last week. These are not new eggplants, but have spend almost same amount of time on their branches as the big full sized ones.

OK, the one in the left is not an eggplant

They just don't get bigger, and stay midget sized as the plant keeps making more new branches and leaves.
I took a bicycle ride halfway to Honda. It was a nice morning and it only took a few minutes until I could not hear any trains neither cars. So extremely quite and serene. Just farms, fields and forests. I was talking to a local guy there and he told me that most of those farms and fields are not for sale although they may be empty or look abandoned. It's just the same old usual thing, namely that the owners are too old to work them, and their children are busy in cities or not interested. However, I heard it is easy to ask around and just borrow a field from its owner to grow crops and sell.
Doing so a year or two, one can achieve the coveted farmer status, and may eventually be able to buy actual farmland, instead of like me having to just go for forests...
Once I feel comfortable with the garden and don't have to spend too much time on it, I may have time enough to take over a tiny or medium sized field...

Sex change

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Perennial Marigolds

Well hot dam... when I first got the marigolds I thought they were annuals and I would have to replant seeds. But it looks like at least one of them is popping out flowers for the second year.

So now it is a mixed marigold and strawberry bed, with a side of weeds

The garden is not exploding with growth exactly, so I can maintain the weeds better. It's mostly cloudy these days so I stay in and play with the cats. Except they are mostly sleeping...

They fit in like a glove together in the circle

But they have to wake up when I want to play so I pick one of them randomly to bully... this time it was Minion. He forgot to put his tongue in when he woke up.

I wanna sleep more...

The thumb is out

OK, finally I managed to do most of the things that I had postponed for a while. First a picture that I missed in my previous post:

The after picture of the compost bins

Since last year, every time there is rain or snow I keep slipping on the tiles on the ground. It really is dangerous and every time I slip I think to myself "Gotta do something about that soon, but first let me just.." and walk off to whatever I was going to do.
Now finally I got a couple of sacks of pebbles and poured over the slippery.

NOT slippery when wet

It feels great, and I get a nice and cozy sound when I walk on them. The next thing to do was to get rid of the hanamizu tree in order to extend the bed near the kitchen. OF course, as soon as I had finished cutting the main part off and was about to dig out the root, it started to rain.

This sucker has some deep roots

But I had decided that the thumb was out and I was going to do this rain or shine. So there I stood in more and more sticky mud and kept digging away and cutting off roots. The roots I cut off I dug out separately, and then went back to the main roots again.
This went on for a couple of hours and the rain stopped a couple of times and started again. I had to take a break and eat. Once I was done eating it was too dark to continue.
Next day was less rainy but the mud was still yucky. I managed to dig deep enough to finally be able to move the tree a bit if I put all my weight and might on it. So I stopped digging and started kicking the tree and for each kick it got looser. I missed a couple of kicks of course but managed miraculously not to fall on my butt in the mud. Then I started pushing with my hands again, and the trunk was real wet so a slid a couple of times and my force made me fall really hard onto the trunk with my chest while standing. Ouch! But the end was near and panting I put the shovel under the root system and stood on top of it while pushing the tree away. How can such a small tree have so huge and powerful roots?
In the end the roots were unearthed. My hands were super shaky when I took this picture.

Too heavy to lift though so I cut it into smaller bits before moving it away

With the tree out of the way, I could make an extension of the bed. Hooray!!

New bed seen from the kitchen

View from the north bed

The things that look like gravestones in the background of the last picture are concrete blocks I got to stabilize the backyard upper slope and have a wider bed there to work with. I just put the blocks where I thought they should go up against the fence, but didn't dig them in yet.
Here is a summary of the garden now, seen from the second floor window:

Lower part

Upper part

The next day I took an hour to dig the concrete blocks in the backyard. Now I can rest for a few days.

Naturally Inspector Tora was there right away to check what has changed

Oh, I also put up more tunnels :)