Row 3 Tatami 5

Only 1 week left of June, and by month`s end I need to have finished 6 tatami lengths of the 3rd row to be on track with my original schedule.

Some progress.. better than no progress at least

I did cut the grass in the rows. And finished the 5th tatami (it is the only clean looking one in the picture), and prepared the ground for the 6th tatami too. My progress will be slower from now, because except for the heat and the wasps and all that, I am starting to run into the hill I made when I dug around with the backhoe last year. In the picture you can see the cross section of the hill, which is right in the middle of the 3rd row. It continues almost all the way to the end. That all has to be de-weeded by hand, flattened, the extra soil moved further south and it takes quite some time. In the end, all that extra soil is supposed to even itself out when I reach the 5th or so row.  

Falling behind a bit

I was well ahead of schedule with the 3rd row in May, but then came June and with it, the real hot hot weather. Every year I completely forget the intensity of Japanese summer. After moving about only a couple shovels of soil I am out of breath and sweating like a fountain.

Even if I try to avoid the sun by getting there real early or late, I bump into the local wildlife who have had the same idea and get active when it is cooler. Except the occasional boar and non-leashed dog, the worst things are the giant hornets that have picked a nearby spot (not sure where exactly but it is in the woods to the north) to nest, and without fail, every time I go there, there is at least one huge hornet flying around real nearby looking for something. Other than that, there are also countless long legged hornets which are supposed to be pretty nasty if they decide they don`t like you. Last year I accidentally disturbed one of them when cutting some weed, and it chased me away from the plot all the way to the main road.

So I started wearing this big net-hat as protection, but with that and my surgical mask I almost suffocate if I try to do any digging.

So my progress has seriously slowed down. Anyway, here is a shot of what the plot looks like in June.

They sure love to grow...

The ground cover of my first two rows keep coming back and are almost taller than the saplings again, so it is time to give them a trim. Also, the clover-only groundcover of my 3rd row has somehow become hidden by normal grass that has gotten super active probably because I mixed some fertilizer with the top soil when spreading clover seeds. You can see the square with real thick and tall grass, next to the square with only short clover. I think there is only a month difference between them. I hope the grass goes dormant so it doesn`t keep happening again.

For now, I will try to rescue the first square`s clovers by cutting the grass and exposing them to the sun. Let`s see if it works.