It has been a long while since I last wrote. Reason is, I had not been feeling well (see here for the story).
Still, I could not just sit still and watch the days go by. Weak I was/am, I am a gardener… 🙂
Being absent for a good portion of August and September, my potager had grown somewhat wild.
Our chestnut tree is about 4 years old, I think.
The tree is still ‘practicing’ how to fruit, and we can enjoy just a few of the fruits this time.
The lushness of the moroheya and the cosmos…
The Korean Perilla and the Malabar spinach in the background provided us with lots to eat…
The insides of a freshly harvested fig… so sweet and tasty it was…
Bit by bit, I cleared the remnants of the summer vegetables, and sowed seeds for the autumn season. Yes, I know I am late in doing this, but still, it is better late than never.
After gardening for a few years, I must say that the potager is more or less on track.
The rotation of crops, in particular, is nicely arranged, and it has become somewhat mechanical as to what grows where each time I do the sowing.
It also means that the photographs will be more or less on the same boring subjects.
I had tried growing chick peas last season. I got the seeds meant for consumption, but they actually germinated well. My absence from Japan due to traveling in much of August and September meant that the chick peas were ignored. They died.
What? Another picture of the tomato?
Anyway, I have my potager dressed up for the autumn and winter season. The coriander, lettuce, radish, and collard greens have germinated well. The carrots, hmmm, can do better. I got the garlic and red onions from last season, and they are coming on so good. The potatoes have sprouted handsomely. I have just sowed the fava beans and snap peas. This season, I have set aside a permanent patch for the strawberries. They are growing well, and I look forward to a good harvest.
Anyway, folks, I am back. Happy gardening to y’all!
Potager Y @ Japan 
Reblogged this on Palm Rae Urban Potager.
Lrong you are my oldest blogging friend:-) I am reblogging your post to my blog for I want to share your beautiful blog with everyone, I know. You are a beautiful photographer, wise man, interesting gardener! I am always learning to grow something new from you ever time I visit your blog
You and Granny:
http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/
were the first bloggers, I ever knew! Granny passed away earlier this year from cancer. Her family have left up her blog for us all to visit since she was a gardener that had most of the answers. She had great ideas:-)
I love your blog so I wanted to share with others….:-) I love your macro pictures..they are the best over the cyber fence!!!
Many thanks to you, my good friend, for kindly reblogging my little post in your popular blog…
From my side, I learn a lot from your blog too, and I always cherish looking at your beautiful photographs…
I shall have to keep up the gardening, and the blogging too, so as to do justice to the many praises that I am receiving from you… 🙂
HMmmm….I need to proof read my comments..but you get the idea—you have a great blog + I learn a lot from you!!!
Thanks, Robbie, I look forward to seeing seeds from your garden growing in mine. I agree that it is wonderful to share not only garden stories, but seeds as well. Gardeners are wonderful, generous folk and ‘meeting’ them over the ‘cyber fence’ has been one of the best things about blogging. 🙂
Hi Eliza… thank you for reading my little post… yes, fully agree with your view on gardeners being wonderful and generous folks…
A new like via Robbie 🙂
Hi quateracrelifestyle… the plants on boots… I might try to do this one day too…
Hi there….my husband did those 🙂 You have a gorgeous garden.
Hi! Glad to see you up and about albeit slowly, and taking care of your potager again, hope you are not affected by the typhoon!
Hi Jeannie… thanks for dropping by… yes, I am getting back on track, and luckily, the typhoon did not create too much of a havoc for us…
Lrong, missed you. Glad you are back.
Thank you bro… you are too kind!
Your plot is still having very good harvest! Plants have survived their tough time I guess! Nice harvest! Good to see your post!
Hi malar… thank god, we are able to enjoy some harvest from the garden…
So glad to hear from Lrong! I am sorry you had to grow through that torturous cough. I can imagine how difficult it was for you then as I had a bad cough once. That Korean Perilla is used a lot in Japanese food right? I usually get one in my bento. How do you cook it? Keep running haha… and my best regards to your wifey 🙂
Hello Stephanie… yes, the Korean perilla is used quite often in Japanese cooking, but the Koreans use them more often, I think… we normally eat them raw along with other dishes…
Hi Lrong-wanted you to get this response from Narf/fran so you could get to know her since she is one witty gal- here is her post…I know you are busy + did not want you to miss it if it got buried in my comments:-)
http://theroadtoserendipity.wordpress.com/
“Hi Mr Lrong, I was a bit confused about this post and thought that Robbie wrote it BUT I am very glad to make your acquaintance and I am most excited to follow your wonderful gardening blog thanks to discovering it via Robbie. We live in Tasmania Australia and are just starting to make inroads into our 4 acres out in the “bush”. I love reading about people who are passionate about gardening. My husband (Steve) and I studied horticulture and fell madly in love with plants and everything about them. We want to create 4 acres of wonderful, productive garden here and are learning what it takes to manage the voracious native wildlife and everything else that comes with living in the country. I am very sorry to hear that you have been unwell. The wonderful thing about a garden is that you can head out and sit among your plants and they feed your soul like nothing else can. Whenever I feel sad, or depressed or am ill a walk in the garden sometimes feels better than medicine. Thank you for a most wonderful blog post and for a wonderful blog. I just put your blog into my RSS Feed Reader so that I don’t miss any more posts. I really hope you feel well soon and look forward to sharing comments with you in future posts :)”
Hi Robbie… many thanks for alerting me on this message… I shall respond to her in a while… 🙂
Your garden is truly beautiful and most interesting. I love being able to see vegetables that I didn’t know much about growing well elsewhere in the world. It’s hard to get a lot of seed here in Tasmania but it is amazing to find things growing here that someone brought seed back from somewhere and gave it a go. I think it’s important to keep growing rare and unusual things to keep them going. You are entering your winter as we are entering our summer. Both seasons have their benefits and difficulties. Here’s to a good season for us both 🙂
Hello narf77… thank you so much for your thoughtful and interesting comments… I think you are the first blogger-gardener I am meeting from Tasmania… I had quite a chuckle reading about your husband and you falling madly in love with plants… what a nice way of saying ‘we are madly in love with each other’… no? 🙂
Four acres of land…
I imagine we have two fine, well-trained artists, trying to create a wonderful and productive garden out of this canvas (land) and having lots of fun along the way…
I shall be following your blog as well and I look forward to see how your garden turns out… happy gardening!
Miss a lot of your pictures some how. Do read more on garlic since Egyptian times. In fact, if we have cough now, we straight away even eat fresh smashed garlic though so difficult to swallow but far better than medicine! However, I also read some where do not take unboil vegetables too often. They do contain bacteria too.
I can imagine freshly smashed garlic to be quite difficult to drink… for vegetables, I do prefer to eat them lightly cooked compared to raw…